Live Review: Foreigner, Sarah McLeod

There seem to be a lot of Sarah 'Mc's touring at the moment and tonight we score Sarah McLeod (The Superjesus) in all her hyperactive glory.

Mick Skelton from Baby Animals accompanies her on drums (with just two of them to pummel) and McLeod craps on in between songs a lot even though she claims she's keeping the banter to a minimum this evening. McLeod leans right forward on her stool, rockin' the guitar and shaking her head like an impatient filly in her off-the-shoulder black tee. And she sure boasts killer pipes! They play a new song for The Superjesus, which makes mention of "the setting sun" a lot. Skelton's dynamic drum solo that intros the duo's penultimate song slays. McLeod then concludes the set solo with "a barbershop quartet" called The Greatest Pretender (the other three barbers’ harmonies are pre-recorded) and the audience is encouraged to supply backing clicks.

Search lights penetrate the darkness on stage to explore the audience and then suddenly two upstage spots – one stage right, one stage left – snap on to reveal two band members in position, each with one arm raised. We have Double Vision and this showy entrance commences our evening of rock histrionic overload brought to you by Foreigner. We're coaxed upstanding by the band's current frontman Kelly Hansen, whose mic-stand manipulation is second to none. An epic, extended version of Cold As Ice song three? Those harmonies! This song is everything. Where could they possibly take us from here?

Waiting For A Girl Like You contains a starlit keyboard riff and Hansen's vocal gymnastics dazzle. Founding member/guitarist Mick Jones comes on for Feels Like The First Time, which can be fairly awkward to sing along with when your dad's bagsed plus one for the evening. After the crowd is labelled, "Hot chicks and sketchy blokes", Foreigner segue into Dirty White Boy. Those are some dirty riffs throughout and as for that Urgent sax solo, we'll never recover from it – so drenched in sass! We're nowhere NEAR worthy. Hold up! Does that keyboard set-up contain a built-in Theremin? When Michael Bluestein solos, it sure appears so. Drummer Chris Frazier does choreographed, alternating stick twirls; misses the catch after a high throw during his solo and has to grab another, which is on hand suggesting this isn't "...the VE-ry first time" that’s happened. He employs the old 'pour water on drums' trick for a speccy touch. New pet peeve: punters who try to clap along with drum solos! A ten-minute version of Juke Box Hero boasts riffs that rumble. There's something happening everywhere you look on this stage, no passengers.

Foreigner's encore ponders I Want To Know What Love Is ("I want you to show me!"), in all its splendour, and actual lighters are waved throughout the venue. And how about Hot Blooded? All these years this scribe thought the song's protagonist's fever was '100 degrees', when it turns out the actual lyric is "103"! Foreigner capture our full attention for the show's duration and memories are jolted back to surprisingly recall every single lyric to each song (even if some are misheard). And as for the instrumentals, dad reckons, "I think they do that for their egos."