Foghat at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center -- March 14.
Saturday, March 14, 7 p.m.
Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, 7077 Elmore Avenue, Davenport IA
Two legendary classic-rock bands with more than a half-century of professional performance apiece will team up for one unforgettable night at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on March 14, with the Davenport venue proud to host Foghat ridin’ strong on their “Slow Ride” 50th Anniversary tour, and joined by the authentic, full-vocal, good-time rock harmonies of Head East.
Formed in London in 1971, Foghat initially found Earl performing alongside Dave Peverett ("Lonesome Dave") on guitar and vocals and Tony Stevens on bass after all three musicians left Savoy Brown. Rod Price, on guitar/slide guitar, joined after he left Black Cat Bones, and the new lineup was named "Foghat" after a nonsense word from a Scrabble-like game played by Peverett and his brother. Foghat relocated to the United States after signing a deal with Bearsville Records, and their self-titled album debut featured a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You", which received considerable airplay. The album also included a remake of Savoy Brown's bluesy ode to the road "Leavin' Again (Again!)," as well as "Sarah Lee", a classic blues burner featuring Price's slide-guitar solo. Released the following year, the band's second self-titled album went gold, and led to 1974's Energized and Rock & Roll Outlaws, plus 1975's Fool for the City.
The next few years for Foghat were busy, as well, with the group releasing Night Shift (1976), a live album (1977), and Stone Blue (1978), each of which attained gold-status in record sales. It was Fool for the City that spawned the hit single "Slow Ride" (which reached number 20 in the United States and number 14 in Canada), but the rockers' greatest sales figures were reached by 1977's Foghat Live, which went double-platinum. More hits followed, among them the singles "Drivin' Wheel," "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (from the live album), "Stone Blue," and "Third Time Lucky (First Time I Was a Fool)," and the band has released another 10 albums over the bast 35 years. Most recently, in addition to 2024's Slow Ride - Live in Concert, Foghat delivered 2023's Sonic Mojo, which American Songwriter's Lee Zimmerman awarded four starts, writing that it "lives up to its name, proving the fact that Foghat are as adept as ever"." David Quantrick of Classic Rock, meanwhile, called the songs of Sonic Mojo "music that could have appeared any time between 1971 and now," and compared the work to that of the late blues great John Lee Hooker.
A five-piece outfit composed of founding member Roger Boyd (keyboards), Greg Manahan (bass and lead guitar and vocals), Mark Murtha (lead guitar and vocals), Eddy Jones (drums and vocals), and Darren Walker (lead vocals and bass), Head East originated in East Central Illinois when Boyd and two of the band's co-founders, in 1969, were students at the University of Illinois. After several years of local gigs, the musicians recorded their first album Flat as a Pancake in 1974 at Golden Voice Recording Studio in South Pekin, releasing it on Head East's own label Pyramid Records. All 5,000 records and 500 eight-tracks produced were quickly sold, and several Midwestern radio stations, chief among them KSHE 95 in St. Louis and KY-102 in Kansas City, began airing cuts from the album, among them the single that would eventually become Head East's signature song: “Never Been Any Reason.” Record label A&M consequently re-released Flat as a Pancake in 1975, and the album reached gold-sales status by 1978, spawning another hit in the song “Love Me Tonight.”
With 10 studio albums (most recently 2023's Full Circle), five live albums, and a compilation album to the group's credit, Head East enjoyed additional Billboard hits in Get Yourself Up, Gettin' Lucky, A Different Kind of Crazy, and the pairing of Head East and Head East Live!, with the musicians' “Never Been Any Reason” a rock anthem so iconic that it's featured on the soundtrack to the coming-of-age-in-the-'70s classic Dazed & Confused. Head East songs have also been heard in the Matthew McConaughey adventure Sahara and the Emmy-winning television series Friday Night Lights and That '70s Show, while the band's full-length recording Raise a Little Hell inspired Classic Rock Revisited to rave, “Head East was, in, and will always remain a living example of the live energy that their era of rock and roll is famous for.”
Foghat and Head East bring their national tour to Davenport's Event Center on March 14, admission to the 7 p.m. concert event is $20-60, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)328-8000 and visiting RhythmCityCasino.com.
