Huey Lewis turned a regular Tuesday night into a fantastic blast back to the 80’s. Mary and I have seen an array of “classic” artists at various facilities around Calgary and we usually go into these events with tempered expectations. Every once in a while, we realize that father time has not latched onto someone the way it’s supposed to. Tonight’s shocker was that Huey Lewis and the News can still bring it, in their late 60’s.
Pre-concert, Mary and I shared some stories around our favorite songs of the News. We hoped that we would see some of the hits and that he wouldn’t get too cute playing his new stuff (they all have new stuff don’t you know…). They didn’t disappoint us and hammered the hits for 2 hours.
Mary’s top 3:
If This is It
Stuck with You
Doin it all for my Baby
Marco’s top 3:
Jacob’s Ladder
The Power of Love
Walking on a Thin Line
To our surprise, they started off the show with an energy and gusto that we didn’t see coming. Heart of Rock and Roll, I Want a New Drug, Hip to Be Square and a crushing rendition of Heart and Soul brought the place to their feet early. He is an affable guy who played to the crowd in Calgary by reminding everyone of the previous concerts he was here for, right back to his first run in ’85. He mixed in some new music to, as he described, “make the band happy” while playing a couple of acapella songs, just to prove he had the range left. He may have slipped a bit but the band was fantastic and his showmanship was top notch.
When the encore cheer went on for 4-5 minutes, the band returned to crank their only Billboard #1 hit, The Power of Love to which he noted, “when we wrote this song we had no idea that……we would have to play it every day of the rest of our lives!” This was met with a raucous cheer and they didn’t disappoint. Mary got her wish with the love ballad, Stuck with You and the night was complete.
The Grey Eagle Casino is a great venue to watch a concert, with virtually no bad seats in the house. We continue to find reasons to attend these concerts from yore and always come away with an appreciation that we went to see these guys live, one more time. Foreigner is next up in October.
Find a way to be there if you can before these guys are gone. You won’t regret the experience.
