Artist: Night Ranger
Label: Frontiers Records
Release date: 22.10.2012
Running time: 65:53
Rating: 4/5
Night Ranger are an eighties AOR band who enjoyed their full commercial heyday mainly in the USA and Japan. While Night Ranger were raking in the big bucks, Slovenia, as part of Yugoslavia, was cut off from access to a lot of music information from across the Atlantic pond.
Night Ranger, who still enjoy lasting popularity on home turf in the USA and in Japan this year too, only last year, after whole decades of not playing in Europe, presented their new studio album »Somewhere In California« on European stages, on a bill with Foreigner, Journey and Kansas.
Still, signing with the Italian label Frontiers Records in 2006 brought them back to the old continent and into the spotlight for melodic rock fans here at home as well. »24 Strings And A Drummer« is a CD and DVD package capturing the band’s acoustic show at Studio D Recording in Sausalito (California, USA). It was an »incognito« gig in front of a hand-picked crowd of the band’s fans. The date was May 2012! The band wanted to mark the 30 years that had passed since their debut studio album »Dawn Patrol« (1982).
This album is a must for all true fans of the band! Night Ranger are such damn seasoned musicians that they could play blindfolded with their ears plugged and still not miss a note. The partnership and chemistry in the crew is outstanding, and that level also shows in the re-arranged songs, »flipped« over to the acoustic side of this particular release! On top of the superb playing, the band once again delivers their well-proven, full-blooded, exceptionally emotional substrate, embodied above all by the outstanding vocal interplay of the band members (Jack Blades, Kelly Keagy), with pinpoint vocal harmonies! The chorus melodies, of course, keep the full integrity of the songs’ soaring spirit!
Joel Hoekstra and Brad Gillis are obviously an excellent guitar duo for the new Night Ranger. The pair shows remarkable chemistry, really an exceptional feel for each other in the rhythm-playing dialogue, which they take turns enriching with inserts of fast, cleanly played single-note passages, from »innocent« embellishments at the ends or beginnings of songs to full-on solos. In the middle of the track list, the listener is met with one of the most intense moments of this release, Sentimental Street, with a great opening piano solo and a particularly tantalizing, confessional character full of sensitivity, which certainly conjures up one of the highlights of this live release.
Still, with releases like this you’d expect more! That is, a more interesting set list »dedicated to the fans«, with goodies that Night Ranger rarely include in their live repertoire these days, if at all. Instead, we got a proven selection of evergreens and hits that helped the band sell their classic albums in the millions. So this album is a strict must for all true fans of the band and all rock enthusiasts who also know the legendary Tesla release »Five Man Acoustical Jam« (1990).
Line-up
Jack Blades – vocals, guitar, bass guitar
Kelly Keagy – vocals, drums, percussion
Brad Gillis – guitar, backing vocals
Joel Hoekstra – guitar, 12-string guitar, backing vocals
Eric Levy – keyboards, backing vocals
Production
Night Ranger
Track list
CD:
1. This Boy Needs To Rock
2. When You Close Your Eyes
3. Sing Me Away
4. Growin’ Up In California
5. The Secret Of My Success
6. Sentimental Street
7. Four In The Morning
8. Let Him Run / Goodbye
9. Forever All Over Again
10. Don’t Tell Me You Love Me
11. Sister Christian
12. (You Can Still) Rock In America)
13. Boys Of Summer (bonus track)
DVD:
1. This Boy Needs To Rock
2. When You Close Your Eyes
3. Sing Me Away
4. Growin’ Up In California
5. The Secret Of My Success
6. Sentimental Street
7. Four In The Morning
8. Let Him Run / Goodbye
9. Forever All Over Again
10. Don’t Tell Me You Love Me
11. Sister Christian
12. (You Can Still) Rock In America)
13. Boys Of Summer (bonus track)
DVD extras::
Night Ranger all access – Growin’ Up In California(videoclip) – Making of the Album “Growing Up In California”.
