TAMPA – He pranced about the stage, belted out song after song with surprising energy, and this being Rod Stewart, he also caused legions of normally sedate 40- and 50-something women to leap from their seats, sing along with every word, and constantly wipe the steam off their binoculars.
Not bad for a 59-year-old former grave digger who once got kicked out of Spain for vagrancy.
Stewart and his stellar 11-piece band hit the St. Pete Times Forum Saturday night, the second stop on his 44-city From Maggie May to The Great American Songbook tour. And they hit it hard. With feeling.
Say what you will about aging rock stars who’ll sing the phone book if they think it’ll sell. Stewart had a certain Artful Dodger magic in 1971, and he still has it.
Like Tina Turner and Dick Clark, he always manages to look half his age. He still has enough hair for three people, and his rowdy, raspy voice has retained most of its force and range.
He opened his show 30 minutes late, but when the curtain rose and the first chords of Forever Young filled the arena, none of the 13,085 people on hand seemed to mind. Stewart followed up with Young Turks, Some Guys, This Old Heart of Mine, Downtown Train and several other hits before finishing the first of two sets with You’re in My Heart and Stay With Me.
Dressed in a peach shirt, jeans and orange sneakers, he worked the stage andpoured every ounce of energy into every song.
“We’re in form tonight,” he told his band. And they were.
The second set began with the addition of a 15-piece orchestra and Stewart wearing a tuxedo. He opened with Buona Sera, which had a cheesy, roadside lounge feel to it. But then came classics such as As Time Goes By, I’m in the Mood For Love, Tonight’s the Night and Maggie May, and Stewart settled into full crooner mode. Someone threw him a string of white beads left over from Gasparilla, and he wore it well.
Stewart is no Sinatra. But he had the good sense not to do what Michael McDonald did and try to resurrect his career with Motown hits.
He stayed with that he knows: his own songs or something with a similar feel. It worked in the early 1970s, and it still does.
Stewart changed to a dark suit and closed his show with Having a Party and I’ll Be Seeing You. He had spent nearly three hours singing, spinning and gyrating on stage, and he still had plenty of voice left. At 59, not even Sinatra could do this.
Courtesy, Tom Zucco, The Times
