I made a point of being out Thursday night for a couple reasons. First of all, Canadian classic rockers Honeymoon Suite were back in Lethbridge to bring Average Joes back to 1986.
Honeymoon Suite provided the soundtrack to a lot of our early years, with hits like “New Girl Now,” Burning In Love,” “Feel It Again,” and “Stay In the Light.”
So they were happy to play them for a packed room, June 30 for a pre-Canada Day party. They began their set with a couple obscure, uptempo rockers before launching into “Stay In the Light,” the first hit of the night, followed by numerous other which kept the dance floor rocking. Lead singer Johnnie Dee showed he could play tasteful, bluesy leads on one of my favourites “Wave Babies,” which had the audience singing along.
He also added rhythm guitar throughout. He also showed he still has a pretty good set of pipes, still hitting all the high notes he did back in the day.
They had the dance floor filled during their hit ballad “What Does It Take?”
Lead guitarist Derry Grehan showed off his inner Van Halen with a couple big riffs played on an Eddie Van Halen Music Man Wolfgang guitar, which he alternated with a battered Les Paul.
And it wouldn’ be an ’80s party if everyone didn’t get a chance to show off in their solo spots.
Grehan played a complicated Van Halen tapping riff during his spotlight which lead into “Bad Attitude” and even bassist Gary Lalonde got a chance to solo which lead into “Looking Out For Number One.”
