A Night of Symphonic Rock
Featuring Lou Gramm, Mickey Thomas, Terri Nunn and Robin McAuley
Seneca Events Center, Seneca Niagara Casino
Niagara Falls, NY
April 28, 2017
What do you get when you have four great vocal legends backed up by an orchestra? A Night of Symphonic Rock featuring Lou Gramm (the original voice of Foreigner), Mickey Thomas of Starship, Robin McAuley of Survivor and McAuley Schenker Group and Terri Nunn of Berlin. The show happened at the Seneca Events Center on April 28th and marked the first time all four singers performed together on one stage. Also joining them throughout the night was backup singer Christine along with a keyboardist, bassist, guitarist and drummer.
The night got underway with Christine singing a powerful rendition of Separate Ways by Journey. She was then joined on stage by McAuley who sang three covers. “Who remembers Rocky 3?” McAuley asked as part of his intro to Eye of the Tiger by Survivor, a band he fronted from 2006-2011.
Next on stage was Terri Nunn of Berlin, who sang three of her band’s songs including the number one hit Take My Breath Away. Nunn was clearly excited to be singing in front of an orchestra for the first time.
“I gotta say, this is the first for me and it is an absolute thrill to hear my music played by these incredible musicians!” she told the crowd after her first song, No More Words.
After a brief intermission Mickey Thomas was next and started his set with Find Your Way Back followed by Starship‘s three number one hits Sara, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now and We Built This City.
Prior to Nothing’s Gonna Stop Now, Thomas said, “This is a song that we originally recorded to just kind of fill in the spaces in between albums. It was kind of a change of pace musically for Starship and we thought it would be an interesting and fun musical experiment and probably not much would ever be heard from it or come of it and it turned out to be the most popular single we ever recorded.”
The song was originally a duet with former Starship member Grace Slick. Christine came out and sang the song with Thomas.
After We Built This City, Western New York’s own Lou Gramm (from Rochester, NY) came out to play some Foreigner classics starting with Feels Like the First Time.
“Killer, classical instrumentalists,” Gramm said, looking back at the orchestra before going into Cold As Ice, I Want To Know What Love Is and Jukebox Hero.
Gramm left the stage after Jukebox Hero and Thomas, Nunn and McAuley came out to perform Journey‘s Don’t Stop Believin’. Gramm rejoined the other three on stage and they all ended the night with Foreigner‘s Hot Blooded.
Overall, it wasn’t a night of surprises but, instead, a night of familiar classic hits with a new twist – an orchestra providing the music to the songs we are all familiar with and grew up listening to.
It was a much enjoyable evening and I hope Seneca Niagara Casino will bring similar shows back to the Events Center.
Setlist:
Christine:
Separate Ways (Journey)
Robin McAuley:
Kashmir (Led Zeppelin)
Faithfully (Journey)
Hotel California (Eagles)
Eye Of the Tiger (Survivor)
Terri Nunn:
No More Words (Berlin)
The Metro (Berlin)
Take My Breath Away (Berlin)
Intermission
Mickey Thomas:
Find Your Way Back (Starship)
Sara (Starship)
Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now (Starship)
We Built This City (Starship)
Lou Gramm:
Feels Like The First Time (Foreigner)
Cold As Ice (Foreigner)
I Want To Know What Love Is (Foreigner)
Jukebox Hero (Foreigner)
Mickey Thomas, Terri Nunn and Robin McAuley:
Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey)
Everyone:
Hot Blooded (Foreigner)
All photos by Joel Naphin
©2017. Please DO NOT copy or use without permission.
