11 Days (or He took a licking and kept on ticking)

Eleven more days (2 more weekends, one more work week) until the fun begins!

The show on Saturday May 8, 2004 was almost a carbon copy of the show from Thursday night. The only song slightly out of the ordinary was "I Should have Known Better", which had been played earlier in the week. All 4 shows for the week pretty much started out with the same 7 or 8 songs. It wasn't really as much of a mixed bag for the week as one might expect for 4 shows in the same city in one week. On the upside, lots of songs from SDAA and 4 nights in a row of Rick Springfield without having to travel between nights to do it. Early on in the show, Rick asked "Who has been here all 4 nights", then said "you're a bunch of sick f#cks. I'll drink to you. We couldn't have this party without you.".

The stand out moment for this show might have been when an audience member asked if she could lick his stomach, and he let her. Here's a little bit of detail about that. During DTTS, Rick asked someone to sing (Linda) who didn't really want to, but she finally did. After Rick was done with the song, Linda wanted to ask Rick some questions. Rick said since she was brave enough to sing, she gets to ask a question. She apparently asked him something about cutting his hair (indicating that she thought he should). Rick said "wow, you guys are friggin tough critics.....would you like me to cut my hair? How many say yes? (some of the crowd reacts). How many say no (huge crowd reaction). I'm going to shave my head tomorrow just to piss you all off." Then Rick asks Linda "what's your other question? Rick says "if you can WHAT? It's your birthday, and what would you like for your birthday, to do what to my stomach? (I think this was Linda's friend, not Linda and this is when she asked to lick his stomach). Then he says something about "when did I loose control of this f#cking show?" She told him she had permission from her husband. Rick says "that's a damn good husband. Does he have a sister?" (then Rick having a pretend conversation as if he's asking to do the same sort of thing) "Honey, I'll be right back, I just want to shag the girl across the street. Don't mind me, I'll be right back. By the way, can you have some eggs ready and some steak. When I come back, I'll be kind of hungry, she's a bit of a wild one". Then in a high voice (that actually sounds like when he's imitating his mother) he says "yes dear".... Then, she licks his stomach. Not one lick, she pretty much goes after it. Rick: "Wow, I think we just went x-rated right there. Now that's a first. How many of you have been to concerts where an audience members has licked the guys stomach? Give me 5 sister, I think we're in the Guinness book of records. How was it for you? Pretty damn good for me, I'll tell you that. (see picture insert)
After Rick performed Jesus Saves, he said "Thank God he does, or I would be so f#cked. I've done a lot of bad things in my life".....
Oh, have I mentioned that it is the opinion of some that Rick might have been a bit buzzed on this night......

Full set list:
I'll Make You Happy
Will I?
Affair of the Heart
I've Done Everything for You
Rock of Life
Red House
Don't Talk to Strangers
Beautiful You
I Should have Known Better
I Get Excited
Fire
State of the Heart
Love Somebody
Jesus Saves
You Really Got Me
Kristina
Human Touch
Perfect
Wasted
Jessie's Girl
Speak to the Sky
idontwantanythingfromyou
Love is Alright Tonite

More pictures from this show can be found in the concert section.

According to ticketmaster, Friday and Saturday nights for this year are sold out.

12 Days

May 7, 2004. This part of the show is what makes Milwaukee "Milwaukee"..... Honeymoon in Beirut/Karma/Daddy's Pearl/Love Screws Me Up. Rick's willingness to take requests and give his best shot at songs he barely remembers and has never done live before. Rick performing part of Love Screws Me Up (with the help of a lyric sheet), kind of shows that anything is possible. The full set list from the show was as follows:

I'll Make You Happy
Will I?
Affair of the Heart
Alyson
I've Done Everything For You
Rock of Life
Red House
Beautiful You
Honeymoon in Beirut
Karma
Daddy's Pearl
Love Screws Me Up
Don't Talk to Strangers
I Get Excited
State of the Heart
Eden
Love Somebody
Jesus Saves
Kristina
You Really Got Me
Human Touch
Jessie's Girl
Perfect
Wasted
Love is Alright Tonite

More pictures from the show can be found in the concert section.

13 days

May 6, 2004 would be Rick's 8th perfomance at the Northern Lights Theater in Milwaukee. Not too much that was really out of the ordinary on this night. The thing that probably stood out was during DTTS, Rick tried to get a woman to sing and she didn't want to, so he threatened to start taking off his clothes if she wouldn't sing (and you should have heard all the girls yelling "don't sing!"). He said if she didn't sing, she was going to have a naked man at her table. She sang. You can see in the picture that Rick was at least pretending to make good on his threat. I guess we'll never know how far he was willing to take it.
The set list for that night was as follows:
I'll Make You Happy
Will I?
Affair of the Heart
I've Done Everything For You
Rock of Life
Red House
Don't Talk to Strangers
April 24, 1981
Beautiful You
I Get Excited
Fire
State of the Heart
Love Somebody
Jesus Saves
You Really Got Me
Kristina
Alien Virus
Perfect
Wasted
Human Touch
Jessie's Girl
Speak to The Sky
idontwantanythingfromyou
Love is Alright Tonite

More pictures from the show can be found in the concert section.

And the tour dates keep coming!

Another new East Coast tour date was confirmed on rs.com.

06.01.07
Baltimore, MD

Pier Six Pavilion With Special Guests Eddie Money and Scandal
ACCESS-RS Presale is TOMORROW at 10AM EST

Photo: Baltimore MD 8/20/05 by Rosie Malthaner

***Also tickets are now on sale for the Bergen Perfoming Arts show (8/9/07). Directly through their website. http://www.bergenpac.org/index.php

Two Weeks

Before I get started on the Milwaukee countdown, I understand Dr. Noah Drake was on GH today. Woo hoo. I'm out of town, so can't blog that until tomorrow.

Fourteen days until Milwaukee 2007 begins. Well, 3 nights seemed to work out pretty good in 2003, so how about 4 nights in 2004 (I'm beginning to see a trend here). The great thing about these shows is they took place during the SDAA tour, and what a tour that was. Fresh new songs to accompany the standards, and what great songs they were! We got 7 songs from SDAA during this show. Very nice! Right after Red House, Rick says "bring me my harmonica" and someone did. Then he said "bring me my wine" and someone did. I guess he was impressed with his requests being fulfilled so easily, so he says "bring me my bag of Rolexes.....bring me my Ferrrari (with a bitch in the back)." Before he went into "I Should Have Known Better" he said they really didn't know it but they'd try it, and it sounded pretty good. Later he broke into a short version of Brown Sugar, but they didn't seem to really know it and he seemed to really want to do a Stones song, so then he went into "The Last Time". Right before Jessie's Girl, he made the promise of doing lots of new stuff the next night "but we'll always do this one" (then went into JG). Then at the end of the show, another promise of new stuff the following night, and the promise of "naked night" on Saturday.

So, you know how when you go to buy tickets for a show, and the people selling you the tickets try to tell you that "there's not a bad seat in the house"? Well, Potawatomi is the one place where that's actually kind of true. Rick really does roam around the venue and there's an excellent chance you'll be up close and personal at one point during the show. And more so if you are sitting in a booth. The featured picture today, emphasizes that point.
The complete set list for the show was as follows:
I'll Make You Happy
Will I?
Affair of the Heart
I've Done Everything For You
Rock of Life
Red House
I Should Have Known Better
Beautiful You
I Get Excited
Brown Sugar
The Last Time
State of the Heart
Love Somebody
Jesus Saves
You Really Got Me
Kristina
Tiger by the Tail
Inside Silvia
Speak to the Sky
Eden
Human Touch
Jessie's Girl
Perfect
Wasted

More pictures can be found in the concert section.

Noah's Back

Rick Springfield returned as Dr. Noah Drake today. Do they actually have writers on GH, or do they just have people who shuffle the scripts around so that the characters can do the same scene over and over again. I mean, really. For the longest time, it was Noah and Patrick yelling at each other. Now, it's Noah bitching about Dr. Ford, which would be fine, if there was any follow through whatsoever. Last time Noah was on, he and Patrick were going to do an operation that was against hospital policy. Hello? What happened with that? And I just can't sit through that same scene one more time with Carly and Sonny flirting with getting back together. Give it up already. Enough is enough. Besides the joy of seeing Noah's Rocking Doc self today, Emily's reaction to walking in on Patrick and Robin was pretty good, and the ending today, actually blew me away. I hadn't read any spoilers about it, or any soap mags, so it was definitely nice to be surprised, rather than bored to tears by the same old scenario. Let's hope that originality is contagious, and the antidote is nowhere to be found!

15 Days

May 22, 2003. This was the 3rd show in 3 nights. Probably the most "normal" of the 3 shows. Rick performed 3 songs that he hadn't performed any of the other two nights - Love Me Do, Souls, and The Medley. Ronnie played drums on Souls, Rodger had issues with that song for a long time. I miss the original Medley - I miss Everybody's Girl, Carry Me Away, Bruce and Stand Up, and the chorus part of What Kind of Fool Am I? The new Medley is very clever with the Jessie's Girl tease, and sticking in IGE so we still get to hear it, but now that the "new" has worn off of it, I find myself missing the original one. And during Gloria, we got a bit of a switch. Instead of "bathtub Gloria" we got "remote Gloria". Rick was in the "parlor" instead of the bathroom and he was watching tv. The lyrics went something like this: She knocks upon my door. I open it up and I say "come in baby". We walk into the parlor, it's called a parlor where I come from, we sit down on the couch, something's playing on the tv, I don't know what, and I put my arm around her, and I try to move in, she says this is bullshit, she takes her hand and she reaches right between my legs, and she gets the remote, and says "I hate Matlock". I say I do too baby, so lets go upstairs. I take her upstairs and I lay her down on the bed. She grabs my tie, which is really strange because I'm not wearing a tie, and she makes me feel alright........

Is Rick's wardrobe starting to look familiar? Are those the same pants he wore all 3 nights and the same shirt he wore the 1st night? Hmmmm, I can't tell..

The full set list was:
Affair of the Heart
I've Done Everything For You
Alyson
Love Me Do
Gloria
Don't Talk to Strangers
I Get Excited
Fire
Souls
The Medley
You Really Got Me
State of the Heart
Love Somebody
Human Touch
Jessie's Girl
idontwantanythingfromyou
Kristina
Love is Alright Tonite

more photos from the concert can be found on the concert page.