Five For Fighting – Ardmore Music Hall – Ardmore (A PopEntertainment.com Concert Review)

Five For Fighting – Ardmore Music Hall – Ardmore, PA – August 6, 2024

We were all fifteen for a moment as Five For Fighting opened up their summer 2024 tour at AMH. It was not a coincidence that the tour started in the Philly area FFF singer John Ondrasik assured the packed club, because Philadelphia is one of a handful of his favorite towns to perform in going back to his first tour opening for David Gray back in 1989, and he always makes sure to play in town whenever he hits the road.

Five For Fighting is essentially a one-man-band project for Ondrasik, but as always, he brought along his crack touring band, featuring drummer Randy Cooke (Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart), bassist Sean Hurley (John Mayer, Ringo Starr, Alanis Morissette), and guitarist Peter Thorn (Chris Cornell, Melissa Etheridge, Don Henley).

Five For Fighting put on an intriguing show made up of hits, favorite album tracks, some newer lesser-known songs and even a couple of surprising covers.

Ondrasik started out on acoustic guitar for an energetic run-through of “America Town.” He then sat at the piano for sweet performances of “Chances” and “The Riddle.” He followed up with the song that he credited for getting him his first notice – the early single “Easy Tonight.”

Ondrasik has been famously very involved with military families for years, and in this show the singer showed his passion for the cause. First, he performed a gorgeous and heartfelt version of “Can One Man Save The World,” a song which he wrote for (and has performed for) Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in honor of the man’s bravery in leading his country’s resistance of the horrific attacks from Vladimir Putin and Russia. The performance was accompanied by photos and footage of the war in Ukraine and Ondrasik’s visit to the war-torn country.

Next, he played “Freedom Never Cries,” which is a sweet and melancholy celebration of the bravery of soldiers and how their sacrifices are not always appreciated by the people for whom they fought and died.

Ondrasik noted that people have always wondered at what point his music had its most fundamental changes – and he said for him it was easy to pinpoint, when he became a parent, his musical viewpoint changed. He showed that when he acknowledged that the title to his song “I Just Love You” was offered by his daughter Olivia when she was only four years old. Now, he acknowledged, she was in her early 20s.

This constant flow of time was also captured on the next tune. “You don’t write this song without two little ones sitting on your lap,” Ondrasik explained as he eased into the instantly recognizable piano intro of “100 Years.” “100 Years” as always sounded gorgeous, a road map of different points in everyone’s life from childhood to old age.

He followed that up with an appreciative cover of a song by one of his biggest influences as a pianist. Ondrasik took off on Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and captured the feelings of alienation and paranoia in the song’s space-aged storyline.

Ondrasik returned to the battlefield with his most recent song, “OK” (as in, it’s not all okay…), which was written after the October 7 attacks on Israel in honor of the victims and the hostages who are still to this day being held. Despite taking on such hot-button topics as Hamas and Ukraine, Five For Fighting looks at the conflicts with a humanist light, not a political one. (In fact, at one point, when some audience members booed the names of Muslim congress members Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, Ondrasik hushed the boos and said they had the right to have differing viewpoints.)

Finally, Five For Fighting closed the set with his melancholy smash hit “Superman (It Ain’t Easy),” which became an anthem for a devastated country in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. Over two decades on, the song still holds its plaintive beauty and sweet resignation. Then, Ondrasik closed things out with a playful encore version of Queen’s classic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

At this point, Five For Fighting have been out there on the road for over a quarter of their “100 Years,” and they’re just dreaming, counting the ways to where we are. Here’s hoping they continue to return for many, many more years.

Jay S. Jacobs