These are interesting times in the concert business. There’s way too many venues and not enough acts to fill them all.
That leaves places like the Xfinity Center in Mansfield that used to have prime real estate on the summer concert scene now having to share the stage, so to speak, with Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium, not to mention TD Garden and all the casinos.
That’s pulled acts from smaller venues like Leader Bank Pavilion up to Xfinity Center since Live Nation owns both venues and needs to fill the bigger venue more often to make it financially worthwhile.
The problem is, legacy acts that tour every year have both worn out their audience through repetition while also frustrating them as original and longtime members retire, leaving what looks like a cover band onstage.
You end up with package tours like Chicago and Styx, where the former band only features one original member on tour while the latter has a smaller catalog of hits, leading to concept tours like playing an entire album as different milestones pass since their release.
All this preamble makes two tours that came to town stand out: The Motley Crue/Tesla/Extreme show in early August and the Lynyrd Skynyrd/Foreigner show that came through a few weeks later.
Motley Crue long ago made a big deal about a farewell tour where the band members signed a contract that said they would never tour again. That was several tours ago. But other than the contentious retirement of Mick Mars, the band still features Vince Neil, Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx (along with Mars’ replacement, John 5).
Neil’s voice, or lack thereof, went viral for all the wrong reasons the last few years, but recent clips showed some improvement and adjustments they’ve made to the musical arrangements to work toward his voice rather than around it. The sound remains as tight as ever and nobody does theatrics like Motley Crue, all of which led to a strong show on a Saturday night in Mansfield.
They ran through all the hits, borrowed from their Vegas residency to share how a song (“Home Sweet Home”) comes together from melodies with the lyrics added in, and took the audience on a career-spanning journey.
Meanwhile, Tesla used their supporting slot to deliver an hour-plus array of their hits as the Sacramento rockers have never lost their musical chops even as Jeff Keith’s voice shows some sign of age, depending on the song. “Signs,” “Love Song” and “Modern Day Cowboy” remain as impressive as ever.
Extreme brought the hometown flavor to this particular show as Hudson’s Nuno Bettencourt and Kevin Figuereido joined Malden’s Gary Cherone and Groveland’s Pat Badger got the early-arriving crowd to their feet and kept them there with “Hole Hearted,” “More Than Words” and “Get the Funk Out.”
These groups had most of their original members (three of four for Motley Crue and Extreme, two of five for Tesla, though Keith has been in the group for more than four decades), a rarity these days.
Oh, and the show was almost sold out, an even bigger rarity in 2026.
Three weeks later, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foreigner came to town and brought with them every talking point about classic rock bands who never get off the road.
Neither band has any original members at this point, though Johnny Van Zant replaced his brother after his tragic death in the mid-’70s and has been Skynyrd’s lead singer ever since while Rickey Medlocke was briefly in the band from 1971-72 and has been back with them since 1996.
Meanwhile, Foreigner has gone through at least four lead singers at this point (Luis Maldonado being the latest) and only counts Mick Jones as an original member, though Jones is reportedly suffering from late-stage Parkinson’s disease and has not toured in several years. (Famous lead singer Lou Gramm makes occasional appearances with the band but is not part of the band.)
Calling Skynyrd a cover band is a bit much given Johnny Van Zant’s stature but it’s more than fair to call Foreigner one.
That being said … Maldonado is a great frontman. He’s a bit theatrical (in the theater sense) with some of his vocal gymnastics, but he can sing. And the band can play, especially Jeff Pilson on bass. They were on their game at Xfinity Center, playing all the hits, though it was incredibly cheesy to watch Junior Walker’s legendary sax solo on “Urgent” turned into a keytar solo by Michael Bluestein.
As for Skynyrd, if you’ve been to one Skynyrd show, you know what you’re getting. They never fail to deliver on the promise. You’ll hear all the hits from a band that’s as tight as it is large (nine members, including two backup singers) and Van Zant’s voice is as strong as ever.
All of this begs the question … should bands with no original members be allowed to trade on the legacy built by their predecessors? Four Tops and Temptations did it for years. Little River Band does it. And now Foreigner is among those doing it.
My takeaway is this … if your touring band has no members in it that were part of the recording of any of your biggest hits, you’re a cover band. That means Foreigner is a cover band, Skynyrd is not.
Feel otherwise? Let us know!
Original article
Comments