Saturday, September 13, 2014
WIU –
Q-Lot
Macomb,
IL
Set List:
Living in
Oz
I’ve Done
Everything for You
I Get
Excited
Our
Ship’s Sinking
Affair of
the Heart
Roar
(Katy Perry cover)
Happy
Birthday (asked audience sing to him)
I Hate
Myself
Bop
medley (Bop ‘Til You Drop/ Celebrate Youth/ Calling All Girls/ Jessie’s Girl
snippet/ Don’t Walk Away/ State of the Heart/ What Kind of Fool Am I)
Love is
Alright Tonight
Surf guitar music
Wild
Thing (The Troggs cover)
Don’t
Talk to Strangers
Love
Somebody
Jessie’s
Girl
Concert Notes:
* This
FREE concert was part of Family Day at Western Illinois University (WIU). The
stage was set up outside in the tailgating parking lot before the college
football game (cars and tailgaters were set in the back of the lot). Many fans
were waiting hours before the concert start time, to secure their place by the
stage (though security wouldn’t let anyone stand right up at the stage, but
wanted an emergency aisle left open between the stage and the audience). Those who were there earlier, were able to watch
the sound check, minus Rick. During sound check, George N said this was
probably the earliest time (1:30-2:30PM) they had played a show, but Matty said
maybe it was the earliest George had, but Matty remembered a concert years ago
at 7:30AM. By the time the concert started at 1:30PM, the parking lot section
set aside for the concert was full of people, many wearing WIU’s school colors,
purple (which Rick noted during ‘Jessie’s Girl’ after the ‘where can I find a
woman like that’ line, by saying, “I’m pretty sure she’s wearing purple!”).
* The
weather was perfect for an outdoor concert, with sunny, blue skies and
not-too-warm temperatures. The past few days before had been very gray, rainy,
and unseasonably cold in IL, so it was nice to have a beautiful fall day for
the concert.
* The set
list was shorter than usual, with no encore, as Rick was only scheduled to play
for one hour. Because this was an
outdoor concert during the daytime, there were no screens and videos to
accompany the songs. Nonetheless, Rick gave a very high-energy performance, so
it didn’t seem as if anything was missing without the videos. After the
concert, I spoke with a WIU college student, who raved how much he enjoyed the
show. He said he attends to a lot of concerts, and this was one of the best performance-wise he has ever
seen – something he wasn’t expecting. He said he’d even PAY to see Rick again!
* As much
as I enjoy hearing Rick perform the cover songs, with a shortened set list, I
wish he had left them out and played a few more of his own songs. When he
started playing ‘Roar’, I heard some fans behind me trying to figure out what
song it was, because although they knew Rick’s music, they hadn’t seen him in
concert in a while, and didn’t know Katy Perry’s song was a part of his current
set list (and he didn’t really introduce it except to quickly say he liked a
girl anthem as much as the next guy).
* Rick
asked the audience to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him, because he said he likes to
celebrate his birthday the month before and after his actual birthday. He also
commented how birthdays seem to arrive faster now. After asking the audience if
they knew how old he is – fans up front yelling out the correct age - he said
he still feels 17.
* Because
the stage was set very high, with no stairs at the front of the stage, Rick
wasn’t able to go out into the audience for ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers’, but
instead stood at the edge of the stage and motioned for people to come forward;
he said he wasn’t calling to anyone in particular, just anyone who was brave
enough to step forward to sing. He only had one person from each side of the
stage sing, and then a 6-year-old girl was boosted onto stage to dance and sing
with Rick. There didn’t seem to be many young children in the audience, which
was surprising since this concert was part of WIU’s Family Day.
* As Rick
was leaving the stage at the end of the concert, he stopped at the far left
side of the stage to sign autographs on things people were holding out to him.
Since he didn’t play ‘Human Touch’, wasn’t able to go out into the audience and
wasn’t coming back for an encore, it would have been nice if he had walked
along the entire length of the stage for high-fives and autographs. I’ve been
to concerts where other performers will do this, walk the length of the stage
for handshakes, autographs, and even selfies, at the end of the show. People on
the right-side of the stage started holding up things for Rick to sign, too,
and were disappointed that he didn’t head back that way before walking off the
stage.
* Who was
there: Rick on lead guitar and vocals, George B on guitar, George N on bass,
Jorge P on drums, Paul on keyboards and
guitar, Matty (sound guy), and guitar tech, Ruben – so nice to see him back
doing what he loves! And all of Rick’s guitars were tuned right, with no
obvious guitar issues.
* What he
wore: Rick came out in a black leather jacket, red tee, black jeans, black
high-top converse sneakers, and sunglasses. He took the sunglasses off after
the first song, and he took the jacket off after the first three songs.
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