Rockin’ Rod Stewart rolls back the years with Cyndi Lauper
Rod Stewart recovered for his Adelaide show to put on a stellar performance with Cyndi Lauper and Jon Stevens on Tuesday night. Read the review and check our gallery – were you there?
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Take your pick which Rod Stewart you wanted to hear: Raspy bluesman, soulful balladeer, rock god, or pop and disco king. All were present and more than accounted for at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Tuesday.
Throw in a hefty dose of Celtic culture and more than a touch of Las Vegas showmanship, especially in the neon signs and roulette wheels which accompanied Some Guys Have All The Luck, and you are only beginning to scratch the surface of what is appropriately billed as The Hits tour.
Before the main attraction even hit the stage, American 1980s icon Cyndi Lauper had delivered a solid hour of her quirky chart-toppers, while Jon Stevens melded his time fronting both Noiseworks and INXS into a tight 30-minute bracket of Power anthems (pun intended).
If Stewart had room for the kitchen sink in those impossibly tight trousers, he’d probably have brought that along too.
Also intact – magnificently so, in fact – was Sir Roderick’s trademark voice, after an infection which forced him to cancel his previous concert in Geelong last weekend.
If anything, it felt like there was a slightly finer grit to his sandpaper intonations; a more refined and nuanced timbre which brought out previously hidden subtleties as he reinterpreted some of his classic tunes.
Not that much else was subtle, with giant video screens behind, beside and wrapped around above the stage melding live footage of the performers with an endless array of special effects, from myriad mirror balls to rolling waves.
Stewart started his set with a group of women dressed in matching outfits and pretending to strum guitars in a tribute to Robert Palmer’s Addicted To Love.
This was more than sexist stage decoration, as three of the women turned out to be formidable multi-instrumentalists – swapping between fiddles, guitars, banjo, percussion and harp – while the remaining trio of backing vocalists and dancers more than held their own (and the crowd’s attention) with performances of Hot Stuff and Lady Marmalade.
Add to that mix another six (occasionally seven) male musicians in hot pink satin jackets, and it looked like the Rockin’ Rod Rolling Revue show.
Clad in a gold zebra-print jacket and wiggling his hips as he entered, Stewart wasted no time ploughing through the hits and memories: You Wear It Well, his early band Faces’ hit Ooh La La, Sam Cooke’s Having a Party, the bold and brassy Motown duet It Takes Two, and a raucous rendition of Muddy Waters’ blues classic Rollin’ and Tumblin’.
Guitars and keyboard mimicked bagpipes on Forever Young, which turned into a full-blown Celtic spectacular with fiddles and drums and tap dancing.
Beautiful harp playing led into The First Cut is the Deepest, and a slowed-down vocal intro from Stewart heralded Maggie May, which brought the crowd to its feet and ended with an equally lovely mandolin reprise, while Young Turks set some not-so-young hearts racing.
There were tributes to the late Christine McVie, who introduced Stewart to the sparse and soulful I’d Rather Go Blind, and to his early bandmate Jeff Beck, as well as to the people of Ukraine on Rhythm of My Heart.
An acoustic bracket also took on a political edge with People Get Ready, followed by I Don’t Want to Talk About It (which still brings a naughty twinkle to Stewart’s eye, accompanied by a cheeky grin), Tonight’s the Night, You’re In My Heart, and a jazzy breakdown of Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?
Kicking soccer balls into the balconies, Stewart took his ’80s hit Baby Jane and interpolated it with reggae bursts of Stevie Wonder’s Master Blaster, before going full-blown disco and leading the audience through the singalong finale Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?
Not much prompting was required for the encore rendition of Sailing, with Sir Rod making an uncharacteristically discreet exit from the stage, leaving his backing vocalists and band to get the final accolades.
Earlier, Jon Stevens urged the audience to reach out and Touch somebody, cynically dedicated No Lies to “the politicians” and spiced things up with a Hot Chilli Woman in a set which was short but packed plenty of punch.
Steven’s renditions of INXS tracks remained faithful to the originals and showcased what great stadium anthems they remain, with Port Adelaide theme song Never Tear Us Apart punctuated by a great saxophone solo and Don’t Change acting like a clarion call for the audience.
Cyndi Lauper arrived with a pink-blonde mohawk, wearing a suit covered in multi-coloured butterflies, on a stage decorated with fluoro-graffitied inflatables and a brick wall bearing her silhouette from the She’s So Unusual album – which marks its 40th anniversary this year.
It took a couple of songs – Hole in My Heart and the funky She Bop – to get Lauper’s vocals right in the mix, but once she was audible her voice proved as distinctive as ever: Quirky and nasal New Yorker one moment, rich and powerful the next.
By the time we got to her Goonies soundtrack hit Good Enough Lauper had hit her stride, executing some kung-fu kicks with the doof-doof club beat of Into The Nightlife, leading a hushed singalong on Time After Time, hitting some huge sustained notes on I Drove All Night and kicking off her shoes and socks for Money Changes Everything.
Lauper sang a few bars of Stewart’s Sailing to lead into Sally’s Pigeons, then showed photos of women holding Girls Just Wanna Have Fun(damental Rights) placards while turning her signature song into a reggae-infused revolution.
Not My Father’s Son from Lauper’s Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots morphed into True Colours, with the singer’s fist raised to match her militant final note.
Meanwhile, heavy metal icons Megadeth were playing in the Entertainment Centre’s adjacent Theatre venue – a very different sound for an equally different audience.
Lauper was also spotted making herself at home around Adelaide before the trio’s concert – and one CBD nail salon had a sneak peek at her “true colours” when the ’80s megastar popped in for a manicure.
While she may be singing all through the night, it turns out girls just want to have manis before a big gig.
With a green juice in hand, the 69-year-old headed to The Nail Bar in Adelaide Central Plaza for a fresh set before popping in to Chinatown for a photo op at a local Lunar New Year display.
Stewart took to Instagram on Monday to reassure fans he’d still be hitting the stage in Adelaide despite suffering a viral infection.
“My dear friends in Adelaide just to guarantee that the show will be going ahead,” he said.
“I had a slight setback here in Melbourne, I had to miss a show because I had strep throat.
“But I’m fine now and I’ll be there and looking forward to it.”
Lauper isn’t the first global star to opt for a local nail salon before a big show – Hollywood darling Cate Blanchett attempted to book in for a last-minute mani at MediPedi last year.
But, with the popular clinic usually booked out weeks in advance, owner Georgia Jamieson opted instead to keep the books committed to her loyal clients.
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