Review and Photos by Fred Kuhlman
Promoter: Danny Zelisko Presents (https://www.dannyzeliskopresents.com/ )
Venue: Celebrity Theatre (https://celebritytheatre.com/ )
Date: Monday August 29th, 2022
Tour: US Summer Tour 2022
If you every get to see a concert in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area, you must see one at the Celebrity Theatre. This is a unique theatre that is designed with a round stage that rotates during the performance. They have updated the sound system and lighting and it is fantastic. All of the seats are within 100 feet of the stage with the front row right at the stage.
The reason I bring this up is that bands tonight really seemed to enjoy the round stage as they got to play to different sections of the audience as it rotated. The fans really loved it because a lot of people had front row seats at different times during the performance. Also, with the fans being right at the stage, a number of the performers got to interact with the fans.
Tonight’s show consisted of 3 different bands that made it big in the 80s. The headliner was Rick Springfield. He was joined by Men at Work and John Waite. As typical with multiple band concerts, none of the bands played long sets. John Waite performed for over 30 minutes, Men At Work played for a little over 1 hour and Rick Springfield also perform for over 1 hour and 10 minutes. For this style of show it’s not about how long a band plays, but instead about the quality of their performance and the did they performance the songs the fans were expecting to hear. For tonight’s concert they were all great and we got to hear all of the best from each band. To give you an indication of how the fans enjoyed the show, there were multiple standing ovations for each of bands. It was also another sell out show at the Celebrity Theatre.
If you get the chance to see this concert, I would highly recommend it, especially if you love classic rock / 80 pop music.
Rick Springfield
A large number of people think of Rick Springfield as Dr. Noah Drake from the daytime drama General Hospital. Rick was the original Doctor McDreamy long before Patrick Dempsey on Grey’s Anatomy. But in reality, Rick started out as a pop musician with the Australian band Zoot in 1969 to 1971. Most of us remember his number 1 hit, “Jessie’s Girl”. But some people think of Rick as a 1 hit wonder, but in reality, he has a number of other hits including “I’ve Done Everything for You”, “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, “Affair of the Heart” and “Love Somebody”. Tonight, he performed all of these great hits to the delight of all of his fans. Rick won a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Male Performance for “Jessie’s Girl” in 1982. It’s hard to believe that it has been 40 years since “Jessie’s Girl” was released.
Rick plays rhythm guitar and is the lead singer. Joining Rick was lead guitarist George Nastos, bass player Sigve (Siggy) Sjursen, keyboardist Tim Gross and drummer Jorge Palacios. George, Tim and Jorge provide backing vocals. Besides Rick, Siggy was the most animated band member on stage. Siggy wore a bright purple suit and he danced around all over on the stage including going back by the drummer and played to the audience at the rear of the stage as it turned. For the encore, Rick and the band came back out to perform “Jessie’s Girl”. To the delight of all of the female fans, Rick came back out shirtless.
From the very first song, “Affair of the Heart”, Rick had the fans wrapped around his little finger. As the stage rotated, the fans would run up the aisles to try and get selfies with Rick. For the next 70 minutes, Rick and the band slammed out hit after hit. Rick celebrated his 73 birthday a few days prior to the show. So as a special treat, at about the middle of the show the audience sang “Happy Birthday” to Rick. From the reaction of the fans especially the ladies, Rick was a huge hit. This was the second time I have seen Rick (I took my wife to see him in 2018, she is a huge fan) and he and the band were great.
A lot of artist/bands have a signature thing that they do or perform at a show. Some are stage props and others are outfits they wear as examples. Rick has a huge female fan base; tonight’s show was over 50 percent of the crowd. A large number of them bring bouquet of roses to the show. They either throw the roses on the stage or hand them to Rick. Rick then takes the roses and smashes/strums his guitar with them sending the pedals into the air and finally all over the stage. At tonight’s show there were at least 10 batches of rose and by the end of the show the stage was covered with the pedals.
Photos by Fred Kuhlman, All Rights Reserved
Rick Springfield Setlist: (Album / Cover)
Affair of the Heart (Living in Oz)
I Get Excited (Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet)
Living in Oz (Living in Oz)
I’ve Done Everything for You (Sammy Hagar cover)
World Start Turning (Rock of Life)
State of the Heart (Mondo Rock cover)
Happy Birthday
Bop ‘Til You Drop / Bruce / 867-5309/Jenny / Jessie’s Girl / Don’t Walk Away / Rock of Life / What Kind of Fool Am I
Love Is Alright Tonite (Working Class Dog)
Don’t Talk to Strangers (Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet)
Human Touch (Living in Oz)
Love Somebody (Hard to Hold soundtrack)
Jessie’s Girl (Working Class Dog)
Men At Work
Men At Work is an Australian band from Melbourne that was formed in 1978 by Colin Hay. Colin plays guitar and is the lead singer of the band. He was joined by Jimmy Branly on drums, San Miguel Perez on guitar, backing vocals, Yosmel Montejo on bass, backing vocals, multi-instrumental Scheila Gonzalez on saxophone, flute, keyboards, backing vocals and the dynamic Cecilia Noel providing backing vocals and tambourines. Men At work only produced 3 albums in the 80s and tonight’s concert was a mix from Cargo and Business as Usual. Their 2 biggest hits they performed at the end of their set, “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under”.
At one point during their performance, a group of 4 ladies in the audience came down to the front of the stage and stood and sang along with the band for a number of the songs. Later they were ushered out when the real seat holders came down to claim the seats. During “Down Under” almost everyone in the audience was standing and singing along with Colin.
Even through they only played for 1 hour, the audience loved their performance. The band seemed to have a lot of fun especially Cecilia as she danced around on the stage and interacted with a number of the fans including the 4 ladies down in the front singing.
Photos by Fred Kuhlman, All Rights Reserved
Men At Work Setlist: (Album / Cover)
Touching the Untouchables (Business as Usual)
No Restrictions (Cargo)
Down by the Sea (Business as Usual)
I Can See It in Your Eyes (Business as Usual)
Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive (Cargo)
No Sign of Yesterday (Cargo)
Overkill (Cargo)
It’s a Mistake (Cargo)
Who Can It Be Now? (Business as Usual)
Down Under (Business as Usual)
Be Good Johnny (Business as Usual)
John Waite
John Waite and his band were the first up. For those unfamiliar with John Waite, he was an 80s performer that had the number 1 hit song “Missing You” in 1984. John has continued to write and has release a number of albums in the 90s and 2000’s. His latest release was in 2011 with Rough & Tumble. John was also a member of The Babys and Bad English bands.
John plays guitar and is the lead singer. He is joined by bass player Tim Hogan, guitarist Mark Ricciardi and drummer Rodger Carter. Unlike the other bands, John and the boys did not dance around on stage. Instead, they just did a great job of performing his songs. It was a good short set and definitely got the crowd revved up which is the job of the first band.
I was a little surprised that there seemed to be a large number of people in the audience that where really big fans of John. A number of people crowded the aisles in the front trying to get selfies with John. One fan (or idiot, depending upon your view) attempted to video John’s performance with his cell phone. Since the stage rotated, I am not sure how good the videos turned out. It was also annoying that he held the cell phone up high blocking the view of people behind him including me.
Photos by Fred Kuhlman, All Rights Reserved
John Waite Setlist: (Album / Cover)
Change (Spider cover)
When I See You Smile (Bad English song)
Bluebird Café (When You Were Mine)
Missing You (No Brakes)
Midnight Rendezvous (The Babys song)
Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover)
