Posted by Winger on Sunday, September 5, 2021
WINGER has announced that it has canceled its show tonight (Sunday, September 5) in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota due to members of the touring party contracting COVID-19.
The band released the following statement regarding the matter: "Unfortunately, while we have been practicing CDC and locally recommended COVID-19 protocols on tour, members of our touring party tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully, everyone was vaccinated, so only experienced mild symptoms. However, for the safety of our band, crew members, venue staff and fans, we need to cancel our show in Sauk Rapids, MN tonight. FIREHOUSE will be playing instead and we wish everyone a great show! Thanks to all for your support and we apologize to those fans we won't be seeing. Can't wait to be back when it is 100% safe for everyone to do so. Stay safe!"
WINGER recently spent time recording its seventh studio album. The disc, which is tentatively due next year, will be the follow-up to 2014's "Better Days Comin'".
Last December, WINGER guitarist Reb Beach told the 213Rock Podcast that he and frontman Kip Winger had "written about seven songs for the new album. It sounds great," he said. "It's WINGER — heavy riffs with big vocals. Very catchy songs and very heavy stuff — very progressive."
A month earlier, Beach told the "Pat's Soundbytes Unplugged" podcast that he and Kip had pieced together ideas for 11 tracks for WINGER's next album, but that Kip "threw away six of 'em, saying that this has to be like the first BOSTON record where every song is undeniable. And he just wants it to be progressive and like nothing he's hard before," he said. "I brought him these riffs that are just straight-ahead rock riffs, and he said, 'I already know what the next three chords are gonna be after I've heard three chords.'
"We're going for something that's poppy and sing-along stuff yet cool, heavy, progressive riffs — kind of like [2009's] 'Karma'," Reb explained. "That's what we're going for."
In the spring of 2020, WINGER invited artists, friends and fans — including Alice Cooper and members of SCORPIONS, STEELHEART and WARRANT — to sing along to "Better Days Comin'", the title track of the band's sixth studio album. An official music video for the new version of the song was made available in late April.
WINGER formed in the late 1980s and soared to immediate success with its 1988 self-titled release. The album spawned the hit singles "Seventeen" and "Headed For A Heartbreak" and achieved platinum sales status. "Winger" also stayed on The Billboard 200 chart for over 60 weeks where it peaked at #21. Their next album, "In The Heart Of The Young", also achieved platinum status behind the singles "Can't Get Enuff" and "Miles Away". The change in musical climate of the mid-'90s, compounded with unprovoked ridicule on MTV's popular "Beavis And Butt-Head" show, led the band to go on hiatus in 1994. In 2001, WINGER reunited and has not looked back since. Kip also earned a 2016 Grammy nomination for the classical album "C.F. Kip Winger: Conversations With Nijinsky", recorded with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.
