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March 12, 2023

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Mickey Thomas has been rocking for a long time.  And lucky for us, he shows no signs of slowing down.

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He first got recognized by singing lead vocals on Elvin Bishop's "I Fooled Around and Fell In Love" in the mid 1970s.  He then joined Jefferson Starship after Marty Balin left the group and then went on to lead Starship in the 1980s.

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Thomas brought all of that history and great songs with him to MGM on Saturday night.

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Starship kicked off the show with two absolute bangers, "Layin It On the Line" and "Jane."  Many artists would save those songs for the end of the show, but when your catalog is so deep, you can open the show and set the tone with those tunes.

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Thomas is still in excellent voice.  Every song was in the original key and he effortlessly hit all of the high notes when called upon.

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The five piece backing band are all great musicians themselves.  Cian Coey provided great backing and lead vocals, John Roth laid down some nice licks on guitar, Jeff Adams and Darrell Verdusco were a solid rhythm section and Phil Bennett did a nice job on the keys.

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After a few slower tunes, "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," Thomas told the audience that they were going to go back into the bands history.  Starting with Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," that saw Coey take over on lead vocals, which led to two Jefferson Starship tunes, "Miracles" and "Count On Me."  The trip down memory lane concluded with "Somebody To Love."

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Thomas then told the crowd that he got his big break in the business when Alvin Bishop asked him to sing on his record in 1976.  He noted that it is still his favorite song to perform live and with that, the band launched into a note perfect rendition of "Fooled Around and Fell In Love."

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Toward the end of the set, Mickey said that he has been playing in Cleveland for a long time.  He remembered when they used to be on tour back in the day, he always requested an extra day off in Cleveland so he could play golf with legendary WMMS DJ, Kid Leo.

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The main set ended with perhaps their biggest song, "We Built This City" which got everyone on their feet and singing along.

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The encore consisted of "Find Your Way Back" and "Rock Music."

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It was a great night of rock and roll played and performed by excellent musicians.

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Review and photos by Greg Drugan

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