Loverboy

Arena Rock has changed since the late seventies. I mean, for one thing it’s not the world’s dominant genre of popular music for better or for worse, but it’s a harder world to break into today than it’s ever been. For that reason, no band will ever get the live debut that Loverboy had any time soon.

Countless bands open up for other bands as their first gig. Not many of them happen to be Kiss. And not many of them take place at a 17,500 capacity ice hockey arena Even after a debut like that, the band still found trouble finding a record label, at least in the United States.

Back home, Columbia records’ Canadian branch snapped them up and they went into the studio to record what would become their self-titled debut album. The joke was eventually on the labels as that album went on to sell one million copies in Canada and two million in the U.S, and the best was yet to come.

Their follow up album was a hit called “Get Lucky” recorded and released when both members of Daft Punk were barely past five years of age.It was a comparable hit though, selling four million copies and bagging the band six Juno awards in one year, a record to this day.

This was another way that touring culture was different in the day; the band had accomplished all of this before they played their first headline tour. That came in at the end of 1983 into 1984, along with “Hot Girls In Love” a single that peaked at number 11 in the Hot 100.

Since then they’ve been true icons of Canadian rock, with singles of theirs still in the public conscious to this day. With decades worth of experience and a truly legendary back catalogue, a Loverboy show can still rock like nobody’s business.