Foreigner - Can’t Slow Down (Live DVD)

I had originally planned on reviewing the actual Can’t Slow Down studio album but that CD is AWOL in a pile somewhere and instead I watched the live DVD that came with it.

First thing’s first:  I’m not a big Foreigner fan.  It’s not that I dislike them - there’s a handful of their songs that I really enjoy - it’s more that I don’t care about them.  Their songs have been overplayed so much on classic rock radio that it’s mostly become background noise to me.

So why sit through a DVD of live performances?  Mostly it’s that I’m intrigued by bands that replace key members.  In this case Kelly Hansen of Hurricane replaced previous singer Lou Gramm, although their Wikipedia entry reports that Mick Jones is the only original member remaining.  I’m always curious what route the band takes when replacing someone like a singer.  Will they be replaced with a clone (like Journey) or will they attempt to change the band’s sound (oh let’s just pull out Motley Crue for this)?

In this case it’s somewhere in the middle.  Hansen doesn’t sound exactly like Lou Gramm but close enough to see why he was picked for the Foreigner gig.  However he brings enough of his own vocal style to give the current version of Foreigner some kind of identity.

As for the performance, with the exception of a terrible acoustic version of “Say You Will”, the songs sound pretty good.  The energy level of the band is decent, not phoning it in but not putting on an amazing performance either.  I suspect that if I were more of a Foreigner fan this is exactly the show I would want - they do a good job playing their hits without forcing too much new or unknown material on the crowd.  As far as my personal feelings, it didn’t make me any more or any less of a Foreigner fan.  It was interesting to watch once and that’s plenty for me.