Kip Winger at the Square Room

In Christmas of 1990, I received from a friend a copy of In the Heart of the Young, which was Winger's follow-up album after their 1988 debut self-titled album.  A few months later, I went with that same friend to a Winger concert.

Flash forward 26 years later...and Kip Winger is still alive and well, with many musical accomplishments under his belt, from rock to classical.  

Like before, I put on my best pair of jeans and rock & roll t-shirt, and went to downtown Knoxville at the Square Room in Market Square.

This is my second acoustic show of an 80s rock star, the previous one An Evening with Michael Sweet in April 2015 in Whitesburg, KY.  Something I have come to love about these is, it's laid back. That is what Kip was from the moment he got on stage to sing.  Or was it to talk?  I loved hearing about how he had come from Nashville and thought he was still on central time, only to find that he had lost an hour and therefore not had a chance to eat.  

He is the only rock star I know of who will eat potato chips on stage.  

So, if anyone out there still has it in them to compose an article titled Kip Winger's Vital Stats, much like the ones from the celebrity magazines from back in the day, you can list Kip Winger's favorite snack--to have on stage, no less--is Lay's potato chips.

Photo Credit;  Thomas Biggs, TRB Photography, LLC

He had fun with spicing up his backup vocals.  Take for instance "Can't Get Enough," one of my personal favorites.  He asked us to sing them...like the way Joe Elliott of Def Leppard would do it.

It seems there is a new form of social media where brackets are made.  The brackets are to be used for votes.  Also concerning social media are the many photos about musicians.  I came across one a while back that was a list of things that indicate an incompetent musician.  One of the items was the band asking the audience for song requests.  While that, under those circumstances, would be in poor taste, Kip made light of it:

He made some "brackets", with an "applause-o-meter", such as "Under One Condition" or "Hungry."

Just when it couldn't get any better with him engaging the audience, he invited someone to sing "Miles Away" with him.  It ended up being a local guy who, if knowledge serves me correctly, once played drums in a local band.  He sang well, never missed a word of this awesome rock ballad.

By now, you're wondering, "Did Kip play an acoustic version of 'Seventeen?'"  This left me at the edge of my seat.  The answer:  Yes!  Very last song.

Thank you, Kip Winger, not only for all of the memories, especially from this one show, but for showing love for us fans in a way we had never seen.

For those of you who would like to see the full set of Winger (again?), and Sinful Lilly, an awesome, super-talented and -passionate rock band from Lexington, KY,  you can on September 23rd in Hazard, KY, at the Forum.