Foreigner (Band)

[Martin Hash]

My wife, Gwynne, and I like to hear live music, especially groups from out time in the sun. The best place to hear bands that can’t fill a big venue is the county fair. We’ve seen dozens, perhaps a 100, bands playing to a modest audience in the horse arena. If only one of the members of the original band members is with them, that’s good enough. State fairs have bigger acts; this year the Oregon State Fair had Foreigner, a band both of us knew well because they had 14 Top 20 hits, including “Cold As Ice” and “Juke Box Hero,” when we were still teenagers. Better yet, because we were “Seniors,” we could buy tickets to the fair online for $1.

The fair was in Oregon’s capital, Salem, about an hour away from our house is Washington. The concert wasn’t starting until evening so there was plenty of time to experience the fair. We started off looking through the animal barns; Gwynne used to be in 4H and FFA (she still has the belt & hat), then we paused for fair food: beer, an elephant ear, and a Giant Chicken Kebab. People-watching is always good; the best place for that is from the chair lift that crosses the entire fairgrounds. A teenager traveling in the opposite direction yelled over to me, “You’re a lucky man,” obviously referring to Gwynne. (Young people call us a “cute couple” because we don’t fit the old people stereotype.) When we unloaded, there was a photo booth nearby, one you could only find at a fair; getting out picture taken with a pair of sea lions.

Gwynne & Martin with Sea Lions.jpg

I’m not much for carnival rides but we went on 2, enough to give me motion sickness. There’s a first-come-first-serve seating. People had waited in line for hours but because we’re old, and possibly looked confused from the rides, when I cut in, nobody said anything. I feel kind of bad that somebody else missed out because of us but maybe it will be me next time? Mick Jones, who founded and named the band in 1976, was the only original member, but it sounded the exact same to me. Everybody else there was about our age. One WTF was that they had a sign language interpreter at the front of the stage. We weren’t disappointed but I was worried the band wouldn’t play my favorite song; old titles like “Brown Sugar,” “Dude Looks Like A Lady” & “Yur So Gay,“ are now considered problematic; that’s why I was so relieved & pleased when they cracked up the volume for “Dirty White Boy.”

Foreigner with Sign Language Translater.jpg

Foreigner with Sign Language Interpreter