The Old Boy Pretending To Be Nineteen Again, Part III

The Grand Finale was everything it had been hyped to be, and more.  Terry's last minute advice to "enjoy the moment" was prescient, as our performance and surrounding hoopla turned out to be one of the highlights of my sporadic drumming "career."

When our pre-gig run-through ended around 7:45 that Wednesday night, June 26, the hallway outside the main studio where we'd been rehearsing was filling up.  There were friends, relatives and probably people off the street who came in to grab the beer, wine and appetizers which RCX was providing free of charge.  Presumably they also came to hear what we'd been up to for the past month.  Across the hallway was a smaller studio in which a 101 group was also wrapping up its own four week camp.  While RCX does not typically offer a public show for their 101 camps, the idea of having that group come on before us had been proposed the previous week, and we were all fine with it.  Having an opener would add to the lively aura of the event.  The question of whether they, the 101ers, were game for it wasn't answered until that final night when that group gave their collective thumbs up.

Gina, John and Michael showed up.  I was delighted to have their support, and wished a few other Famdamily members could have made it too.  The four of us chatted in the hall where I introduced them to a couple of my nearby bandmates.  A few minutes later the 101 camp was almost ready to begin, so we made our way back into the main studio.  There were at least several dozen people in there, with chairs and benches filling up the relatively large room.  The party atmosphere was contagious.  The 101 coach was our old pal, Henry.  As he was welcoming the crowd and about to introduce the opening act, I glanced over at their drummer.  A weird thought occurred to me:  What if this guy turns out to be the second coming of Keith Moon or John Bonham?  That would be a rather hard -- okay, impossible -- act for me to follow.  I even shared that thought with Gina, who looked at me like, "Who in the world are Keith Moon and John Bonham?"

That first group was fronted by a young woman with a pleasant, old school style.  She and her mates did well, playing a short set of four light rock songs originally performed by female singers such as Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Nicks.  The crowd appreciated the good music and the band appeared to grow more confident with each tune.  Then it was our turn.

I wasn't nervous at all, but I did take the precaution of resisting the free beer.  I correctly figured I would have a chance to quench my thirst after the show.

We had not finalized the order of our set list until earlier that week via email.  There were three main considerations on how to slot our seven songs.  First, start with a bang; second, end with a bang; and third, place Jukebox Hero, the most demanding song for our lead vocalist, deep enough into the set so that her voice wouldn't run out of gas before the end.  What we came up with, as shown below, was possibly the best order of all the possible permutations.  For the benefit of those of you who are rock historians, or simply curious, inside the brackets following each Foreigner song are its Billboard Hot 100 debut date, the peak position, and number of weeks on the Billboard chart.

1. Feels Like The First Time - What you might label as a "build up song," starting with a slow lead guitar, then joined by drums and keys, followed by a pounding beat with vocals, all within the first thirty seconds.  A good starting point for us and, coincidentally, Foreigner's first single.  [March '77; 4; 22]

2. Double Vision - The song that Foreigner often chooses to open their live concerts, including the two I have seen in person.  A dynamite rocker.  [September '78; 2; 20]

3. Hot Blooded - Foreigner's signature rocker, the quintessential classic rock song.  [July '78; 3; 17]

4. Urgent -  Bouncy beat; one of rock's most famous sax solos, courtesy of Junior Walker, second only to Bobby Keys' masterpiece on the Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar.  [ July '81; 4; 23]

5. Cold As Ice -  A relatively short (3:20) yet oddly structured song, with prominent leadoff keyboards and a fade-out that lasts over a minute.  Requires the most backing vocals of the seven on our set .  We only had one session to learn it, as it was not introduced until our third meeting.  [July '77; 6; 21]

6. Juke Box Hero - Our toughest song to master and the most strenuous to sing.  We liked to call it Juice Box Hero.  Another "build up song."  Heavy backing vocals, a staple of the Foreigner catalogue.  The lyrics tell a story similar in theme to Bad Company's Shooting Star, which had been released seven years earlier.  [February '82; 26; 13]

7. Dirty White Boy - The perfect closing song, with the potential to send the crowd home stoked.  The fastest beat of our seven, and one I loved to drum to.  [September '79; 12;14]

While I was playing I was trying to take everything in.  I figured our set would fly by quickly, as so many big personal events are wont to do.  Therefore my thoughts were comparable to the Aerosmith tune penned by Diane Warren, I Don't Want To Miss A Thing.  The band was solid throughout.  As Sara wrote to us in a subsequent email, "We really found a groove."

After Dirty White Boy the enthusiastic crowd was generous with their applause.  Terry unexpectedly proposed that we play Hot Blooded again, and invited everyone in the crowd to come onto the stage to sing along, dance, play a tambourine or a cowbell, or do whatever else their mood dictated.  About half the audience followed his suggestion while we reprised Hot Blooded.  I could feel the stage floor thumping.  The place was rockin'.

Epilogue:  On August 7 the six members of our band received an email from "Jack," the head of RCX.  He wrote that their Walker Street neighbor, Sota Clothing, was putting on a block party September 14, and had approached RCX to find out if that organization could supply the music.  Jack, in turn, was gauging our interest and availability.  It would have been very fun to play our Foreigner music again, but that opportunity never came to fruition.  While four of the band members indicated they were ready and willing to play on the 14th, two of us, Tammy and I, could not make it.  Tammy was already committed to be a dancer at the Renaissance Festival that weekend, and I had already booked a two week trip, including September 14, to Idaho with Momma Cuandito.  I am not sure to what lengths, if any, RCX went to find fill-ins for Tammy and me so that "Foreigners" (as our coach called us) could gig at the block party, but in any event RCX provided three other bands to accommodate Sota's request.  I felt bad for Sara, Alex, Paul and Kerry.  Had Sota extended the offer earlier in the summer perhaps Foreigners could have reunited.  In a bit of irony, Momma Cuan and I attended an outdoor rock concert in Boise's beautiful arboretum on the evening of September 12.  The headliner was Foreigner.