Monday, February 25, 2008

Rick Springfield - Dearborn, MI

Dearborn, MI 2/23/08
Ford Community Art Center
Review by Michelle Porchia
Photo by Jen Haskin
There was no opening act this night, not even the Squirts. :-( The show started out with what sounded almost like the intro to the video montage, without the video. Little snippets of Rick tunes, interspersed with Nomad music/drum beats. I think I read somewhere that someone said this was the 'old' intro. I'm also thinking he must've not used this one much, as the old one I remember is the Nomad music. No matter. You know you're gonna see him in a few seconds - it could be dead silence and my heart would still start pounding.
He took the stage to Who Killed Rock N' Roll. No surprise there...and I love the new addition to the wardrobe of the brown long-sleeved top though. Very yummy! That song seems to go over very well here in Detroit. Lots of screams & woo-hoos from the crowd. (Or maybe it's just that *he took the stage high*?) On to Itsalwaysomething -- a favorite of mine. I'm so glad he's added this one back into the set list for the time being. It appears he still performs the signature move at the 'soul of a gigolo' line as well! Next up, Affair of the Heart. I've been going to these shows for so long, I remember this as the intro song. When this starts I always have this little thought of 'now the show can begin'. It's almost as if the first two were warm up's for the show. After AOTH, Alyson. Another fave. Why do these *old* songs always seem as if I'm hearing them for the first time?
Then we move on to IDEFY. Lots of crowd points...from us to him, him to us. The song feeling is mutual for some fans in attendance. After that, Rock of Life. The crowd sings along here with Hey -Woo's! After ROL, it appeared as if Rick was going into Red House - lots of strumming and solo-ing with the guitar, and doing that little riff that sounds a lot like April 24th to me. But he surprised us all by going into "Crossroads" -the Eric Clapton/Cream song. It rocked! Actually, it more than rocked - it was downright awesome and on par with the original. I'm one of those fans that is usually disappointed when yet another cover gets added to the set list rather than one of Rick's tunes - but I have to say that this one really impressed me.
While we're still trying to recover from being blown away by Crossroads the opening notes to Living in Oz started up! How fabulous to have this in the middle of the set, rather than as an encore song. (Although it's an awesome encore tune as well!) After LIO, Kristina. Another crowd fave I believe. The roars have now become deafening, we are just eating this man up. Then we were treated to Red House. As always, a heated and soulful performance. He was wailing on his guitar at one point almost as if he was venting some pent-up frustrations. Into DTTS that includes the required sing-along extended version. Rick wandered into the crowd and plucked out some of the cutest little girls in the Detroit area, all willing to ham it up with him at the microphone. At one point Rick labeled them "future American Idol competitors". What was really cute was the two who came up on stage with him once he made his way back. Rick's impression of a little girl swaying back & forth and looking at her feet is hilarious. He gave one of the little girls a stuffed devil that was placed on the stage and the crowd went "Awwww". He said, "That was cute. Let's do that again." So he took it from her, and gave it back and got a bigger Awwww. Once the sugar high of all that cuteness started to wear off, Rick and the band went into the Medley.
After the Medley, George appeared ready to hook Rick up to his remote mike. Rick decided to do a little "I Can't Explain" by the Who first. Then Rick stated it was time for the gay moment of the show, and lifted his arms & guitar for George. The band went into the beginning of the Bay City Rollers "Saturday Night" to which Rick sang along to until he was ready to move on. We heard the prerequisite "I did a movie in the 80's...blah blah...Hard to Swallow" and then Love Somebody started up. He started on his crowd walkabout.
Rick makes his way over to where we are during Love Somebody. He is now straddling the arms of the seat of the woman 3 seats from me, who has remained seated. Her expression looks like a cross between horrified and turned on. It's here that he stays and does his cell phone 'bit'. He asks for a phone, and someone hands him one. He plays a bit of My Generation with the cell phone, and then proceeds to make a phone call. At first he was going to call "home" asking if anyone was home and the woman said her husband was. So he said, "Well, he knows where you are, that won't work." Then he sees AVON in her list. So he starts yelling out, "Rick Springfield calling!" Instead of Avon calling. He gets a recording, and leaves a message about how he doesn't need to enter his account number since he's RICK SPRINGFIELD (and the crowd roars). The whole time he is still standing on this woman's chair. The crowd is surging so much that I almost end up in her husband's lap at least twice. (apologizing the whole time). While all this is going on, an older couple is making their way to the stage. Rick notices them when they walk across to Matt. Matt introduces them as The Kramers. Rick then tells the audience that Matt is from Detroit (Matt corrected him and said Warren, MI) and that 1/2 of us there probably knew that as we were related to Matt anyway. Matt hands Mr. Kramer a guitar and Mrs. Kramer a tambourine. They pretend to play along to MG. Matt tells Rick to play Some Enchanted Evening, to which Rick knows-not-at-all. I think they got one verse out.
Rick then says it's a good time for Human Touch. He covers most of the main floor during HT. He then makes his way back to the front to end HT and begin Jessie's Girl. It's total pandemonium in the crowd now...we've just received the HT and now the familiar notes drive everyone into a frenzy. He pauses after the first stanza to do the 'drive every woman crazy/heavy breathing' bit. He leaves the stage after JG to the sound of the excited (?) breathing played before the encore. It's almost as if it's in sync with the crowd. After what seemed like ages, the band with Rick takes the stage once again. Rick is now wearing a white t-shirt that has the Australian flag on it. Above the flag it says "Australian" and below, "and cute too". The familiar notes of I'll Make You Happy start up. Once again, the crowd roars. After IMYH - Love is Alright Tonite -complete with the preamble of "the only party song I've ever written". Rick leaves the stage after a big hug, to the beginning notes of Jesus Saves being piped in on the venue's speakers.

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