An almost sold out crowd gathered at the Bell Centre in Montreal to watch Rod Stewart perform his Live the Life tour concert there. You wouldn’t know by the tremendous response from the crowd that there were a few empty seats in the upper sections. Rod immediately thanked everyone for coming out on this “bloody cold night”. He also said he was glad to see so many people because he felt so alone being in Montreal by himself. Apparently Penny and the boys had already made their way off to England ahead of him.
Since everyone has been talking about the two additional songs Rod added to this show, I may as well talk about them first. During the sit-down acoustic part, he said he was going to sing a song for Richard Barnett—he said “I know you’re here”. You could hear somebody yell out from the back. And he sang “Georgie”. Then a few songs later an open letter to Rod that was printed in a Montreal newspaper by columnist Richard Barnett appeared on the screen. Richard is a long time Rod Fan-having been to 30 of Rod’s concerts but never heard him sing “Sailing” there. Rod said “You’ve waited long enough chappy” and then he sang “Sailing”. Can you imagine having Rod sing both “Georgie” and “Sailing” at the same show on this side of the Atlantic? Saying it was awesome would be understating it! So thank YOU Richard Barnett!
Also during the sit down, while Rod was singing the Christmas song, when the snow fell from above, somehow it was dumped almost all on the three back-up singers. They were covered from hair to toe with snow. They were laughing so hard but somehow kept it together. Before he sang “Rhythm of my Heart” he talked again about how grateful he was for all those who served their country including those on the front lines tonight and then revealed that the person who wrote this song actually served in Vietnam. Toward the end of the song where the ladies tune in—right before Lucy was to sing her part—he started to belt out the wrong verse and then stopped—dropped the F-bomb—laughed a lot and then composed himself enough to sing the right verse. It was pretty funny.
During the last song “DYTIS”, I paid particular attention to the video screen when it showed Rod on the cover of “Rolling Stone” with his quote from the article “I don’t want to be singing Do You think I’m Sexy at age 50 and become a parody of myself”. I don’t think he did sing when he was 50—I believe that was during the time he shied away from singing it. But Rod, you couldn’t be more wrong! The audience loves that song and I’m sure that’s why you save it for last. And once the curtain goes down, they are begging for more.
Review by Marcy Braunstein
Photo by Caroline Letourneau
Set List
1. This Old Heart of Mine
2. Having a Party
3. You Wear It Well
4. Stay With Me
5. Tonight’s the Night
6. Some Guys Have All the Luck
7. Rhythm of My Heart
8. Just One More Day (Ruby Stewart solo performance)
9. Forever Young (Rod and Ruby Stewart duet)
10. The First Cut Is the Deepest
11. The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)
12. Have I Told You Lately
13. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
14. Can’t Stop Me Now
15. Sweet Little Rock n’ Roller
16. I’d Rather Go Blind
17. Proud Mary (backup singers solo spot)
18. You’re In My Heart (The Final Acclaim)
19. Hot Legs
20. Sailing
21. Maggie May
Encore:
22. Do Ya Think I’m Sexy