Loverboy Concert Review, Alameda County Fair 2019.

Loverboy, 80’s rock band, is on the fair circuit now and was in my home town for the Alameda County Fair.  I was down for the flashback.  

The 80’s were those college years for me; the ones where I first stepped away from home, first moved away from the state, first graduated and felt financial independence… lots of firsts.  And music became part of those experiences - not as an attachment but as the identity of all the emotions that we lived.  People from my generation can't hear a popular song from 1984 and not instantly think of where we were, who we were with, what our hopes and dreams were, and smile about at least one great memory from that year.  

We didn’t have social media back then and MTV was a brand new concept.  Music videos were a whole new medium and a boon for rock/pop bands to create a larger-than-life image in minds of impressionable young people.  This is where 80’s hair bands were born.  If you were around back then you still get an image in your head when someone mentions one of those bands.  For Loverboy, it’s probably Mike Reno sporting some red leather pants and a head bandana, squatting in a near-splits pose on stage, head back, pained facial expression, screaming a high note into a corded microphone he is strangling. 

On Friday night, the aisles of the Alameda County Fairgrounds amphitheater were packed with women in their 50s nostalgically recalling that image.  And it’s a good thing they still had it in their heads because even with extreme squinting the guys on stage weren’t going to visually recreate that kind of response.  But they didn’t sound bad!

Loverboy made everybody there feel young -  partly by reminding them of a time when their life was still a blank canvas, full of opportunities and potential, unspoiled by the tolls of tragedy, disappointing jobs and bad relationships.   But also partly because the band members appear old enough to be the Rolling Stones’ god parents and we all look low-mileage by comparison.

They cranked up the volume and the mix was solid.  I hadn’t seen them live before, which is maybe why I never appreciated how much the band was defined by Doug Johnson, the original lead on keyboarda, sax , harmonica and backup vocals.

Everone remembers that classic synthesizer opening to Turn Me Loose, joined by the pumping base, then guitar, then Mike Reno’s voice.  On “Take Me To The Top” Doug  had a prolonged musical interlude including a great sax solo, followed by a keyboard solo.  It was a good jam!  But it may also have served as a 2 minute break for Mike Reno to go grab another couple slices of pizza before the next song.  Back in the 80s the dressing room might have been stocked with cocaine.  By the looks of it, today’s dressing room is stocked with Arby’s and Budweiser.  But hey, the place was packed with people who can't cast the first stone.  It's the mindset that matters, right?

The song that seemed to get all the ladies moving was “When Its Over”.  The 1981 hit is a plea for a woman to leave a guy who doesn’t appreciate her or treat her right.  Here is a sample:

“What did he ever do for you
What's he trying to put you through
I just don't understand

I hope you're with me

I hope you're with me when it's over"

Women were moving in ways that surely caused days of soreness and probablly triggered a few doctor's visits.  The way they bled the lyrics back towards the stage and to each other revealed wistful memories of a time when they could have their pick of boyfriends but were too young to realize that a fast car with fat tires and a great stereo isn’t the best measure of how good of a catch a man is.  Every woman there was picturing a guy who didn't treat them as well as they deserved.  Scary how a woman can hold onto a bad memory from 30+ years ago.  Well, I imagine so anyway...

But I digress…

The guys were into it too.   The 17 minute encore of Lovin’ Every Minute Of It probably raised pulse rates to year highs for many of us, but it was fun.We were all playing air guitars and pumping fists into the air, ingoring our balding heads, spare tire bellys and the salt-pepper hair on our wrinkled faces, instead yelling and hollering like we were young stallions charging out of the gate.  Acting like this in your living room would be embarrassing, but a good 80’s throwback concert is about reliving a few glorious moments with a crowd who all agreed to leave their inhibitions at the gate for an hour or so. 

And if you can’t enjoy that you shouldn’t go.  But if you want to remember what you felt like whenever your favorite video came on MTV, go check out a throwback concert.  Live a little!  

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P.S:  My favorite 80s band of all time, Night Ranger, didn’t make it to the Alameda County fair this year.  But I learned that they are doing a gig at the end of July in Sacramento with …. (wait for it)… STYX!   Walking 20 minutes from my couch to see Loverboy for the price of fair admission was an easy decision.  And it was just fun enough to make me think Night Ranger and Styx might be worth a 90 minute drive in 6 weeks.  We’ll see!