1/12/08Sahuarita, AZ
Desert Diamond Casino
Review by Laurie Bennett
Saturday night was the first Rick concert of the year, and it was a blast! The venue was somewhere Rick had performed before, but this time, instead of the show being General Admission, it was assigned seating, which I certainly prefer. The lights went down and the introduction music started just a second later, and the crowd was excited. I know I was!
Rick came out onto the stage in a NEW outfit - he looked great. He had on light grey jeans, a long sleeve button down collared white shirt, and a black vest. The vest was velvet on the right side, with 3 large buttons (left open), and a satin type material on the left and back. I have no idea what the image on the back or side was, and I've heard other fans (even after looking at photos) say the same. Some said it looked like a guitar neck on the back, I thought it looked like a gun pointing up, and I also saw stopwatches on it. Regardless, he looked fabulous! Early in the show the bottom button on the white shirt opened up, and no sooner did he re-button it than the middle button came un-done. So he rebuttoned that, and the bottom one came open again. He even remarked - "Who keeps unbuttoning my shirt?" He did roll up the sleeves a few songs into the set, so he could really get down to rocking!
About 5 songs into the set, a group of 4 ladies, who were in quite the party mood, walked in to take their seats, but the came in between the front row and the stage, not even acknowledging Rick as they walked in front of him. He said "Excuse me, for interrupting your party!" One girl from that group later came up to the stage and offered Rick a drink - of Rockstar energy drink mixed with Vodka. It was bright green, and he took a swig before she told him what it was. Then he offered a story about how he and Vodka do NOT mix - last time he had too much Vodka he wanted to fight with everyone in the bar! She also offered him her business card, and asked him to call her after the show. A local fan I was with told me that she was actually a local TV news person. Rick also told a story about having "done a gig" at USC for his son, and all the kids there were drinking the same drink.
The first time into the audience, Rick went out to volunteer people to sing "Don't Talk to Strangers". He found several willing, and several unwilling participants, including an older gentleman who had a Wisconsin sports team baseball style hat on. Rick asked him, "Hey my wife's from Wisconsin. You don't know my wife, do you?" The guy said no and then replied with the appropriate tune. Another guy, instead of singing DTTS, replied "Thank you, thank you very much" a la Elvis Presley. But Rick wasn't satisfied with the guy's impersonation - saying something like, no, you've got the accent all wrong. And you can only say that after you sing!" So then Rick belted out a few lines from "Heartbreak Hotel" and the crowd joined in, and then he did his own Elvis impersonation with the same "Thank you, thank you very much", and I'd say, it was dead on! I can't remember the last time Rick went so far out into the audience for DTTS, usually he only goes a few rows, and saves the bigger crowd surfing areas for later in the show. He found one adorable girl in the audience to sing, and then brought another up on stage with him. Her name was Evelyn. He commented on her old fashioned style name, and also said she was very pretty girl. He said her name reminded her of his mom, who was also a very pretty girl. "But now she's old and not so pretty. And if she heard me say that, she'd kick my ass!" Rick also told the audience that he recently had surgery. First he said, "I had my nose done, what do you think?" then turned his face to be profile to the audience. Ha Ha. Then he said "No, actually, I had a hernia fixed" or something like that. "Any body want to see my scar?" At which point he grabs his belt and buckle, in a fake motion to undo it. Of course the high pitched female voices all started to scream. Rick replied "What, no one? Oh, oh well" and he turned away as if no one was interested. Then he said, to no one in particular, "hey, come up after the show if you want to see my scar."
When Rick was telling this story, Roger must not have been paying attention, as he continued with drumming the beat of the song, at a high volume. Rick turned around and said "Roger, I'm telling a story here, be quiet." Then Rick fired Roger, at which point, Roger yelled for Ronnie, then he stood up and started to walk away. Rick said, you're not fired, I don't know any other drummers. Roger sat down. Rick said but since you've been fired in the past, I have to re-hire you at a lower pay rate. So Roger stood up again as if to leave. Then Rick teased, ah, it IS all about the money!
I don't think his being in physical recovery affected much of the show. It still had lots of energy, and lots of audience connection. He did not do a kick during Rock of Life, and didn't do too many jumps, but if you weren't watching for that, you would've never noticed. Rick went far out into the crowd, and even shook the hands of my friend's two kids as he walked by them. He's so sweet and considerate of his younger fans. During the part when Rick was off-stage, before the encore, a very large security guard was standing in front of the stage, right in front of Rick's microphone. Well, people started asking this guy for guitar pics (taped to the mic stand), and so he started giving them out! I'm sure he didn't realize Rick was coming back, and I was worried all the pics would be gone when Rick returned. However, there were 2 left, and Rick only used one. The concert ended with a 2 song encore, the band introduction, and a hug to the audience. They played Jesus Saves on the sound system as the audience left the venue.
Here's what I believe the set list to be: 1: Intro
2: Who Killed Rock 'N Roll
3: It's Always Something
4: Affair Of The Heart
5: Beautiful You
6: Alyson
7: I've Done Everything For You
8: Rock Of Life
9: Fire (Jimi Hendrix Cover)
10: Living In Oz
11: Redhouse
12: Don't Talk To Strangers and a little bit of Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis) while in the audience
13: Medley
14: Love Somebody
15: My Generation (The Who Cover)
16: Human Touch
17: Jessie's Girl
18: Band Intro
19: Wasted
20: Love Is Alright Tonight
21: Outro (Jesus Saves)
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