Rick Springfield and the final night in Milwaukee!

Potawatomi Casino
Milwaukee WI
May10th 2008
Review by Carey Bartosh
Photo by Carey Bartosch


S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y !! This final night in Milwaukee was full of silliness, birthday wishes and 2 more new songs! The night kicked off with "Oblivious" and "Mr. PC ", both upbeat in tempo and GOOD! This week has convinced me Rick and the band really worked hard to make the new album freakin AWESOME!!

Rick opened once again with "WKRNR", "Will I ?",Affair.... etc. He then strummed through most of the Beatles "Norwiegan Wood". Rick then proudly displayed the lovely "skier" trophy they won at the baseball game this week, reminding everyone, "Who won this trophy?" "WE won this trophy!"


Then, it was "Birthday" time for our favorite keyboardist "Food Boy" Derek H. ! Ron G. brought a large white cake with candles for Derek to blow out , and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Rick and others tried to coax Derek into a brief "SPEECH", but with no avail.


Rick then rocked out to The Who's "I Can See For Miles" which again was a nice surprise! But, the real surprise was just around the corner!
Rick paused to take a drink over by the amp near Rodger's drum set, picking up a drumstick as he walked by "Anyone ever get hit by one of these in the eye during a concert?" he asked. Next thing we know, Rick hits the bass drum sooo hard with the stick, he punches a hole in it!! OHHH! "Take that Rodger. "That'll teach you not to F*** with me! Rick said, then walked back to the front of the stage to go into "Red House". The band meanwhile were looking at the drum concerned about how to fix the boo-boo, and Rick, realizing the crowd is focused on them says, " What did something happen back there I don't know about ?" and smiles.

For DTTS Rick's first choice for singing was er "rough". Then Rick found Hank, way in the back of the theatre, there more for the food than for Rick apparently, cuz Rick could not get him to put his food down long enough to sing. So his wife did it for him! Haha! "Well, we know who really wears the pants in that family", Rick said. "But, really my wife wears them in my family too. She doesn't allow me to swear. (Barbie was in the audience near Rick in the crowd) Did I swear tonight? ("Yes, twice!" says the crowd, Rick looks sheepish) That's ok, I wore them for the first half of the marriage, she can wear them now. It's kinda nice actually cuz i don't have to make any decisions. i can just get up and say "Ok! what are we doing today?" ". Rick moved on to two other fans, one named "Rick" who saved the men in the audience by singing.

Back on stage, he went into the "Bop Medley" then asked is anyone there had been at the "thing" earlier in the day (acoustic performance), and played a few bars "solo" of Ordinary Girl" .

Rick then came out crowd surfing to "Love Somebody".He paused after, said to the crowd, "Many of you requested to hear this next song.." and then the familar beat begins, "Its a very positive song, called "JESUS SAVES WHITE TRASH!" The crowd goes CRAZY!! I went crazy! SWEET!!!!

My Generation came next, and Rick paused in front of a girl to grab a cell phone for a lil slide guitar. It had "Dr. Noah Drake" on it. As he was looking at the phone, the big plan for the evening was executed to an unsuspecting Rick.Let me give a little background here. At the charitable "Breakfast Bash" that morning (our guest of honor Kriste and Karen attended YEAH!) there were pink cancer awareness rubber ducks on the table for us to keep. Now, all week the guys in the band have been having "ducky wars" on stage during the show, so "someone" (?) thought we should step it up a little. The mission, talk to the band and get them to say the code word "duck" at a certain point in the show. We succeeded. So, as Rick is standing there in the crowd, George B. says into the mic "DUCK" , Rick looks at him, "Duck?" "Yeah DUCK!!" That's our cue!! Rick is bombarded in all directions by flying rubber duckies!! He had no clue!! After words, Rick says, "That Georgie, all grown up but still acts like a nine year old! " WOOHOO!!

Rick then makes a call on the same phone to Andreao (?) only to get the automated voice to leave a message. At the point where it says, " If you do not wish to leave a message, hang up..." Rick comments saying, "Well who the f*** doesn't know to do that?", and leaves a message that Andreao needs to get a new voicemail message. Rick then went into "Human Touch" and "Jessie's Girl", heading up once again to the balcony. When he got to the other side of the balcony, ready to come back downstairs, we lost him slowly to crackling and snaps, then heard "Hold on, I'll be right there" and then just more crackles and snaps. About 20 seconds went by, the crowd and band got quiet and then we heard the guitar again as he walked back through the door on the floor of the theatre, and he headed back to finish on stage.

The encore was NOT shirtless (dang), but included "I'll Make You Happy" and "Love is Alright" . Rick closed the show saying it was "the best week so far" and walked off stage for the last time. The hard part came after when this fan had to say her final "goodbyes" to ALL our Rick friends. (Look for an off-topic thank you coming soon) I know it was my BEST WEEK EVER!!

Songlist:
WKRNR
Will I?
Affair of the Heart
Allison
IDEFY
Rock of Life
Norwegian Wood (The Beatles)
I Can See For Miles (The Who)
Red House
DDTS
Bop Medley
Ordinary Girl
Love Somebody
Jesus Saves
My Generation
Human Touch
Jessie's Girl
Encore :
I'll Make You Happy
Love is Alright (Tonight)