Foreigners Journey featuring American Idol’s Rudy Cardenas
Thursday, March 27, 7:00pm
The Emerson Center Vero Beach, FL - Tickets Here
Submitted by Paul Kochanski, Keyboards
Visit a Recent Concert Here
Offer us a brief history about your band that may not be found in your bio supplied to us via your website.
Paul K (Keyboards) Formed FJ in 2017…1st as a Foreigner tribute, then added Journey. He selected previous members he played with in a Journey tribute. After a few personnel changes we now have an incredible musician lineup fronted by two celebrity finalists of American Idol. What was once a regional bar band has evolved into a National Touring show playing some of the best venues in the country.
What is the most interesting experience or story that you and your band have had over the time of your playing together?
We had an opportunity to play a show in Las Vegas at The Venetian. The entire performance was for a corporate function for one of the largest jewelry companies in the world. We felt like the real Foreigner & Journey as we were treated like rock stars...and what a performance we put on…to a massive and gracious crowd.
Have you met any of the band members from the original group and if so, how have they reacted to your show?
We played an outdoor show in Long Island and unbeknownst to us the original keyboardist and founding member of Foreigners attended-Al Greenwood.. .He liked us so much that he recommended us to his friend Iona Elliott (who is a booking agent in Florida) to consider us for shows. Actually Iona worked with MusicWorks to book us at Emerson. She is also married to Dennis Elliott the original drummer for Foreigners who hopefully will see us at one of our shows in Florida soon.
Tribute bands have become tremendously popular throughout the country and there are many covering the same original bands. What about your tribute band makes you stand out from the others that are out there?
First and foremost we are a two tribute show and we perform everything live—no gimmicks, no backing tracks, and no silly costumes trying to look like the originals. We pride ourselves in sounding exactly like the original bands, and we entertain…having the incredible vocals and showmanship of two American Idol finalists-Rudy Cardenas and Constantine Maroulis. Rudy will be singing for us at Emerson. We also inject what we call “Mashups” into our show. These are snippets of other very popular songs from top classic Rock bands. So this differentiates us from other tributes that just play their 1 tribute band songs.
What is your favorite song from your repertoire and why? Do you play the same set list at each concert?
Foreigner—I Want to Know What Love Is, Juke Box Hero
Journey—Faithfully, Don’t Stop Believin’
These 4 songs were their respective timeless identifiable top hits through the years. We generally change up our sets...depending on the set times and venues. We know so many songs that it’s hard to incorporate all of them into 1 show. So we rotate songs as needed.
What led you to want to perform this music? Was this group one of your favorite groups growing up or was it just happenstance that led you to play their music?
Originally, we were a single tribute band-Journey-and then just Foreigner. We noticed that we had to play many B & C side songs that the general audience did not know just to fill a set. So I had the idea of combining the two which at the time was unheard of in the Tribute market. Combining both allows us to play nothing but their hits and the audience knows every one of them. We all have played and loved both Journey and Foreigner growing up which is why we chose these two great classic rock bands.
Anything new and exciting on the horizon for your group?
We have come a long way since 2017 and continue to expand our horizons. We will be adding a few more Mashups to our show as well as maybe having some “guest” appearances occasionally. We also are considering doing a few songs acoustically during the show. We are also looking into playing in Europe.We are now part of a Classic Rock Legends Anniversary Tour which consists of us, Kashmir (Nations #1 Led Zep Tribute) and The Pink Floyd -Laser Spectacular.