In Concert This Week - March 1, 2013

Didn't find out about this one until recently - Survivor vocalist Jimi Jamison is playing a solo show with The Dean Weisser Band tonight, Friday, March 1 at the Minnesota Music Cafe in St. Paul to promote his November 2012 solo album Never Too Late. Jimi was the frontman for Chicago rock band Survivor during its arguably most successful period in the mid-80s, singing smash US hits such as "Burning Heart" (#2), "The Search Is Over" (#4), "High On You" (#8), "Is This Love" (#9), "I Can't Hold Back" (#13), "First Night" (#53), and "The Moment Of Truth" (#63). Prior to joining Survivor, Jimi sang for the heavier bands Target and Cobra. Survivor's Vital Signs album is revered by AOR/hard rock fans, with Jimi's voice being a major reason. Jimi was even supposed to replace Ian Gillan in Deep Purple instead of Joe Lynn Turner in 1989, but it was not to be. There's a great account of this in Martin Popoff's excellent book A Castle Full Of Rascals: Deep Purple: '83–'09 (2009):

"In fact, Jamison, of Survivor fame, had done more than auditioned. He had recorded with the band in September of 1989 and as far as Purple was concerned, he had the job. But Jamison had just recorded his first solo album, and, as Jon Lord tells the story, the record label had strong Italo-American family connections, and they strongly advised Jamison not to join Deep Purple.

'We auditioned Jimi who had been the lead singer in Survivor and he wanted the gig so much,' adds Lord, leaving out the mafia reference. 'He sounded fantastic and we had some wonderful rehearsals but then his management told him that he couldn't as he was going to be big on his own. He really would've been great in the band, I can tell you. You want to hear him sing Highway Star - it was absolutely marvelous. We did things like Sail Away with him and a couple of others like Maybe I'm A Leo that he did brilliantly. I think he would've been just brilliant for us. I didn't want Joe in the band. I thought he was totally wrong and that's not with hindsight. I fought against it.'"

Back to this week's shows, tonight also has Impaler, Black Rainbow, Ripsnorter, and Regenerators playing at Neisen's in Savage.

Tomorrow, Saturday, March 2, classic hard/boogie rockers Foghat are paired with Head East at the Medina Entertainment Center in Medina. That same night locals Nuisance are doing a video at their show Killwire and Strate-Jak-It at Station 4 in St. Paul.

The only other show on tap this week is Cleveland metalcore band Affiance with support from Glamour Of The Kill and Adestria at Station 4 in St. Paul on Tuesday, March 5.