Foreigner ready to rock Rio Rancho

RIO RANCHO — Despite being on “The Farewell Tour,” Foreigner is not saying goodbye to their live audiences yet.

“We’re saying farewell to the kind of intense touring schedule that we’ve been maintaining for 20 years now. The past 20 years, we’ve been doing 90, 100 shows a year,” said keyboardist Michael Bluestein. “We’re going to be just scaling way back and taking a big step back to being more selective with the dates, and we will not be on the road nearly as much, so saying farewell to that kind of intensity.”

One of those dates on Foreigner’s “The Farewell Tour” is at the Rio Rancho Events Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, with Loverboy.

Loverboy, formed in 1979, has hits such as “Working for the Weekend,” “Lovin’ Every Minute of It,” “This Could Be the Night,” “Hot Girls in Love,” “The Kid is Hot Tonite,” “Notorious,” “Turn Me Loose,” “When It’s Over,” “Heaven in Your Eyes,” and “Queen of the Broken Hearts.” The band has sold more than 10 million albums and still features founders vocalist Mike Reno and guitarist Paul Dean as well as original members Doug Johnson on keyboards and Matt Frenette on drums. Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve now plays bass, replacing the late Scott Smith.

The group was inducted into the Canada’s Walk of Fame in September 2023.

“We’ve toured with those guys before. They’re great; we love doing shows with them,” Bluestein said.

Though Bluestein has “only” been with the group since 2008, the music of Foreign has been around since the 1970s.

The band, founded in 1976, still sees streams of its hits approaching 10 million per week. Some its most popular hits hits include “ Juke Box Hero,” “Cold As Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Urgent,” “Head Games,” “Say You Will,” “Dirty White Boy,” “Long, Long Way From Home,” and the worldwide No. 1 hit, “I Want to Know What Love Is.

“I think these songs were just created and crafted to last, just great, great tunes, great choruses, great major vocals, memorable instrumentals,” Bluestein said of the group’s enduring popularity. “It just struck a nerve at a crucial time in rock and roll history, the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, at a time where there’s so many innovative bands hitting the scene, and radio was in full swing, and rock and roll was just kind of hitting a peak at that time. And Foreigner was just was in the mix during that period, and … it’s just written into the DNA of American culture from that time, and not just America, all over, internationally.”

It’s not even unusual to see the newer generations at concerts enjoying Foreigner’s music. It’s not unusual, he said, to see teenagers and those in their 20s in the crowd. “I think it’s a lot of kids that were just raised with their parents playing those albums. It’s really, it’s a part of their musical upbringing,” Bluestein said.

Shows like “Stranger Things” have brought all things ‘80s into the forefront with the younger generations as well, including some of Foreigner’s hits.

“’Stranger Things’ is awesome,” he said. “I think at least a couple songs were featured in ‘Stranger Things.’ And that was, you know, that time — ’79, ’80, ’81 … ‘Stranger Things,’ that that was definitely highlighting of a time when Foreigner was really popular, really big.”

Although Bluestein wasn’t with the band in the beginning, he’s been with them for nearly 20 years after a chance encounter in 2008 provided him the opportunity to audition.

He said he was playing for Enrique Iglesias at the time when he ran into temporary keyboardist Mike Mirkovich. He had other commitments and couldn’t continue with the band anymore, but was helping them find a replacement.

“He and I had worked together before, and he said, ‘Oh man, you know, good timing. you be interested in doing a gig?’ And at the time, I was playing keyboards with Enrique Iglesias, and I was feeling maybe ready for a change if the right opportunity came along, and sure enough, it did,” Bluestein said.

He prepared three or four songs for the audition, and has been with the band ever since. His favorite song to perform?

“I really love ‘Long, Long Way From Home,’” he said. “That’s one of my favorite songs. I guess it didn’t chart as big as some of the tunes did, … it’s got great, great keyboard parts on there, and it’s just a great driving option with a killer melody, driving guitar.”

And though the band loves performing its catalogue of music, a variety of circumstances have driven the decision to scale back on the touring.

“There’s the kind of collective exhaustion that’s set in for some people, you know, the need to be not traveling as much and to be with families more, that’s definitely become more of a priority,” Bluestein said. “It can be tiring, you know? I mean, I think as the years go on, you get older, you know, it becomes more and more important to take care of yourself, to get enough rest, you know, to eat well, to get exercise, take care of your mental health.

“I’m a fan of meditation. I’ve been doing that for years. Exercise is important, you know, like I said, diet and everything. So, you know, I think if you’re doing all those things, it certainly helps. But yeah, I mean, it is tiring, it’s a grind. The hardest thing is to travel, getting on the tour busses, lots of flights, late nights, you know, that’s the hardest part of it.”

And, since coming back to touring in 2021 after a pause due to COVID-19, the band has been “hitting it pretty hard,” he said.

“It’s been a lot of work, and we actually had to make up a lot of dates that had been canceled,” Bluestein said, “And of course, there was a lot of pent-up demand. People hadn’t been able to go out and see shows, and so there was a lot of demand for us to be back out there.”

But one thing that’s not work for the keyboardist? Performing on stage.

“The playing is, is joy, and, you know, it doesn’t feel like work,” he said.