Rick Springfield and Us: News You Can Use

Lake County Fair –

Crown Point, IN 8/3/2008 –

review & picture by Darla Gerken

The grandstand venue was quite primitive, but we have to remember that it was a county fair. Chairs were set in front of the stage on dirt, though the grandstand looked quite new. Over the loud speakers, songs from Venus in Overdrive played, which was great for people who had not heard the new CD. While waiting for the show to begin, the crowd noticed a limo being escorted into the grandstand area. Of course, we all knew that Rick was making his grand entrance. The limo pulled up to the stage, cheers erupted, and Rick quickly exited, gave a quick wave and entered a small trailer to prepare for the show.

The intro music began and a lot of fans left their seats and moved directly in front of the stage. Not too cool for people who had front row seats, their seats were no longer “front row”. There were only a few “security people” so at that point concert attendees had the rein of the show.
Rick came out wearing a black sleeveless shirt and belted out Who Killed Rock and Roll.
Living In Oz came next; a couple times he stumbled over the words and started laughing. After the song he said, “It’s been a long week – 10 days straight”. Living in Oz was followed by Affair of the Heart, Alyson and I’ve Done Everything For You.

Rick stated he had a new CD and asked if we knew the name. The crowd yelled, “Venus in Overdrive”, which lead into What’s Victoria’s Secret. It was great to hear the crowd sing along and I’m sure it made Rick’s heart happy. The set list continued with Rock of Life and Crossroads, which lead into Don’t Talk to Strangers. When it came to the part about “how’s life in the big city”, he chuckled along with the crowd since Crown Point isn’t that large of a city. He had a few ladies sing and then asked a small boy named Payton to come up on the stage. Payton had a picture of him and Rick around his neck and Rick said, “I guess you’ve done this before”. He looked down at him and said “You look like me - brown hair and green eyes”. He asked how old he was and he answered seven years old. Rick made a comment about “Where was I seven years ago”? Bet his mother loved that!

The Medley, which is always a crowd pleaser was followed by Love Somebody. He remained on the stage for the whole song, unlike some concerts when he ventures into the crowd at this point. He stepped down the stage steps and asked for a cell phone, which had no reception, so he tossed it back to the owner and didn’t ask for another. At this point he tried to move into the crowd but since it was so congested at the front of the stage he could not get through. He moved back on the stage and sang My Generation. You could tell he really wanted to be out in the crowd because he paced from one side of the stage to the other. At one point, it looked like he was going to attempt it again, but did not leave the stage. That was kind of disappointing because there were rose bouquets waiting in fan’s hands, which he never got to explode. While singing Jessie’s Girl, Matt had a guest singing with him. An older gentleman was at the microphone, at first Rick did not notice, but when the crowd did, he glanced around, saw him singing and started laughing.

Rick left the stage after JG and returned for the encore wearing a WKRR t-shirt. I’ll Miss That Someday made the encore! The song is one of my favorites from the CD and it sounded great live. Before starting into Love is Alright Tonight, Rick said that the carnival ride movements in his view were making him want to throw up! All in all it was a great concert, but disappointing that he was not able to crowd surf.