Review: Lou Gramm & Journey (Unauthorized) 4th of July Concert In Lake Forest Wows Lake County Residents!

When it comes to 4th of July celebrations, some towns know just how to treat their valued residents.

That's certainly the case in Lake Forest, IL where fans of classic rock were treated to two top notch rock n' roll bands, including one Hall of Fame worthy singer/songwriter (he's in the songwriter's Hall of Fame), Lou Gramm, the Epic former lead vocalist of legendary Foreigner, one of the greatest classic rock groups of all time.

But first things first: In addition to Lake Forest's lucky crowd being blessed with perfect weather, on a perfect evening, even the mosquito's decided to take a holiday break, so folks were virtually bug bite free on this stellar occasion!

The musical night went off without a hitch, beginning with the #1 Journey tribute band in the world: Journey (Unauthorized), featuring lead vocalist Perry Stevens (stage name, e.g. play on words on Steve Perry, original lead singer of Journey), who's a dead ringer for Perry, quite impressive, Joe Pellitier on Keys, Damion Mantle (no relation to Mickey) on guitar(s), Jimmy Wells on drums and rounding out the lineup: Steven Goodwin on Bass, holding the bottom together musically.

Journey (Unauthorized) launched into all the classic Journey hits, taking their enthusiastic fans on a musical (do I dare say journey?) weaving through a tapestry of fan favorites like: "Open Arms," "Don't Stop Believin," "Wheel In The Sky" and so many Journey staples. The audience was clearly into it and along for the ride, cheering enthusiastically at every turn.

To cap things off, Journey (Unauthorized) provided a partial medley during their encore bringing their new audience to its feet, getting the musical portion of the evening to a rousing start!

The audience buzzed with anticipation as Lou Gramm and his mates from Rochester, NY joined him on the main stage. By the time bassist A.D. Zimmer (bassist) led the group onto the stage (Lou always enters last), there wasn't a person sitting in the audience as guitarist Michael Staertow, Jeff Jacobs (Keyboards), Rob Mount (monster drummer) and show stealer, Scott Gilman (tearing it up on Sax) launched into "Feels Like The First Time" (their first hit) from Foreigner's salad days!

Many audience members were unaware that 15 year's ago, Lou Gramm received a 17 hour surgery to remove a brain tumor and in recent year's was not in the best of health. However, he's been recovering well and on this particular night, Gramm was in full voice and in top form, segueing from hit's like "Urgent" to "Dirty White Boys," to crowd favorites like "Just Between You & Me" to solo favorites like "Midnight Blue," and Foreigner's "Double Vision" that had the crowd going wild.

One of the most touching portions of this amazing 4th of July celebration was Lou inviting Lake Forest Middle School choir singer's up to the stage to provide backup vocals on Foreigner's Mega-#1 all-time hit tune: "I Want To Know What Love Is." This is a tradition that both Lou Gramm's solo group and the current lineup of Foreigner provide at every show they perform live. It gives children an opportunity to share the big stage with two renown acts.

The Lake Forest faithful were enamored and proud of the young singer's who sounded phenomenal! It was clear that they had rehearsed and taken their "gig" to heart! Kudos to Lou for keeping this tradition alive.

2017 is Foreigner's 40th anniversary and there are rumblings that Foreigner and Lou Gramm will reunite for a few live performances which would be crowd-pleasing and memorable to say the least.

Ripping through all their top hits and with Lou nailing all the high parts and appearing to truly enjoy himself and his rabid audience, the band exuded confidence and major swagger with Lou fronting A.D. and Michael as the three strutted the stage and jumped onto monitor's to the crowd's delight.

Not leaving anything to chance, Lou and the fellas rocked the house on "Head Games," Urgent," "Cold As Ice," and blew the roof off of the stage with "Hot Blooded!"

The crescendo occurred during Lou's highly anticipated "Juke Box Hero" which accurately describes Lou Gramm and seals his place in rock & roll fame permanently. It's a travesty that Lou Gramm and Foreigner are not yet in the rock and roll Hall of Fame and this writer hopes that Lou will enjoy this honor while he's still rockin' audiences. He is a Hall of Fame Songwriter, however, though he deserves the full recognition for his timeless contributions across the board to rock and roll. There will never be another Lou Gramm, tributes notwithstanding, period. While Kelly Hanson of the current Foreigner lineup is a respectable tribute to Gramm, as long as Lou Gramm is alive and thriving, it's imperative that young audiences are aware that Lou wrote, co-wrote and performed the big hits from day one and invented the Foreigner brand, period.

Supporting player's Scott Gilman stole the show several times with searing solo's on sax while Jeff Jacobs provided all the colorful licks on keys and Rob Mount absolutely killed it on the skins. Mount is every bit as good a drummer as anyone in rock today, displaying his monster chops during both his drum solo and during the exciting encore featuring the band's version of the Free classic "All Right Now!"

Following the audience's standing ovation paying tribute to Lou, A.D., Michael, Scott, Jeff and Rob, the Lake Forest Park District provided a satisfying array of beautiful fireworks that capped off a breathtaking evening.

Needless to say, the Lake Forest Park District left no stone unturned, pulling out all stops in providing an unforgeable night of food, fun, fireworks and top-notch musical entertainment to their residents and future residents of Lake County.

Photo Credit: Melinda Foukal