Lac du Flambeau, WI 7/05/08

Rick Springfield
Lac du Flambeau, WI 7/5/08
Lake of the Torches Casino
Review and photo by Laura Hoppe

The show took place at the Lake of the Torches Casino in Lac du Flambeau, WI. It's a tiny town up in Northern Wisconsin. The casino hotel was in a beautiful spot that overlooked the lake. The show took place in the hotel conference room. Before the show, they had the VIO CD playing, so that was cool to hear. Below is the set list. I think I have all the songs listed.

Who Killed Rock N Roll
Wasted
Affair of the Heart
What's Victoria's Secret
Alyson
I've Done Everything For you
Rock of Life
Crossroad Blues (Robert Johnson Cover)
Gloria
Some Enchanted Evening (Just a couple lines)
Kristina
Don't Talk To Strangers
Happy Birthday
I Can't Explain (One verse - The Who Cover)
Love Somebody
My Generation (The Who Cover)
Human Touch
Jessie's Girl
Encore –
I'll Make You Happy
Love Is Alright Tonight

Here are some other highlights of the show.

- There were lots of guitar/amp issues toward the beginning of the show. Each time he had a problem; Rick would throw/slide his guitar to the side of the stage. He didn't have it during the guitar solo in "Rock of Life" so he basically danced around, pumping his fists.
- During some of the breaks between songs, Rick shot off some confetti pop rockets and said that "they spared no expense with the pyrotechnics".
- The casino had this game called Chicken Tic Tac Toe where you could challenge a live chicken to a game of Tic Tac Toe. I actually watched it for a little while and no one ever beat the chicken. Rick asked how many of use had played the chicken and a bunch of hands went up. Then he asked who beat the chicken and only a couple people raised their hands. He said that was a little sad since the chicken has such a small brain but that the game was totally rigged.
- During "Gloria", Rick noticed there was an older gentleman (Ed) sitting with his fingers in his ear. He asked that someone get him some earplugs. We were right in front of the man so we told Rick that he already had earplugs in. Then Rick tried to have a conversation with the man about how he was sorry they were so loud and it was basically Rodger's fault since he bangs on the drums so hard and really doesn't even need to be miked up. Then he launched into a song (can't remember the name but I think it was an old instrumental) and just kept singing "Ed" along with the song. Rick asked a couple of times if there were any kids in the audience (there weren't) so he knew if he could swear or not. He then said that he didn't want to offend Ed so he would keep it clean. Finally, he sang some of "Some Enchanted Evening". Rodger was still playing the drums pretty loudly again so Rick yells out "Drum solo" and Rodger did play a maybe a 30 second solo. It was shortly after this that Ed decided to leave. Rick stopped the show so everyone could give Ed a round of applause as he left. Once the door shut, he said "F*** Ed" (jokingly of course!).
- There was a barrier between the stage and the front row, so Rick had to jump down into the audience during "Don't Talk To Strangers". He spotted some "sitters" in the first couple rows and warned them where their face would be if they stayed sitting and he got up on their seat. He jumped up on one seat and the lady there scooted out through the front right between his legs. He didn't even notice at all and when he looked down to have her sing, he said "Hey…where'd she go" and bent over to look between his legs. Then he moved on to another victim. This lady didn't seem to have any problem with him standing there or the view. She sang beautifully and he complimented her on her singing. There was a group of guys that got Rick's attention because it was their friend's birthday so they wanted him to come over and let her sing. He then asked if it was anyone else's birthday (which about half the people raised their hand) and said he had one coming up too. He then sang "Happy Birthday" to everyone.
- When Rick was out in the crowd for "My Generation", Rick asked for someone's phone. Tina gave him her iphone and he played slide guitar with that and then called her husband Mike. It took him a long time to get the phone to work and while we waited, that same group of guys (from the Happy Birthday thing) started chanting "Mike, Mike, Mike" so everyone joined them. Rick actually thought we were chanting "fight, fight, fight" and that a fight had broken out up front and seemed a little disappointed that wasn't the case. He finally got an answering machine and started saying things like "Mike, I have Tina here and she's wearing a lovely bra….oh wait, that's weird…her panties don't match her bra." Then he told him it was RS and ended the call.
- During the wait before the encore, a few times people started chanting "Rick, Rick, Rick" for quite a long time. I haven't really heard that in a while (I guess we just take it for granted that there will be an encore) so that was cool to hear.
- After the encore, Rick gave out some high fives and Rick left dancing to "What's Victoria's Secret" playing over the load speakers.