Foreigner kicked off their farewell tour Thursday night with a hit-packed, 13-song set at Atlanta’s Ameris Bank Amphitheatre.
“It was fabulous, a sold-out crowd in Atlanta for our first night – it couldn’t have gone better,” bassist Jeff Pilson tells UCR. “The show went off without a hitch. We had done a couple of days of production rehearsal, so everything was extremely smooth. The audience was fabulous. You could really kind of feel the emotions of people knowing that this is the beginning of our farewell tour.”
As the result of a recent back injury, Pilson performed the show while seated on a stool, but that change ended up offering him a new perspective. “I got a bird’s eye view of everything that I wouldn’t ordinarily get,” he says. “I think the beginning of the tour sort of put everybody in an emotional state that was really cool. We really connected with the crowd. I think people felt it last night, it was palpable.”
Favorite Moments
When pressed to pick a favorite moment from the show, Pilson instead offers a wider selection. “When we get to that first chorus [of ‘Feels Like the First Time’] and it just explodes, and the whole audience is right there,” he says. “During ‘Urgent’ we got Michael Bluestein’s keytar solo in there now, which is so fun and exciting. On ‘Juke Box Hero’ we do all this jamming, and then of course the feeling that you get when you play ‘I Want to Know What Love Is,’ when absolutely everybody in the audience connects and sings and you get that feeling right away. And that’s when you say to yourself, ‘I got a damn good job.'”
Watch Foreigner Perform ‘Urgent’ in 2023 (Keytar Solo at 4:44)
He’s also proud of the massive 84-page tour book the band put together to commemorate the final tour. “It’s absolutely incredible,” he notes. “It’s got interviews with all sorts of old members and new members – most all of them actually. It’s really cool, we’ve been selling them like hotcakes because it’s really good and has so much great information in it.”
Foreigner’s farewell tour continues Saturday in West Palm Beach, Florida. The last currently announced date is on Nov. 18 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, but the tour is expected to continue into 2024.
Watch Foreigner Perform ‘Feels Like the First Time’ in 2023
Foreigner, Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, Atlanta, July 6, 2023
1. “Double Vision” – from Double Vision (1978)
2. “Head Games” – from Head Games (1979)
3. “Cold As Ice” – from Foreigner (1977)
4. “Waiting For A Girl Like You” – from 4 (1981)
5. “Dirty White Boy” – from Head Games (1979)
6. “When It Comes to Love” – from Can’t Slow Down (2009)
7. “Girl On The Moon” – from 4 (1981)
8. “Say You Will” – from Inside Information (1987)
9. “Feels Like the First Time” – from Foreigner (1977)
10. “Urgent” – from 4 (1981)
11. “Juke Box Hero” – from 4 (1981)
12. “I Want to Know What Love Is” – from Agent Provocateur (1984)
13. “Hot Blooded” – from Double Vision (1978)
Foreigner Albums Ranked
It’s hard to imagine rock radio without the string of hit singles Foreigner peeled off in the ’70s and ’80s.
