Night Ranger brought a near capacity crowd to their feet consistently at the West Herr Riviera Theatre this past Thursday night. It’s been about 7 years since the band did s proper headlining set for the fans of Western New York. So the the appetite was there to see one of the premier bands of the 1980’s. Before the band took the stage, they paid respects to recently departed Ozzy Osbourne on each of its screens.
To start off with a bang, the band opened up with one of their most killer tunes in “(You Can Still) Rock in America.” This song choice was the perfect antidote to get things going. Kelly Keagy took over lead vocals for the tune “Sing Me Away.” With basssist/vocalist Jack Blades past history with Damn Yankees, it was a no brainer that the band would play some of those songs within the set too. “Coming of Age” was the 1st selected track to make it in. Keagy was back leading the vocals on “Sentimental Street.” Blades talked about how the band was involved in many soundtracks but talked about writing the leading track for “The Secret of my Success,” which they subsequently played. The recent news and big shock of Ozzy Osbourne passing away made it appropriate for the band to pay homage to former Ozzy guitarist Brad Gillis. Gillis started the opening licks to “Crazy Train” and it had the crowd on their feet. Gillis sleighed the string all night and did so with help from other Night Ranger axeman Kerri Kelli. Kelli has been officially with Night Ranger since 2014. Longtime keyboardist Eric levy also found some spotlight and love on various tracks and Blades said to the crowd to refer him only as “E.” All the band members took part in the drum solo as each guy grabbed sticks and played the the toms or other parts of Keagy’s drums. A surprise was played as Blades had Kelli change the opening chords to High Enough” to “Come Again.” It wasn’t on the setlist and its my favorite track from the Damn Yankees catalog. They only played a partial of the song but it was still cool nonetheless that the band went off script. “High Enough” soon followed. Gillis and Kelli started “Goodbye” off on acoustic but then they finished the song on electric. They closed the set with bang with some big songs including their mega ballad “Sister Christian.”
For a band who has been at it now for 43 years, of course vocals may not be what they were back in their heyday. For this show, I thought the vocals were strong enough along with some great melodies that made up for what once was. The show had great production and the band seemed to be having lots of fun up there. The fans walked away saying it may have been the show of the year at the Riviera. To this point, it would be hard to argue that point…