Silver-haired Mick Jones leads the 2016 edition of classic rock institution Foreigner back to the Basie for a Monday date-night dose of acoustically arranged chart-toppers.
From the Department of Everything Old is New Again, the Count Basie Theatre reports that Foreigner, the classic rock institution that regularly ruled both FM and AM waves in the late 70s and 80s, is “on a major roll right now” — owing to the download and streaming activity that accompanied their onetime Number One “I Want to Know What Love Is” when that 1984 ballad was featured prominently on the season finale of Orange is the New Black.
A summer 2015 tour with Kid Rock also served to introduce scads of new fans to the band/brand co-founded by guitarist Mick Jones back in the heyday of the corporate rock cash machine that gave us Journey, Boston, Toto and more. And when Jones and company return to the Basie Monday night for the latest in what’s working out to be an annual stand in Red Bank, they’ll be following up last winter’s sold-out electrified session with a special set that delivers “The Hits: Unplugged.”
Scheduled for 8 p.m., it’s an encore presentation of the acoustically oriented show that the band has been touring off and on all over the world (including a 2014 stop at the Basie); a polished performance that finds the young-ish lineup (fronted by Kelly Hansen, the singer who took over from longtime lead voice Lou Gramm 10 years ago) putting a different-from-the-record twist on such signatures as “Feels Like the First Time,” “Cold As Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Double Vision,” “Head Games,” “Urgent,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and many more.
Tickets ] ($65 – $200) are available here — with the top-ticket price boasting a VIP Meet and Greet Package that includes a photo op, preemo seating, a “limited edition laminated pass” and a tote bag.
