Affair of the Heart

Springfield strums up affair of the heart

By Diana Nollen
The Gazette

diana.nollen@gazettecommunications.com

http://gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080223/NEWS/35983512

Singer/actor Rick Springfield performed before a sold-out crowd Friday night at the Riverside Casino Event Center in Riverside.

RIVERSIDE - Rick Springfield is hot. He's Hollywood handsome, but isn't afraid to work up a lather leaping around the stage and into the arms of legions of screaming female fans spanning two generations.

Boomer mothers had the hots for Dr. Noah Drake on television's "General Hospital" while swooning to "Jessie's Girl" climbing the '80s pop charts.

Twenty-five years later, their grown daughters also got to swoon as Springfield reprised his McDreamy role on the popular daytime soap in 2005.

And Friday night, mothers and daughters joined forces to scream non-stop during nearly two hours of hot rock at the Riverside Casino Event Center. They snatched up every ticket more than a month before the concert, and dragged along a few men, who got caught up in the action. Even the big burly guys in front of me were bopping to the beat and holding cameras and phones aloft to snap photos.

Springfield, looking fit and fine at 56, knows how to play up his assets — by not taking himself too seriously. His boyish grin and baiting banter — tossing out not-so-subtle innuendo about his heartthrob screen roles — helped warm up an already pumped-up crowd of 1,140 fans.

But the smartest, most daring thing he did to win over everyone in the room was to jump off the stage and into the crowd several times, bringing his larger-than-life persona upfront and personal. He even grabbed a fan's cell phone and called a couple of people from her directory — a guy who wasn't home to get the call and a woman who knew right away it was him.

Along the way, he played a string of hits, backed by his four-piece band. With a sweeping arc of his right arm, he hit the strings with bouquets of roses tossed by his fans, scattering rose petals around the stage and launching into a hot lick on "Affair of the Heart.

""I've Done Everything for You" brought screams of instant recognition at the opening strains — a frenzy that continued throughout the concert until Springfield's final leap and kick ended each high voltage hit.

We heard "Human Touch," "Love Somebody," "What Kind Of Fool Am I," "Don't Talk To Strangers," "Celebrate Youth," "Bop 'til You Drop," "State of the Heart" and "Calling All Girls." We also heard lesser-known tunes and old tunes wrapped up in new trappings, from gentle reggae beats to soulful blues guitar.

On an evening that could have been about ego, it was all about the fans. And everyone left smiling.