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Dear Night Ranger, We were at the Billings concert, July 1st, 2000. We enjoyed your performance more than REO or Styx. You guys are a great band. Jordon our 7 year old brother has leukemia, he was diagnosed last year, he came with Us and our parents(who remember you when you were together previously) and he was very impressed with your music. He is still talking about the concert. He hopes to be a great drummer someday... well actually we are in the process of getting a band together ourselves. Maybe someday you guys can come see Us in concert! Again thanks for a great concert. Your fans in Wyoming, The Makela's I used to win the musical lottery every now and then, while I was serving in the U.S. Navy. While based in Alameda Ca. I often found myself enjoying a cold one and the babes at the Park Street Saloon. On a lucky night Brad Gillis would show up and jam with the Alameda All Stars, What a treat! Night Ranger has such a unique sound that cannot be/ is not duplicated by anyone! My wife and I just caught the show last summer in Tinley Park Illinois where Nugent headlined. Now everyone knows how terrible Ted rocks your butt off! However, my wife and I left the show singing and blasting Night Ranger all the way home! This band has given us so many memories and favorites like no other band or musician in the world. Night Ranger, you are in a class of your own! Thank God for rock, and thank God for giving you back to us for yet another year of touring and great releases! We cannot wait to see you this summer! Randy & Sue Kluber Chicago Illinois Jack Blades, Alan Fitzgerald, Brad Gillis, Kelly Keagy and Jeff Watson simply adds up to the awesomest (I know that's not a word! Hehe!) band around! These five guys are true rockers and awesome songwriters, and they're probably some of the most underrated musicians ever... These guys can really ROCK! Hey, Night Ranger is back, how cool is that? I hope they get some promotion this time around. The new Night Ranger songs are just so cool and so catchy! For example their new single "Sign Of The Times", it's just such a FUN song ya know? This band knows what music is all about - Having fun! From what I've heard from people who saw Night Ranger in concert in 1997 and 1998, the band is having a lot of fun on stage, joking around with each other!:) ... Hail to the Ranger! Thomas Hoeifors Is it just me or do Brad and Jeff have the greatest solos in the world? The reason I say that is EVERY one of their solos fit perfectly into the song they are written for. They keep the spirit of the song throughout the solo as opposed to sounding like a seperate entity. Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and even Eddie Van Halen always bugged me because most of their solos could be taken out of one of their songs and plopped in another and if you'd never heard it the other way you wouldn't know the difference. Just my opinion, but I think Brad and Jeff are the MASTERS of the art of making solos part of a song. Steven Bee I sing and play drums and let me tell you it is extremely difficult. The job of a drummer is to keep time. Everyone in the band relys on you to keep the time absolutely perfectly. One slip up and anyone who knows anything about music will hear it. I remember a few months back someone posted something about "why does kelly sing songs differently live than he does on the original recording " this is easy for me to answer. Because sometimes live he is in the middle of a roll or an offbeat or something and it is to demanding to play the drums exactly like the recording and also sing it exactly like the recording. He has to find a comfort zone where he can do it all and sound great doing it. Singers often stand still and sing into the mic. Some jump around and go crazy while singing. Obviously the energy level of the guy going crazy will get the crowd going but there is no doubt he could have done the vocals more justice by standing still. It is just much easier. The same goes for the drums your legs and feet pumping arms and hands pounding , keeping a rock solid beat and singing all at the same time. WOW ! is it hard. That is why Kelly is my personal lifetime idol. You can't imagine how I admire and respect the guy for his vocals/ rumming. He is my inspiration and I'll keep trying to be that good but it will never happen. He is just so gifted and underrated. John Reed I have to tell you guys that I just got my hands on copies of both "Seven" and the '97 live in Japan tape....boy, these guys just continue kicking ass like there is no tomorrow. Amazing stuff, especially the new one. They are one of the few bands left that aren't afraid to show instrumental virtuosity within a very melodic frame- work, and Seven is a classic example of this, which I think of as the "Night Ranger Sound". If any of you guys in the band are getting these e-mails, please don't forget us in Atlanta.....I caught the last couple of shows down here, with the trio at Masquerade in '93 or '94 and the quartet at The Outer Edge a couple of years ago, and both shows just rocked.....but we're hungry for the original NR! Best of luck to you guys on CMC with the new album and tour. Carlos Baez I have to say that the great majority of 90s music cannot touch anything the 70s or 80s had to offer. I for one am totally disgusted and disappointed with today's music scene. There have been very few bands that have either continued on through the 80s or have emerged in the 90s that I listen to ( Queensryche, Alice In Chains, U2, Aerosmith, Night Ranger...of course, Van Halen, etc...) MTV has evolved (or devolved) into I don't know what, the Spice Girls are totally talentless, Pearl Jam only had a few decent songs at best, freaks like Marilyn Manson have no true talent as their only claim to fame is "shock rock", rap music...gee, do I have to say more?, and just about all music is nothing more than a bunch of highly organized promotional hype. Most of the music today just seems to be rhetorical, as you can hardly tell one artist from the next: the sound and the looks. Jack Blades made a comment about Night Ranger just being a straight forward rock band and that their style wasn't going to change just to please the current trend in music. THANK GOD!! I could hardly imagine NR doing alternative music! Royce J. Myers Here is what Night Ranger were wearing at the Roadhouse Ruby's show in KC July 21st, 1998! Fitz was wearing...what...you guessed it. A Bulls jersey, with a black Van Halen cap and black jeans. (The pants is hazy for me.) Jeff was wearing blue jeans, a black, gold & red vest playing a silver gray guitar...(I think Ellen Kozisek said it was a gold guitar, but I'll have to disagree with her this time. Because I have one similar in color to what he was playing.) Brad was wearing what looked like an imitation suede black vest with black jeans, but he change out at the bus into a reddish vest. And playing that same frayed red guitar with stickers all over it. Kelly was wearing a white shirt and black biker pants. Playing a beautiful blue drumset! (It was beautiful!!!) :^� Jack was wearing a green plaid button up shirt with big black buttons...(I think it is the same shirt as on the "Rock In Japan '97" CD), and there was a hole under his left armpit! He was wearing the black pants with silver studs up the sides (I've seen him wear them in Damn Yankees...same type!!), his shoes were black sneakers that said "Simple" on the sides, and had the rubber toes. He had 2 bead necklaces on which were orange, and another one that was green. He also wore a chain bracelette on his left wrist. And of course, his gold loop earing in his left ear. He did have his hair in that pully-back thing he does, but it came loose after the third song, and he ripped it on out!! (I watched a hair in the light fall softly to the stage floor!!) :) (I DO LOOK INTENSELY!!!) Maybe I'm obsessed with Jack, but Hey, that's cool!!! ;~� Stacey Z. As far as my thoughts on Night Ranger go, I have to say that to me, they represent coming of age (No, Jack, I'm not ripping off Damn Yankees! =0) ), and made growing up in a crazy world and age bearable. Some of the most touching and really cool moments of my life involved Night Ranger's music in one form or another. I've seen them live 4 times, and 2 of those shows were on the same night.(Puyallup Fair appearance) I never have grown out of their music, and doubt I will...it is too ingrained in my being, and something I'm just not willing to give up. I know that they may have felt slighted in some way, that the American fans deserted them in some way, but I don't think that's true at all. Maybe American Radio did, but not us, the true, the loyal, the Night Ranger Junkies. So if any NR members read this, I'd like to say this: "So what if you can't walk on water? (We think you can) So what if you're not Kings of the Hill? (We think you are) Right now you can't, but what does it matter? (You did for us) Love you and someday you will." (We always have, and always will) Don't ever count us out, Guys, we never counted you out. Our prayers have been heard by the Night Ranger Gods, and viola! You came back. Thank you seems so inadequate, but I guess it'll have to do Stephanie J Bird I posted my review of the Denver 1998 shows a few days ago and then later watched the 7 Wishes video and I couldn't believe the difference! Jack has more energy now than he did then (1985)! Jack and the others were much more animated and just all around better. I have seen countless bands over the years and nobody has the stage presence that Jack and the others have! I believe Jack just truly has the time of his life performing where other bands it is obvious they don't really want to be there. Mark Hey, "Feeding Off The Mojo" is one of my favorites. I think it's all a matter of taste. I could do without the harmony vocals when they get too "coated"; I like the raw sound on "Feeding Off The Mojo". Excellent CD and you're right, Mike, they had A LOT of energy at the Moon Ranger shows. They were having a REALLY great time rockin'--it was obvious! I think I caught about three Mojo shows and a handful of tours before those. I met up with Kelly backstage/outside (HUGE fan that I am) at just about all of them. I really saw a difference in his attitude when touring with Brad and Gary. He was extremely pumped up about their new album and new sound and how "tight" their three-some was. They rocked, not to imply the original members didn't--they just rocked differently because they could get more intimate with the crowd. I have some great pictures of my close-encounters with the band that I've been holding out on (I didn't have access to a scanner until now). My favorites are with Kelly and Gary outside a bar after one of their shows. It was really cool because they took my friend and I around the building to where the lights were to ensure I'd get good pictures--and they are! No one else had a camera with them--it's a necessity for me. Gary's a super-nice guy, not to mention Kelly. Robin Marckini "I gotta say it scares me, some of the trash that's in the 'People's Top 1000 Picks' & even many that are apparently in 'Colin's Top 1000'... When 'Midnight Madness' isn't & stuff by Notorious BIG is, there's a problem.. *lol*" Yeah--there's just no accounting for taste, or the lack thereof. I was looking at those platinum/multi-platinum album sales figures and learned that Milli Vanilli's debut album, "Girl You Know It's True," sold like EIGHT MILLION copies and garnered six multi-platinum awards in only six months? And all of that for two guys who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket? Nice dreads, tho. And, yeah, I guess those who actually bought that album could claim that at the time they bought the album nobody really knew that they were lip-synching. Wheras an album with TIMELESS, clean, great-sounding, straight-ahead rock and roll like Midnight Madness sells less than two million. Makes sense to me... Geez. Speaking of vanilla, I wonder how many albums Vanilla Ice sold--and his major hit sported a direct and blatant Queen ripoff! There must be something to this lip-synch/plagarism/cheating angle... Paul |