Night Ranger – PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, NC – August 6, 2023 – Concert Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic

Back on Sunday, my neighbor had lawn seats to the Bret Michaels Party Gras concert that he couldn’t use. He asked and I said I would love to use them and why not as the show had Jefferson Starship, Night Ranger and Bret Michaels with friends Mark McGrath and Steve Augeri. Night Ranger was the only one I really wanted to see so it was a no brainer to take those tickets.

I was getting ready to leave when the rains came. I braved it and went anyway as the rain was supposed to stop soon. I had my lawn chair, some water and snacks ready to not only Rock America, but Rock Charlotte. I get to the show and stand in line holding my chair when I was told the lawn was closed tonight…WTF?? But good news, they were giving us seats. Apparently, tickets didn’t sell so they wanted to move everyone closer so the place looked full and it did. First though, I had to take my chair back to the car and then walk back and get in line…again.

Once in, I had to go to a table and pick up an actual seat ticket. I told the guy that if he only had front row left, I would make the sacrifice and take it. Sadly, he did not. I did get decent seats though as they were in Section 3, row S so it was fairly close off to the left of the stage. Once seated, I was ready to get started.

JEFFERSTON STARSHIP

First up was Jefferson Starship and I was wondering who the heck was left in the band. Apparently, original member David Freiberg was still in the band. Believe it or not, he is 85 years old and still rocking. When he sang “Jane”, which he wrote, he sounded amazing. When lead singer, Cathy Richardson announced he was 85, the crowd went nuts and he received a standing ovation. Their set was short and started off with some sound issues for me. The keyboards were too loud and the guitar way too soft. That was fixed soon thereafter and by the 3rd song, all was sounding great. They shot through “Find Your Back”, “Sara”, “Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now”, “White Rabbit”, “We Built This City”, “Jane” and “Somebody to Love”. All-in-all, much better than I expected so I am glad I did get there in time to see them.

NIGHT RANGER

After a quick stage set change, it was time for Night Ranger and it was time to rock. The band opened with the classic “(You Can Still) Rock in America” and let me tell you they can still rock. Brad Gillis is a major underrated shredder and he hasn’t lost a step. The dual guitars of Brad and Keri Kelli really beefed the sound. Jack Blades runs around like a little boy having the time of his life and Kelly Keagy still beats the crap out of the drums. They went quickly in to “Sing Me Away” and Kelly still sings the crap out of the songs too!

There were a couple things bad about their set. First, they only played Night Ranger songs from their first two albums. And the second thing was that the set was too short at only an hour long. I could’ve taken 2 or more hours of hits from them. They did play non-Night Ranger songs including 2 Damn Yankee songs with “High Enough” and “Coming of Age”. Jack also mentioned the fact that Brad Gillis played with Ozzy and the next thing you know they cranked through “Crazy Train” and it was brutal! Brad for me was the highlight of the whole night as he is still a massive player.

One of the really cool moments is when they played “Night Ranger” off the debut. They went in to a drum solo with just Kelly and then all the members came out and joined in playing a drum solo with him as they all hit on different parts of the drum. It was a blast. These guys were having so much the whole night. They seem to still enjoy playing live! They closed out the night with a run of hits including “When You Close Your Eyes”, the classic “Sister Christian” which Bret told them they had to play and lastly one of my favorite tracks, “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”. Let me tell you that Brad and Keri really showed how powerful dual guitars can be. They shredded the night in to tiny little pieces. It was awesome!

BRET MICHAELS

Now we get to the headliner. By this point, I was so pumped on how great Night Ranger was that anything after was going to fail by comparison and it did. Bret came out, the crowd was fantastic and loving it, but when they went in to Poison songs and there was no Rikki, Bobby or CC, it didn’t feel right. The show was also supposed to have two special guests that would join Bret to sing some songs. It was going to be Steve Augeri from Journey and Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray. Well, when Mark came and went in to a Sugar Ray song, I shook my head and said to myself, “this isn’t right”. I knew I wasn’t getting Poison and I knew the other two guests were there, but it doesn’t mean I had to like it. And I didn’t. During the Mark song, I turned and walked out. The tickets were free, so what did I care. Well, I did miss out on a surprise guest as Edwin McCain came out and sang “I’ll Be” and that would’ve been cool.

And that is why this is labeled as a Night Ranger review and not a Bret Michaels reviews as I didn’t see the whole show. Heck, I barely saw any of it. I can’t say enough good things about Night Ranger though. They still sounded amazing, they played amazing and they still had the youthful energy I remember from when I saw them in the 80’s. After such an amazing show, Bret never stood a chance as he would pale in comparison. Night Ranger was worth the drive and my time and if you get a chance to see them live, don’t miss out.

34 thoughts on “Night Ranger – PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, NC – August 6, 2023 – Concert Review”

  1. Night Ranger would be great to see live. You have to hand it to some 85 year old dude still belting out Jane in Starship. Good on them. Great night out if anything and especially the cost of the tickets which was an added bonus. lol
    Not sure I’m buying what Bret is selling either..same as Vince doing solo shows …why guys why?

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    1. Bret sounded good and everything, it just is authentic without the Poison name. If he would’ve just come out and rocked it from start to finish, no guest…maybe but it was too much “party” and not enough “rock”.

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  2. That was cool you got to see Night Ranger for free! Props to your friend for giving you those free tickets. I’m curious about why it was just Bret Michaels and not the rest of Poison, but oh well. Glad you enjoyed the Jefferson Starship and Night Ranger portions of the show!

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  5. That is really sweet! I’d love to see Night Ranger live. I watched some footage of them from early 2021 when shows started happening again, they played at some theme park on a waterfront, it was a really cool show. And props to Jefferson Starship for still being out there and doing it at that advanced age.

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  6. Night Ranger was my first concert – Aug/Sept 1984 in Honolulu. It was when the 2nd record came out, but before Sister Christian blew up. I’ve also seen them several times at the M3 festival, always a short set, though. I would love to see them headline. And we did the same thing when Bret headlined M3 solo. The stage setup was this hue 30 foot tall banners of Bret shirtless, and we just noped the hell out of that before even hearing him. Friends that stayed confirmed we made the right call.

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    2. I was at the same Night Ranger concert in Honolulu that year. Blaisdell Arena. I was a 22 year old Marine stationed at Kaneohe Bay MCAS. They kicked ass for sure, much better than I had expected.

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        1. Small world. I found this thread during a random Google search, just wondering what the exact date of that show was. I can’t find it anywhere online and your comment about it being Aug/Sep was the closest by far.

          Great site!

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          2. I remember it being late summer because we were living on Kwajalein Island and we were in HI on a two-week vacation. I remember missing the first week or so of school of my senior year.

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        1. Very slim, indeed, but that’s the Internet for you. At 62 I am more surprised that I still like Night Ranger, LOL. I always assumed that I’d “grow out of it” with age, but nope.

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    3. I was there in Honolulu! It was my first concert as well! I was 14 years old and my parents were stationed at Schofield Barracks. I saw anyone and everyone that toured in the 80s, but this was my absolute favorite show!

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  8. I just finished a Night Ranger listening session so I agree with Brad Gillis being an underrated shredder.

    But my favorite part of this review was this;

    “I had my lawn chair, some water and snacks”.

    Lol – what’s happened to us.

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