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Last Night: Rod Stewart & Stevie Nicks at Toyota Center

By Craig HlavatyFri., Aug. 10 2012 at 12:30 PM

Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks
Toyota Center
August 9, 2012

I really wish that Rod Stewart is recording the past few years of tours he's had under his belt, because he's in essence setting the bar for how to grow old in rock and roll without looking like a granny doofus or a stuttering clown. At 67 years old, Stewart may look weathered and perma-tanned (he sleeps on the Sun?) but at least he's still got the stones and humility to put on a capital-S show without a net, virtual or otherwise.

Plus, a 67-year-old who can expertly kick two dozen or so regulation-sized soccer balls into the crowd at a nearly sold-out arena show while singing "Hot Legs" without missing a beat is a hero in my book.

"No one is miming or playing to a tape, this is real," said Stewart after ending a mid-show acoustic-slash-orchestral set with his band and members of a local string section from Houston. OK, there was a teleprompter somewhere in front of him, but I am starting to think that every major touring act over the age of 30 uses them now.

Co-headliner Stevie Nicks opened the show with Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" as pictures of rock icons of yore -- that she probably partied "serious" with -- flashed on a giant screen behind her and her band. It was cool to see guitarist Waddy Wachtel in action next to Nicks after years of reading his name in biographies and liner notes, too.

Nicks' set was heavy on the solo big guns ("Stand Back", "Edge oOf Seventeen"), her newish In your Dreams material, and the mammoths from her Fleetwood Mac catalog. She also has a cool little tent onstage that she changes into different goth gear every few songs too.

Houston's August music calendar is getting another dose of Mac with Lindsey Buckingham playing Fitzgerald's in a few days, and the band itself should be here in 2013.

The witchy woman told a great story about visiting injured troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, before introducing "Soldier's Angel." During the middle of her story -- a moving one -- someone on the floor of the arena bellowed "Boring!" which was pretty classy.

Thursday night was Nicks and Stewart's last show on this tour together, but she promised more touring in the future. The duo makes for strange concert bedfellows, and they didn't end up taking the stage together as they had on some previous dates.

She closed her portion of the show with a perfect version of "Landslide" with Wachtel. Give us them Mac dates already. Also, her "Landslide" means more at 64 years of age than it ever did when it was written, and she said as much onstage too.

Overall Stewart's and Nicks' shows were pretty heavy on the patriotic rah-rahs, but it was respectful and not intrusive. Who knew that Stewart was a military supporter?

ARGH!:mad: GRR! :eek: WTF? :distress:

I felt cheated last year in Tampa when they didn't sing together. It was their first show after Rod "called in" sick. :shrug:

Wow .Boring.Shevie should of stop and told the a$$wipe to go home.

saw "witchy woman" and didn't even bother to read it , why can't people let the myth go

Can you imagine what the look on Stevie's face must have been, when she heard that?

Michele

Eyes = daggers. Let's hope. Must've been a Rod fan. Yet another reason NOT to tour with him.

Ya.I can imagine the look.Plus a couple of not so good words she could of said to the idiot boring fan.She ignored the idiot and went on like a trouper.


I agree.These stupid reviewers don't let it go.They should get a life and do more research instead of writing false bullcrap about the artists.

Hahahaha.I agree.The fan probably was a Rod fan..Again not picking on Rod.
The board person should of stayed out of the show until Rod hit the stage.

Thats what I did at Stevie's and other shows.