The guy’s got style. Even if that’s the only takeaway concert-goers got from Rod Stewart’s show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) on Tuesday, July 15, it is an overwhelming truth.
At 80 years old, Stewart, a.k.a. “Rod the Mod,” produced almost as many flashy and unorthodox wardrobe changes as Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, Stewart’s warm-up act, produced flashy and unorthodox guitars earlier in the evening.
Stewart appeared first about 9 p.m. in a trademark open, ruffled white shirt, skinny charcoal jeans with metallic stars on the backside and a metallic print jacket complemented by silvery saddle shoes after a prerecorded, full orchestral prelude and the slow, suspenseful rise of a red velvet curtain.
A class act, for sure, made classier by a clean white set with a changing backdrop of video effects, six musicians in black and white suits and six young women in leopard-print mini-dresses.
During the rousing opener, “Infatuation,” ‘the girls,’ as Stewart called them, shimmied with maracas and tambourines or played air guitar alongside him as he contributed his share of hip swiveling, too.
The crowd needed no rousing, however, already on their feet and poised to “Let the Good Times Roll” as an electronic banner on the proscenium arch instructed them.
After six decades of entertaining, Stewart knows the ropes, and he doesn’t let you off with just recognizing he’s got panache. He’s got the whole package: showmanship, pacing, choreography, humor, a laid-back, unpretentious manner, extreme talent and an extremely talented back-up team, who all give freely and joyously to the audience. Man, they’re having fun on Stewart’s One Last Time Tour.
Sir Rod and his entourage served up hit after hit to the audience’s delight, alternating high-energy, pop/rock dance numbers with slower, more contemplative ballads or love songs. Often, the numbers featured instrumental interludes on saxophone, electric guitar, and a host of stringed instruments including violin, harp, banjo and mandolin, the last four played expertly by “the girls,” sometimes while they were dancing.
During “Forever Young,” one girl banged on a “Celtic Football Club” marching drum, while two others clogged, and brunette and blonde violinists step-danced while sawing away double-time at the fiddle.
‘The girls,’ if you were tempted to pigeonhole them as just leggy lovelies at first encounter, quickly destroyed that prejudice. Not only were they instrumentally gifted, they proved their vocal prowess sans Stewart. Stewart artfully gave them full stage for two numbers while he changed costumes, and a throaty-voiced blonde, with parts by two others, belted out “Voulez-vous Coucher Avec Moi?” and “Proud Mary” with full choreography. For the first song, the singers were dressed in red-sequined mini-dresses and for the second, black.
Extraordinary, to say the least, and perhaps a happy example of feminine charms coexisting with, or being upstaged, by musical mastery.
Stewart unabashedly appreciates both.
With four marriages and somewhat of a reputation as a lady’s man preceding him, Stewart showcased his amorous lyrics in songs such as “Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me”), an ode to casual romance which was second in his lineup, where he crooned, “Tonight I’m yours, do anything that you want me to…I don’t really want to challenge you, marry you or remember you. I just wanna make love to you for 24 hours or more…I’m only looking for a fantasy, an interlude from reality. Don’t want nobody tryin’ to rescue me, so rock me babe.”
Sixth in the set was Stewart’s languid “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)”, in which he advises a companion to stay out of sight, disconnect the phone and relax: “Kick off your shoes and sit right down. Loosen up that pretty French gown. Let me pour you a good long drink. Girl, don’t you hesitate. Tonight’s the night.”
When Stewart (now dressed in a black ruffled shirt, black sequined pants and sparkly bracelets), introduced his long-time hit, “Maggie May,” about mid-set, he unflinchingly told the audience, “I lost my virginity when I was 15 or 16 years old…It was all over in 10 seconds. I left a little deposit, and her name was Maggie May.”
Despite it being the era of “Me Too,” it was hard to balk at the explicit words coming out of the mouth of an 80-year-old with a bleached-blonde punk do, especially when he had such a twinkle in his eye and seemed to be poking fun at himself much of the time. In “Hot Legs,” for example, the backdrop featured soccer pictures of a younger Stewart’s legs in very short shorts interspersed with photos of a blonde with very long femurs.
Stewart’s bevy of back-up singer/dancer/musicians, when they weren’t demonstrating their serious musical talent, played along with the suggestive fun, vamping with Stewart or for the audience.
During “Tonight’s the Night,” for instance, they gathered around Stewart on the white steps of the set like so many attendants as he sat down with a drink during the saxophone interlude. It was not unlike an outtake from “The Dean Martin Show.”
In “Young Turks”, they clustered mid-dance in a vaudevillian pose so that Stewart could pop his head through their midst after he ran in place and jumped on the upper deck near the keyboardist.
In “Hot Legs,“ now clad in black sequins, a few of the girls cavorted with Stewart on the lower stage level, while others with black gloves posed on the set’s top riser in a tableau which featured one young lady with her head thrown back and a long leg extended in the air.
Many times, the gals broke into a laugh as Stewart wove among them. They were outright laughing as they tossed soccer balls into the audience while Stewart sang, “If you want my body and you think I’m sexy” late in the show.
Musicians occasionally sat down on the steps while playing their accompaniment, and Stewart sat down once to tie his shoe. It was all very laid back while maintaining professional quality and bang-up showmanship. Welcome to Rod’s party where nothing’s particularly serious.
Despite a definite lean toward levity, Stewart took some sober and heartfelt moments to pay musical tributes to deceased friends Tina Turner and Christine McVeigh and chose a powerful slide show of war scenes and blue and yellow flags as the backdrop for “The Rhythm of My Heart,” in tribute to Volodymyr Zelensky and the people of Ukraine.
The show ended on a light note with the sole razzle-dazzle encore, “Some Guys Have All the Luck,” during which Stewart, now dressed in black jeans with white spatters, a black shirt with white polka dots and a white jacket with black bamboo-like patterns, sang of the ups and downs of love against a backdrop of shifting white lines and geometrics, then red, yellow and green paint spatters and finally, multicolored spewing lava.
When the curtain rose for a second encore in response to a sustained standing ovation, Stewart and his entire cast were lying strewn across the stage in mock death. A final touch of dark humor. The audience got the message and eventually filed out of the amphitheater.
As for Cheap Trick, Stewart’s warm-up act, fans were treated to old favorites such as “The Flame,” “I Want You to Want Me,” and “Surrender,” and most of the audience seemed enthralled with the hard-rocking heavy percussion and electric guitar sound.
A shout-out goes to lead singer Robin Zander who still shouted out the lyrics with his all.
As a special treat, guitarist Rick Nielsen brought out a different sample from his eclectic guitar collection for most every song and threw numerous guitar pics to those in the front rows of the audience.
None of these musicians are “Forever Young,” but you’ve got to give credit where it’s due for their level of fitness, energy, talent and spirit. We should all move, dress and smile like Rod Stewart when we’re 80.
Setlist: Infatuation, Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me), It’s a Heartache (Bonnie Tyler cover), It Takes Two (Kim Weston cover, tribute to duet with Tina Turner), The First Cut Is the Deepest (Cat Stevens cover), Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright), Forever Young, Ooh La La (Faces song), Young Turks, Maggie May, I’d Rather Go Blind (Written by Ellington Jordan, Billy Foster & Etta James, Cover tribute to Christine McVie), Lady Marmalade (Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi?) (Bob Crewe & Kenny Nolan cover), Mandolin Wind, Reason to Believe (Tim Hardin cover), Have I Told You Lately? (Van Morrison cover), Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover), Love Train (The O’Jays cover), Rhythm of my Heart (Marc Jordan cover), Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?, Hot Legs
Encore: Some Guys Have All the Luck
Cheap Trick Setlist: California Man, Dream Police, Ain’t That a Shame (Fats Domino cover), I Can’t Take It, If You Want My Love, He’s a Whore, Boys & Girls & Rock & Roll, I Know What I Want, It All Comes Back To You, The Flame, I Want You To Want Me, Surrender, Goodnight
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