Winger / George Lynch – Medina Ballroom – Medina MN – March 5th 2022

The Medina Ballroom presents Winger and George Lynch

Review and photos by Tommy Sommers

The evening started out with George Lynch and his band. He is best known as the lead guitarist of Dokken and Lynch Mob. I have seen him play several times through the years and I never quite know what to expect. It’s always been good, but he has played with a lot of different musicians. In a way it’s always new and different.

I would say the show tonight was the best one yet. His band is super solid, and he has a great lead singer. For me that really makes a difference especially when I don’t know many of the songs. He chose a very broad set, and the crowd was very happy. He had a lot of fans there tonight. I recognized a lot of guitar players in the audience. George did noy disappoint, he put on a clinic tonight that will keep some of them up late at night for weeks trying to figure out how he played what he did. Some of the highlights were “Sweet Sister Mercy”,  “Alone Again”, “She’s Evil, But She’s Mine”, and “Into the Fire”.

Headline Winger like other successful bands of the 1980’s know what their fans want and that’s what they give them. A show of high energy and great songs. Another incredibly talented band. How can you go wrong when you have Reb Beach as your guitar player?

They really took a beating for a while at the height of their popularity and the scape goats of the Bevis and Butthead show. So much so that some would say it ruined their chances of becoming much bigger than they became. I guess you could argue either side of that. The one thing I know is they did not deserve it. They have a lot of very solid songs that were on display tonight at the Medina Entertainment Center. Some of the highlights for the set were “Easy Come, Easy Go”, “Hungry”, “Headed For a Heartbreak”, “Madalaine”, and “Seventeen”. Kip Winger has worked hard and earned his place in rock n’ roll.  He is a lot like Rick Springfield in that the girls all went so crazy for him that the guys didn’t take him seriously at all.