Rick Rocks Scottsdale

Scottsdale, AZ
Casino Arizona
March 31, 2008
Review and photo by Laurie Bennett

Monday, yes Monday. What an odd day to have a show. I was actually worried that Rick might be a bit tired out from the 3 shows he did back east in the previous 4 days, but apparently all he needed was one day off to recharge. Sure wish I had his energy after traveling to shows like he does.
The venue was beautiful, and I must say the casino staff tried exceptionally hard (and succeeded) at making sure all the fans were well taken care of for the show experience. Even though the show was General Admission, apparently there was still some confusion as whether those who purchased tickets through Access were going to be let in first. Several people were involved in getting the line to work, and despite the confusion I found it to be handled generally well in the end. The theater reminded me very much of a mini Pottawatomie, with the same table and booth set up (like Dinner Theater style). The merchandise booth had the new Who Killed Rock N Roll grey t-shirts for sale, and I was thrilled to buy one. I was told they weren't even supposed to be available that night, but at the last minute someone grabbed them. They only had sizes Small, XL and XXL for sale (I don't know if that was just for this show or not). The chairs at the tables were quite squished together, so there wasn’t much room for standing up and dancing. The stage was fairly low and had a great black background with hundreds of tiny lights that changed color throughout the evening, adding to the mood. I don’t remember what time Rick came on stage, but it seemed to be close to the scheduled start time. He walked out on stage with a new (to me) black leather coat that I found to be so handsome on him, black sleeveless shirt, grey jeans and his boots and immediately went into Who Killed Rock N Roll. It wasn’t too far into that first song that he noticed my friend’s mom, practically squinting up her face from the loudness of the sound. We saw that he had noticed her and already knew she was in for a surprise that night. When he began to play the opening chords for Itsalwayssomething, I got really excited, especially since he had asked the fans in sound check to vote on if he should play that song (the other choice was Will I? and we unanimously voted for IAS). He walked onto several of the front tables during the show, and the fans had to be fast if they didn't want a beer to end up in their lap. He did several rose explosions (two from the stage, and at least one from a fan) and a guitar toss, but no smash.
When it came time for Don't Talk to Strangers, he headed right for my friend's mom. Try as he could, he was unsuccessful to get her to sing. She froze up and got really shy, so after several attempts he let her off the hook. Then he went further into the audience, and when someone else played along, he pointed back to her and said, "that’s how you do it!" One girl instead sang "I love Rick Springfield", fairly in tune and to the rhythm of the song, and he said "hey, who said you could change the words?" When he was in the audience for Love Somebody, someone grabbed his butt and he turned around to face the guilty party, who was wildly being pointed out as the one by all her friends. He commented – "ah, always the red heads! They’re wild. My first girlfriend was a red head!" He did the cell phone bit, and talked to a girl’s husband. When Rick said something about his wife and a rubber, the guy hung up! Well, Rick decided to call back. So then he said, I was only kidding about before. I don’t use rubbers!!!
It was interesting to me to see how much this show ended up different from what was written on the set list. The plan was: Who Killed Rock N Roll, Itsalwayssomething, Affair of the Heart, Allyson, I've Done Everything for You, Kristina, Living in Oz, Red House, Don't Talk to Strangers, Medley, Love Somebody, Jesus Saves, My Generation, Human Touch, Jessie's Girl, and then Wasted and Love is Alright tonight for the encore.
Well, the first 7 songs went as written. Then instead of Red House, he did Crossroad Blues, then he asked for requests! Several people shouted out songs, and then he specified, "no not my songs, songs we might not know!" He heard Jeff Buckley, and started with "Hallelujah"; to which the girl shouted a specific song, but he hadn't heard of it. He played another snippet of something I cant' remember, then played a bit of the Davy Crocket theme show song! Then he treated us with Inside Silvia (with him singing the OOOOh part, and the audience singing "Silvia"). After DTTS, he did the medley and Love Somebody. While roadie George was strapping on Rick's wireless mic, Matt got behind George II and then George I got behind Matt, with one big guy hug. It was really funny. Then Roger started playing on drums, and Rick stood there with his arms folded, mock mad, while Rogee had his "drum solo". He skipped Jesus Saves but did do MG and HT, and back on stage for Jessie's girl. During this song, several girls jumped up on stage and ran to hang on to Rick, but Ronnie was there to pick them off. After one girl grabbed him, Rick replied, "I sure hope that wasn't George on me!" I was thrilled when he returned for the encore, because he shouted “Happy” to each individual band member, and then playing I'll Make you Happy instead of Wasted. He finished the evening with a God Bless you guys and lots of grabbing of hands, and even a kiss on the head of a particularly happy girl in the front row who was so excited during the show I thought she was going to burst.