It came as no surprise that Rod Stewart, even at age 59, looked quite dapper in a tuxedo when he performed in Glendale on Saturday night.
The tuxedo, complete with white tie and tails, symbolized Stewart’s latest incarnation – interpreter of American standards from the first half of last century. This comes on the heels of 35 years of evolution from drunken rocker to disco king to middle-aged singer whom women still drooled over.
Neither Tony Bennett nor the ghost of Sinatra has anything to fear from Stewart’s middle-of-the-road onstage treatment of such chestnuts as Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘The Nearness of You,’ Jerome Kern’s ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ and Herman Hupfeld’s ‘As Time Goes By.’
But for 40- or 50-something fans of adult contemporary radio or seniors longing for sounds of their glory days (both were well-represented at the two-thirds-full Glendale Arena), Stewart’s recent foray into the songs he says he loved as a kid is just fine.
The British singer spent much of the second half of his two-hour-plus show sampling the songs that have returned him to the charts and rung up CD sales topping 4 million since 2002.
Adding a 10-piece orchestra to the rock band that he opened the show with, Stewart did his best to wrap his inimitable voice around standards that also included Rodgers & Hart’s ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’ and ‘These Foolish Things’, recorded by legends from Count Basie to Artie Shaw.
In both his standards covers and his show-opening rock set, which included a sleek ‘Forever Young’, a Vegas-rock take on ‘Hot Legs’ and a touching ‘Ooh La La’, Stewart played it safe vocally, skipping many of the high notes but throwing in enough soul and enthusiasm to keep the crowd satisfied. He happily kicked about 25 soccer balls into the crowd at one point.
Stewart strained to hit the high “time-is-on-your-side” notes in ‘Young Turks’ even though he sang it early on. The charm of this shaggy-haired rock rogue never has been his perfect pitch, but rather the well-traveled tone of his voice.
If his vocals sounded a bit weak in many places, Stewart looked fabulous for a guy nearing the big 6-0. Sporting jeans, sneakers and an assortment of pastel shirts early on, he showed the positive effects of playing plenty of soccer and catching rays by the pool of his Beverly Hills home.
Though he toned down his onstage gymnastics and microphone-stand throwing, Stewart drew shrieks a few times when he peeled back his shirt or shook his rear end at the crowd. He alternated between prancing about like royalty and playing the huggable clown.
The seven rock musicians and three female singers who backed him early on were a talented lot who showed much more energy than the group Stewart brought with him to Phoenix three years ago for a less-than-stellar concert.
And the band showed perfect touch during softer moments such as a memorable version of ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ and the romantic classic ‘Tonight’s The Night’.
Despite being played to death on classic-rock radio, Stewart still manages to send chills down the spine when he laments, “Maggie, I wished I’d never seen your face” as the mandolin plays at the end of ‘Maggie May’. Even the string players in the orchestra were smiling and bopping to that one as they watched.
Stewart didn’t push any envelopes Saturday, but he left his audience smiling with the perpetual twinkle in his eye, good humor in his heart and a voice that’s still a treat to hear even as it operates at less than its youthful capacity.
Courtesy: Larry Rodgers, azcentral.com
