The music of Foreigner is set to get people on their feet at Town Park next Wednesday, Aug. 23, as Jukebox Heroes: A Tribute to Foreigner takes the stage as part of Aurora’s popular Concerts in the Park summer series.
Jukebox Heroes, which will share the music of the legendary band that produced 10 multi-platinum albums, is the penultimate concert of the series.
Next week’s concert will also be the first of two dates that the town will hold a pilot program where licensed beverages will be offered for sale. Should the pilot be successful on Aug. 23, and its second date of Wednesday, Aug. 30, the program could be a hallmark of the 2024 Concerts in the Park program.
Ahead of the concert, Jukebox Heroes’ Steve Major shared his insight on why Foreigner remains popular nearly five decades after its founding.
“If you go down the list of classic rock bands, you don’t hear too many people talking about Foreigner, but it’s a band that most people know the songs but can’t really put a name on it,” he says. “They know, I Want to Know What Love Is, a huge international hit, but not everybody could tell you what band it is. Cold As Ice, maybe, but for me, and I think it goes for everybody in Jukebox Heroes, is they have the best of the American and the best of the British. It gives a uniqueness that most classic rock stuff doesn’t have.
“The majority of it leaned on the British, but if you go back to the '60s with the Stones and Led Zeppelin and coming into the '70s, they had quite a flavour that was different and unique.”
Jukebox Heroes has been paying tribute to Foreigner for the last seven years.
When the band got together, they wanted to do something that “nobody else was really doing,” says Major. Enough bands were paying tribute to such classic bands as Abba and the Bee Gees, but they had a different idea for a classic rock band.
“Journey and Styx…rock just enough but I think Foreigner rocks just a little bit more,” he says. “It has a bit more edge than even Styx and Journey did. As an honest to goodness Foreigner fan, it’s the first two albums for Foreigner. That’s the real deal where you have the real mix of the American and British performers together.
“I love the other bands very much but I think for Foreigner to continue on, it’s great entertainment all the way through. I don’t think anybody who loves music is not going to love the ballads – the fantastic songs like Waiting for a Girl Like You – and the very commercialized songs like Hot Blooded. There is something for everybody here. We’ve done close to 100 shows across Canada and the United States and what usually works out for the festivals… the fact that you can bring your wife, your husband, your kids of any age and we strongly believe that you will derive enjoyment out of it – almost any age. You want a little bit of rock, you get a bit of rock; you want some songs to slow dance to? You get that. It’s a show that is very entertaining and there are always some surprises happening.”
Concerts in the Park continue at Town Park each Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 p.m. through Aug. 30.
Licensed sales at this week’s and next week’s concert will be provided by The Armoury, home to Niagara College’s Canadian Food and Wine Institute, which will offer an array of beers, ciders, and wines for sale within the park. No outside alcohol may be brought into Town Park or leave the venue.
For more, visit aurora.ca/summerconcerts.
Brock Weir is a federally funded Local Journalism Initiative reporter at The Auroran
