Live Review: Whitesnake, Foreigner & Europe - O2 Arena, London. Live Review
Whitesnake, Foreigner, Europe.
The London O2 Arena
16/05/22
By Paul Davies
Like a gracefully ageing lion king proudly standing astride his legendary rock status, David Coverdale’s roar may not be as gloriously mighty as it memorably was, nevertheless, the songs still speak loudly and echo down through the years as this greatest hits set attested for fans of the band who came to witness one of the final concerts by this venerable group. With his pride of musicians prowling the stage and backing him up in all departments, including two guitarists whose fingers have been smelted in the fiery furnace of American metal, two keyboard players who are doubling up as singers, a Medusa haired bass player and a percussive legend in Tommy Aldridge who banged the drums, even with his bare hands during a rarely entertaining drum solo, thus creating a sonic force akin to an army marching over a metal bridge, the hits and deeper cuts reverberated around this near full enormo-dome to the unalloyed pleasure of many. Did it really concern the multitudes that DC’s voice can’t quite kick into parkour mode and bounce around auditoriums to searing effect in full bellow anymore? The answer was in the negative given the rapture with which he was greeted during tonight’s ninety-minute set. This seemed to invigorate him as much as the constant refill of his onstage wine goblet by his girl Friday - as is the way with rock nobility. Seventy years of age and almost fifty years since he was plucked from a high street clothing emporium obscurity to front one of the all-time great British rock bands, Coverdale might be in the purple years of his existence but songs such as Slide It In, Fool For Your Loving, Slow An' Easy, Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City, Here I Go Again, Still Of The Night... have a legend all of their own. If this mostly American band's take on some of the original band numbers lacked the feel of a Marsden, Moody, Galley, Murray, Paice, and Lord, they still succeeded in transforming them into arena-sized monster tunes wherein lies the universal success of post 1987 Whitesnake. From the opening song Bad Boys to the final act of Burn, tonight was a fond farewell from an audience to a bona fide rock star who is acknowledging the closing of his autumn years with his magnetic stage presence and charming humour intact on his swansong tour.
Earlier in the evening, and as far as openers go, Europe being a headliner of smaller venues themselves could be forgiven for being somewhat bewildered in kicking off a pre 7 pm performance. Still, the lustre wasn’t lacking from their delivery with Joey Tempest in fluid larynx mode on Rock The Night, Ready Or Not, Cherokee and their one and only all-time epic classic The Final Countdown. It was three-quarters of an hour early evening worthwhile entertainment before the bigger rock beasts on the bill were rolled into position. Sandwiched between Europe and the venomous headliners, Foreigner filled out their sixty-minute plus time slot with an abridged set of well-known and much-loved songs that, fronted by the charismatic Kelly Hansen, they have been touring for quite some time. The energy invested by this band of assembled players was as much of a cardio workout for them as it was an exercise of beautifully delivered AOR classic songs. The momentum of this original Atlantic crossing band who hitherto presented a heady slew of stone-cold bangers - Double Vision, Head Games, Cold As Ice, Dirty White Boy and Feels Like The First Time - was annoyingly halted by an interminable and completely unnecessary drum and keytar solo during Urgent! Observing the stage side digital clock counting down their allotted stage time, it was a moment when their up to then spellbinding show could have included a couple of extra songs from their illustrious back catalogue. However, a magical Jukebox Hero got proceedings back on track before the slightly doddery band leader Mick Jones joined his teammates on Long, Long Way From Home, I Want To Know What Love Is and a stinging Hot Blooded which impressively set the stage for a mostly lethal set by Whitesnake.
In what is a throwback line-up of three venerated rock institutions of differing status appearing on one bill, tonight was a reminder of when bands strode this planet of rock with a universal appeal that was in sizzling evidence tonight.