Rod Stewart now a savvy showman
Monday, August 11, 2008 Chuck YarboroughPlain Dealer Reporter
Let’s see. Is Blossom Music Center in Cuya Vegas or Las Falls?
Judging from Rod Stewart’s schmaltzy, nostalgic but nonetheless enjoyable turn there Saturday night, the only things missing were the casinos. Odds are, the crowd had fun.
Give Rod the Bod his due: At 63, he has added a lot of savvy to a genuine appeal. As one concert-goer said, “He may not have the best voice, but he sings so sexy.”
The reality is that Stewart has evolved from rock star into showman. Gone (thank heavens!) is the pink silk jumpsuit of his youth. In its stead is a stage cloaked in white, up to and including cloud-like curtains swathing the proscenium and carpet-size rolls of brilliant white contact paper on the stage floor.
Add a backup band of good-looking young people, including sax player Katja Rieckermann and violin and mandolin player J’Anna Jacoby, and every night’s the night for a good time.
Stewart’s voice has improved as well. It still has the rasp that made him different back with the Faces, and just afterward. But he has added depth and range (including a not-such-a-good-idea falsetto from time to time) that have created a full house of fun.
With a catalog that seems to rival Sears Roebuck, the question in a Stewart show is not what he will sing, but what he will have to leave out because he only has two hours.
And the answer is, not much. There was some gabbing, as there must be when a bloke and ‘is mates get together at the pub, albeit a 23,000-capacity outdoors one. But putting the cards on the table, getting 20 songs out in a show that’s 93 minutes long is like drawing to an inside straight . . . and hitting it. Especially when you consider time out for two costume changes and an extended – and well-executed – drum solo by the drummer and percussionist.
Probably the best part of the Stewart show, the most admirable part, is that when he launches into “Forever Young,” bald spots and pot bellies become a part of someone else’s reality, so old fogey and not us. And tunes like “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” “You’re in My Heart,” and especially “Hot Legs,” do nothing but reinforce our perceived immortality.
Bryan Adams, known to much of today’s youth as the guy riffed on in the “South Park” movie, provided a worthy opening act. His hour-long set featured hits most people didn’t realize they already knew. It could be because most of them sound like crosses between car commercials and movie theme songs, including “Somebody Like You” and even the iconoclastic “Summer of ’69” (which he labeled his most misunderstood song).
But in truth, Adams is a capable singer, a virtuoso performer with a tight, talented band, and the perfect opening act for Stewart.
Rproduced With thanks to Plain Dealer and Chuck Yarborough
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