Jondalar
04-02-2011, 01:23 AM
http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/wordsandmusic/archive/2011/04/02/concert-review-rod-stewart-and-stevie-nicks-at-the-bell-centre-april-1-2011.aspx
Concert Review: Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks at the Bell Centre; April 1, 2011
By BERNARD PERUSSE SAT, APR 2 2011 COMMENTS(0) WORDS & MUSIC
Filed under: Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart
In the dying moments of the Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks show at the Bell Centre Friday night, 11,000 people used the last shreds of their vocal cords to howl out the distinctive keyboard line from Do Ya Think I’m Sexy over and over again, wordlessly begging Stewart and his 13 musicians to come back.
But the outburst was in vain. Stewart had delivered that song as his sole encore.
In truth, Rod the Mod had already given the fans their money’s worth in a two-hour set filled with his most well-known songs. They had come to sing along with the hits and he gave them the opportunity to do so at every turn.
This was an evening far more defined by nostalgia than music.
It’s hard to imagine anyone seriously arguing that Stewart’s recordings after the mid-70s --- clunkers like the aforementioned disco chart-topper, Hot Legs and Some Guys Have All the Luck, all on Friday’s set list --- are on a level with his early work. Sure, there are exceptions, but the point was dramatically illustrated when he followed up the hall-of-famer You Wear It Well with the highly ordinary You’re In My Heart (The Final Acclaim).
To the fans, it’s all the same, one song as singable and easy to remember as its predecessor. And if you put aside the artistic gap between his groundbreaking first albums and everything that followed, their point is taken. They came for a show and Rod Stewart proved he’s still a master showman, from the opening cover of the O’Jays’ Love Train, through high-spirited versions of Sam Cooke and Chuck Berry songs and passing through his own career milestones. He kept the audience under his spell until the curtain went down for good.
Stewart does, to quote his own classic, wear it well. All of it: his age, his fame, his clothes. He is as comfortable in his own skin and as charismatic as ever. In fact, few performers of any age can compete with him on the level of using and owning every square inch of stage.
And what a stage presentation: lit as the song required, it burst with colour and theme-related animated backdrops, with an energetic band strutting on it, looking like they time-traveled from the British Invasion and a 60s soul revue. At no point was the audience allowed to get bored.
There were a few missteps, notably when Stewart ruined Rhythm of My Heart by handing a few bars of the chorus to his back-up singers and letting them ham it up and go all diva in succession.
Another ill-advised move was bringing Nicks out for duets on the wrong songs: Passion, one of Stewart’s weakest, and the undistinguished Young Turks. In the latter song, Nicks mostly danced and handled the mic while he sang, ultimately joining the backup singers.
Unlike Stewart, Nicks is not a visual performer --- although she still looks wonderful. Apart from the requisite spacey witch moves and shawl-wielding twirls, she just sings her songs. And as her opening set revealed, a few of them -- like the tuneless Stand Back and the rambling piano ballad Love Is, which bookended her performance --- can be tedious. Others definitely still have legs.
A stripped-down version of the Fleetwood Mac evergreen Landslide, with photos from Nicks’s past providing a touching backdrop, was a highlight, as were the consecutively played rockers Sorcerer and Gold Dust Woman. Edge of Seventeen was extended beyond its proper life span by some serious wailing by Nicks’s longtime default guitarist Waddy Wachtel, but no one was complaining.
Griping, in fact, was the very last thing on the minds of the faithful. As the doors of the arena flew open, they went home without a second encore, a few of them carrying one of the soccer balls Stewart kicked into the audience during Hot Legs. And they were as happy as could be.
Concert Review: Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks at the Bell Centre; April 1, 2011
By BERNARD PERUSSE SAT, APR 2 2011 COMMENTS(0) WORDS & MUSIC
Filed under: Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart
In the dying moments of the Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks show at the Bell Centre Friday night, 11,000 people used the last shreds of their vocal cords to howl out the distinctive keyboard line from Do Ya Think I’m Sexy over and over again, wordlessly begging Stewart and his 13 musicians to come back.
But the outburst was in vain. Stewart had delivered that song as his sole encore.
In truth, Rod the Mod had already given the fans their money’s worth in a two-hour set filled with his most well-known songs. They had come to sing along with the hits and he gave them the opportunity to do so at every turn.
This was an evening far more defined by nostalgia than music.
It’s hard to imagine anyone seriously arguing that Stewart’s recordings after the mid-70s --- clunkers like the aforementioned disco chart-topper, Hot Legs and Some Guys Have All the Luck, all on Friday’s set list --- are on a level with his early work. Sure, there are exceptions, but the point was dramatically illustrated when he followed up the hall-of-famer You Wear It Well with the highly ordinary You’re In My Heart (The Final Acclaim).
To the fans, it’s all the same, one song as singable and easy to remember as its predecessor. And if you put aside the artistic gap between his groundbreaking first albums and everything that followed, their point is taken. They came for a show and Rod Stewart proved he’s still a master showman, from the opening cover of the O’Jays’ Love Train, through high-spirited versions of Sam Cooke and Chuck Berry songs and passing through his own career milestones. He kept the audience under his spell until the curtain went down for good.
Stewart does, to quote his own classic, wear it well. All of it: his age, his fame, his clothes. He is as comfortable in his own skin and as charismatic as ever. In fact, few performers of any age can compete with him on the level of using and owning every square inch of stage.
And what a stage presentation: lit as the song required, it burst with colour and theme-related animated backdrops, with an energetic band strutting on it, looking like they time-traveled from the British Invasion and a 60s soul revue. At no point was the audience allowed to get bored.
There were a few missteps, notably when Stewart ruined Rhythm of My Heart by handing a few bars of the chorus to his back-up singers and letting them ham it up and go all diva in succession.
Another ill-advised move was bringing Nicks out for duets on the wrong songs: Passion, one of Stewart’s weakest, and the undistinguished Young Turks. In the latter song, Nicks mostly danced and handled the mic while he sang, ultimately joining the backup singers.
Unlike Stewart, Nicks is not a visual performer --- although she still looks wonderful. Apart from the requisite spacey witch moves and shawl-wielding twirls, she just sings her songs. And as her opening set revealed, a few of them -- like the tuneless Stand Back and the rambling piano ballad Love Is, which bookended her performance --- can be tedious. Others definitely still have legs.
A stripped-down version of the Fleetwood Mac evergreen Landslide, with photos from Nicks’s past providing a touching backdrop, was a highlight, as were the consecutively played rockers Sorcerer and Gold Dust Woman. Edge of Seventeen was extended beyond its proper life span by some serious wailing by Nicks’s longtime default guitarist Waddy Wachtel, but no one was complaining.
Griping, in fact, was the very last thing on the minds of the faithful. As the doors of the arena flew open, they went home without a second encore, a few of them carrying one of the soccer balls Stewart kicked into the audience during Hot Legs. And they were as happy as could be.