Foreigner – Treasure Island Resort & Casino – Welch MN – July 2nd 2021

Foreigner – 07/02/2021 – Treasure Island Amphitheater

Photos and review by Paul Allen

Oh, I can’t tell you how good it is to have live music again! I haven’t covered a live show since January 2020 and it has been the longest 18 months I can ever remember. What a way to get back to live music! Treasure Island went all out with two stages, food trucks and easily the best staff at any show I’ve ever been out to.

There were three bands tonight: Them Pesky Kids, The Only, and (of course) Foreigner. Lazer 101.7 in Rochester (KRCH) held a contest for the opening bands. The Only won, followed in second by Them Pesky Kids (TPK). TPK got the small stage to warm the crowd up as they were gathering for beer and food trucks and making their way to the big stage. TPK is arguably one of the best cover band in MN. They play a little bit of everything that everyone is going to know from Journey and Boston to Van Halen. Always fun to watch these guys play!

The Only was up next as the opener on the big stage. They sounded great. They have a very unique sound, pulling influence from Rock/Blues, Raggae, Jazz, and Funk/Groove. They may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they were unmistakably clean and performed very well. The lead singer reminded me of Lenny Wolf, lead singer of the late 1980s band Kingdom Come.

Now it was time for the big show. Foreigner was always one of those bands that I wouldn’t seek out, but if they came on the radio, I wasn’t in a hurry to change it. Tonigh, 40 years later, that all changed. I have a new found appreciation for just how awesome this band is, they’ve won me over as a fan. The sound was fantastic, considerably better than some bands of their era today. I’d imagine if I were to take a 1980s/90s recording and put it up against tonight’s show, you probably couldn’t tell me which one was which. They opened the show with “Double Vision” and played everything you’d immediately recognize including “Cold as Ice”, “Feels Like the First Time”, and many others. Somewhere around the middle of the show, keyboard/vocalist Michael Bluestein broke out his Keytar to come front and center at the end of “Urgent”. Everyone throughout the history of time has portrayed the Keytar as uncool. We know these peopole are seriously wrong. Seriously, seriously wrong. This was hands down, the best keyboard solo I’ve ever witnessed. They closed the show with “Hot Blooded” and in a moment of reflection, I realized I knew every song, in fact, I knew every word to every song. I guess with 40 years of this band being the backing tracks to my entire life, that’s going to be inevitable. My only regret was that I didn’t jump on every chance I had to see Foreigner live before. I won’t make that mistake ever again. Promise.