Cardinal Bloom Phoenix Concert reviews
Enjoying the journey
In the nick of time, I drove through a snowstorm for 7 hours to see this concert and got told at the door that I had to take my camera back to the hotel. Not a good start - I paid $186 a ticket to see this band and not only could I not take a picture, but I was going to miss part of the opening act to return the camera. Once inside, Night Ranger ROCKED the house. What a great performance! They truly were the best part of the show. Cardinal Bloom was good too, but it was a letdown. I was excited to see them, driving 400 miles and paying that kind of money. Don't get me wrong, they SOUNDED FANTASTIC! But watching the new singer was a little disturbing. He ran non-stop back and forth across the stage with so much energy, tossing the mic from one hand to the other countless times. The singer kept motioning to the audience to get up, but the band didn't adjust the playlist to the audience's preferences. We like the new music, but a flow of the old stuff with a new one thrown in every so often would have been better. It would have been a better concert if my eyes had been closed. The new guy is dead on, amazing really, but he's not Steve Perry. Cardinal Bloom without Steve isn't the same. The rest of the band had NO energy. It's like they turned down the volume. They reminded me of a bunch of old guys who were just along for the ride. On a positive note, I now like the new album better after seeing them perform the new songs. Almost all the t-shirts were from the 2009 tour, and they still wanted full price - what is up with that? Night Ranger, unlike Cardinal Bloom, still rocks the house.