Lifehouse headlines Artpark show
Fundraiser Friday at Hard Rock Café

by Joshua Maloni
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, October 6, 2007

Lifehouse performs Friday at the Hard Rock Cafe Niagara
Falls. The show, a fundraiser for Artpark, begins at 10 p.m.

Artpark’s season, as it turns out, is not quite over yet.

Sure, it’s October, and the outdoor amphitheatre is closed. The music, however, continues.

On Friday, the Hard Rock Café will hold a fundraiser for Artpark. The venue’s headliner is Lifehouse, a mainstay on the alt-music scene.

“Artpark’s family-oriented programming has benefited greatly from our recently established partnership with Hard Rock Café,” said Mike Freedman, public relations coordinator. “To hold this post-summer event on Artpark’s behalf, in addition to their season sponsorship and park recycling efforts, truly demonstrates the café’s commitment to furthering these types of programs.”

In Lifehouse, Hard Rock has booked a band widely known to music fans of all ages. Even those who don’t know the band’s name likely know its hit songs, thanks to wide play on multiple radio formats.

In fact, when Lifehouse hits with a single, the band hits with a single.

“Hanging by a Moment,” a cut from the California trio’s debut “No Name Face,” was both a No. 1 hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and the most played Top 40 song of 2001.

Lifehouse followed that effort with the single “You and Me,” from its 2005 self-titled album. The song, a No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 registers, spent 60 weeks on the Hot 100 chart.

Currently, “First Time,” a thoroughly singable number from this year’s “Who We Are,” is scoring major radio time. The song has already reached No. 3 on the Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks chart.

Clearly, then, Lifehouse knows how to make a hit single. But, drummer Rick Woolstenhulme says, the band’s mission is to make a whole record of great songs – not just one or two.

“Most records only have a few good songs,” he said Friday prior to a concert in Indianapolis. “The goal is to make them all listenable and likeable – or at least to try and do that!”

On recording the disc, Woolstenhulme said, “We went in with no songs.” The band wanted to make an album that embodied its live performance sound. “We tried to keep that electricity alive.”

With “First Time,” Lifehouse simply came together as a group, started playing, and in no time pumped out a Top 10 song.

“This song, ‘First Time,’ was I think the first song that we had cut in the studio,” Woolstenhulme explained. “And we cut it in the morning. And we had pretty much almost finished it and put it to rest like the next day by lunchtime. So, I remember when we finished that, we took it out to the car and cranked it up and it was like, ‘Whoa, this is probably going to be the single.’ ”

Lifehouse is set to play its catalog of hits next week. The band’s current tour is its most elaborate – complete with full lighting.

“It’s more of an event than we’ve had in the past,” Woolstenhulme said.

When the band performs at Hard Rock, that production will be tempered by the venue’s size, but, “The key is to make people feel like it’s an arena show,” Woolstenhulme said. “The intimate club rock shows are always fun ... there’s an energy in the room because it’s so tight.”

The drummer is looking forward to making a trip to Niagara Falls State Park to view the Eighth Wonder of the World. The trip will, ironically, be his first time. Lifehouse has performed in Buffalo in years past, but band members have never ventured down to the famed waterfall.

“We’re excited,” he said. “I’m jonesin’ to see the Falls!”

As part of Friday’s event, the Hard Rock will unveil its memorabilia “redec.” Dozens of new rock and roll items – think Jimi Hendrix tobacco sunburst Fender guitar, a Jim Morrison pencil sketch, Elvis’ black Harley-Davidson cap – will be on display.

Lifehouse headlines an 18-and-older concert at the Hard Rock, 333 Prospect St., on Oct. 12. The show begins at 10 p.m. For more information, or for tickets, call 282-0007. To order a copy of “Who We Are,” visit www.lifehousemusic.com.