Rick Springfield
4/24/09 Tacoma, WA
Emerald Queed Casino
Review and pictures by
Susan Fortune
Rick Springfield played at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma Washington on 4/24/09. When Rick was being introduced the crowd was informed that it was a sold out show. And the crowd went wild and never stopped!! The announcer from the Casino asked all the veterans to stand to be recognized, a nice gesture that I have seen here before. Several of my friends are veterans one, is still on active duty and I know one fan brought her husband who is home on leave from Iraq, so this was very special.
The show began with an awesome video retrospective of Rick's life from his childhood with highlights of Rick's career from the 70's, 80's, 90's, until today. It is fun to hear casual fans who are in awe of all the things Rick has done, many had never known about the amazing length of his career. As the video ends the spot lights come on to drummer, Rodger Carter bashing on the drums .... and then Rick belts out Mr. PC an awesome song from his current CD Venus In Overdrive. Rick was on fire, he was totally energized by the sea of people. Rick left the leather jacket at home and wore a gray striped sleeveless shirt, blue jeans and his cool new sparkle studded converse type tennis shoes. After Mr. PC, Rick played "What's Victoria's Secret" another great song off of VIO.
The crowd was next treated to the full version of I Get Excited. Rick hasn't sang this as a full version at a regular concert in quite some time, the crowd usually hears it as part of the Medley Rick sings. In the past Rick has brought people up on the stage when he did this song, it was very nice to see it done with just Rick on the stage. Next came another surprise song that is not on standard set list, Rick played a crowd favorite Jesus Saves from his Shock Denial Anger Acceptance CD. If possible this fired up the crowd even more. Rick continued on with old favorites I've Done Everything For You and Alyson.
Then Venus in Overdrive and I'll Miss That Someday both from VIO. Before he started Venus In Overdrive he coached everyone to sing "Yeah, Yeah" with him on the chorus, he had Yeah x 2 written on the back of his guitar. He made everyone one sing it a few times until they got it right and told everyone they did a good job! Then he sang two old favorites Love is Alright Tonight and Don't talk to Strangers.
Don't talk to Strangers is an audience participation song where Rick gets people to sing the chorus. He pulled out the two mics and had one girl sing then he told Matty to turn the mic on ..... He said Matty is the sound guy and he is a good engineer but he has trouble with knobs haha! He said you need to turn the volume knob up, then he had the girl sing again and said he was mistaken turn it down lol. He was looking for a security guard to sing but they all ran away ..... he has performed at the EQ enough times that the security guards knew he would be coming after them. Rick told them they were chicken sh*t lol. He had a few more people sing and then went to an older woman in the audience who was sitting down, Rick stood on her chair saying you know where your head will be if I stand on your chair and you are sitting in it ..... "see". Then he tries to get her to sing and she won't ..... and Rick tells her "we don't take No's here"! I'm going to scoot a little closer, which he does and then she finally sings. Rick had a couple more people sing including a friend of mine to whom Rick commented "doesn't anyone around her know how to sing??" lol. When he was headed back to the stage he finally managed to get one of the security guards to sing without much effort.
Next Rick said that they were going to do a new song they had been playing around with at Sound Check but had never played in concert before. (A side note Rick had seen Paul McCartney in concert the week before and was wanting to do something of his or the Beatles. At Sound Check Matty, the sound guy had asked Rick to play "Jet" because it had been running through his head all day.) They launched into "Jet" and did an awesome job. You couldn't tell that they had never played it before. It was a special treat to be the first hear something new.
Then Rick sang a Medley of songs from the 80's and then put on his cordless mic and guitar before starting Love Somebody he asked how many people were under 16 when they saw Hard to Hold ..... several people (not me lol) raised their hands and Rick yells that's alot of underage girls that saw my naked bu**!! and then he launched in Love Somebody which is always a crowd pleaser! Then he wandered out into the crowd for Human Touch without his guitar. At one point he fell back because some people didn't know they need to help him as he walked on the chairs, luckily some people caught him and he told them "I dig you guys" ..... the crowd was as rowdy as I had ever seen at the Emerald Queen, girls would stand on their chairs to hug (grab) him ..... Rick was coming down our row when the girl next to me jumped up on her chair and Rick promptly crossed over into the next row and the girl still grabbed him anyway. I have seen him go nearly to the back of this venue but from what I could see he was really getting mauled and didn't make it back too far, before running back to the stage .... literally.
Finally he launched into his new version of Jessie's Girl where he pauses at the Chorus. This totally Rocks especially when you have a fired up crowd it is hard to make something old new again but Rick totally succeeded at revamping Jessie's Girl!!
For the encore Rick started off with Wasted, always a pleasure to hear and a huge favorite of the fans. And then he finished up with Kristina a Rocking song that leaves you wanting more. Rick totally blew away the crowd, as I was walking out of the venue everyone was raving about how the show Rocked and what an amazing performer Rick was. I know I am looking forward to Rick's return to the Northwest in August!!
Emerald Queen Set List:
Mr. PC
What's Victoria's Secret
I Get Excited
Jesus Saves
I've Done Everything For You
Alyson
Venus in Overdrive
I'll Miss That Someday
Love is Alright Tonight
Jet
Don't Talk To Strangers
The Medley
Love Somebody
Human Touch
Jessie's Girl
Encore:
Wasted
Kristina
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