LOVERBOY

Twin River Casino Event Center
Lincoln, Rhode Island
October 12, 2019

Photos & Review by Dan Wenc

The 80’s brought us a lot of great things. Great TV shows, movies, and music. A time that had left us with great memories and great music. Loverboy was one of those bands that helped kick off the party of the decade that would be a historical decade of music, MTV and the advent of music videos. If you grew up in the 80’s, there is a pretty good chance there was at least one Loverboy song on your mix tape. Loverboy is one of those bands that stood out with many of their pop culture musical hits of the time. The band even had one of their songs included on one of the great movies of the 80’s, namely, the 1986 “Heaven in Your Eyes”, a song featured in the movie Top Gun soundtrack.

Loverboy is one of the remaining bands of the 80’s that holds a near all original lineup. Original bassist, Scott Smith passed away in 2000 in a boating accident. The band is Mike Reno on vocals, Paul Dean on guitar, Doug Johnson on keyboards, Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve on bass and Matt Frennette on drums.

There was no shortage of 80’s music fans that night. Loverboy put on a great show, where the quality of the sound remained the same as it did 40 years ago. Like Mike Reno said to the audience, “you remember your firsts”… which could mean a number of things. More specifically, Reno talked about remembering where you were, who you were with and what you were doing, the first time you heard these songs. A nostalgic night of music. It is the power of music, that a band like Loverboy, can get on stage and play songs that are about 40 years old, and light up a room full of people, taking us back to a time of our youth for that moment in time.

The night started off with “Notorius”, followed up with “Lucky Ones” and “Queen of the Broken Hearts”. Then it was time for an extended version of “Take Me to the Top”, with a bit of “Riders of the Storm” (The Doors cover), mixed in.

The energy of the night was building as they progressed through the set list. Mike Reno with a introduction to a song that was their first single form 1980, “The Kid is Hot Tonight”. The vocals and musical sound of this band has sustained the past four decades, they sounded great. Before when it’s over Reno spoke to the audience saying it was a song about remembering when you heard this song, feeling good and “if you got caught that night”, as a lead in to “When Its Over”. Continuing on through 80’s musical time machine was the hit, “Hot Girls In Love”.

Mike Reno did an introduction to drummer Matt Frennette, who was seated behind his double bass drum kit, leading into a killer drum solo with the magnitude of what could be expected at an 80’s rock show. Following the quite impressive drum solo, came bassist Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve, who joined the band in 2001. Sinnaeve and Frennette joined together for a melodic bass and drum solo combo.

Concluding the solo, the rest of the band took the stage. You could feel it building… with Doug Johnson’s keyboard… it was time for “Turn Me Loose”. The audience roared, great energy filled the room with this 80’s party. Sadly, the night was nearing a close, but that was not all. Mike Rowe had asked if anyone had a cowbell… After some fun interaction with the audience, Mike said he knew where there a cowbell, going to Frenette’s drum kit. With four knocks on the cowbell, it was right into one of the most iconic 80’s rock anthems, “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend”. The band departed the stage for a brief moment, to return to swells of cheers and applause from the audience for an encore performance. A song that summed up the night, “Lovin’ Every Minute of It”. With that the night was over. An awesome hour and half journey through the music of the 80’s.