Live Review: Rod Stewart

A sea of people swarmed into the Adelaide Entertainment Centre this Sunday night to see London’s one and only Rod Stewart. With Stewart being one of the best selling music artists of all time and of course possessing what most would refer to as ‘that British charm’, it’s no surprise the audience was predominantly female.

With an already fairly full venue, Aussie local legend James Reyne kicked off the night at 8pm. Playing hits from both his previous band, Australian Crawl and his solo career, Reyne got the crowd singing along and clapping in unison. A great beginning to what would soon be an excellent performance by Stewart.

Reyne connected with the audience by making light-hearted jokes and introducing each band member up on stage to the crowd. The singer belting out Australian Crawl hit, Reckless, against vibrant coloured back drops created a humbling vibe for the crowd. Reyne then played a variety of Australian hits, which had the audience literally up from their seats, clapping and singing along. The band finished with The Boys Light Up, the guitarist pumping out a wicked guitar solo to end their set on high spirits and put the crowd in a bubbly, relaxed mood.

By 9pm, most of the latecomers had arrived and looking up at the mass crowd of the Entertainment Centre almost felt intimidating due to the sheer number of people. Without any sort of introduction a huge blue sheet dropped in front of the stage, the music started and Stewart burst out with more energy than one would have ever imagined a 70-year-old to have. With Stewart accompanied by a trio of saxophone players, three back up singers, a pianist, bassist, guitarist and violinist, the music was very much spot on.

The performance felt lavish, with a white themed stage mixed with Stewart’s choice of apparel: leopard print gold coat, tight black pants and matching leopard print socks. The female members of the audience could not contain their excitement and there was a lot of oohing and ahhing complemented with hushed giggles.

Stewart started out the night with hits Having A Party, It’s A Heartache and Tonight’s The Night. The latter was a slow jazzy number that had the audience jiving around in time with Stewart’s ostentatious dance moves. It was refreshing to see a different, older generation dominating an audience. Instead of having their phones out recording every second of the show, taking snapchats or making Instagram posts, the crowd simply enjoyed the present moment of the music and the performance.

Stewart played new hit, Can’t Stop Me Now, off his latest album, Time. He explained that the track was about his early trials in the music business and the countless times he was turned down. He then went on to mention that this song is a thanks to his father, who supported him throughout every life choice. It was clear from Stewart’s expression and tone how much his father meant to him and the slide show in the background showcased images of the pair throughout Stewart’s career.

Throughout the show, there were two brief intervals during which Stewart left the stage to change into yet another extravagant outfit. During these intervals, the band performed two instrumental music pieces. One was a tribal instrumental drum performance that was very entertaining. The second was a cover of timeless classic, Proud Mary, sung by one of the female back-up vocalists. The performance was accompanied by a string orchestra consisting of violinists, a cellist, a guitarist and harpist. It was beautiful, and the addition of the harp was definitely something unique for the audience to experience.

Stewart came back on stage after that urging the audience to sing along to next track, I Don’t Want To Talk About It. The audience responded with more energy than before and Stewart seemed to thrive off of this energy, putting even more hype into the next tracks, which included Brighton Beach, Forever Young and Rhythm Of My Heart.

Overall, Stewart put a lot of passion and love into his performance, which was evident in the connection he made with the audience and how open he was about his love, family and music life. Stewart also made countless jokes during the performance that reflected his humorous and cheeky personality. A member of the crowd made the comment, “Wow, this guy’s 70 going on 20!” and there was so much truth in that observation! Balloons falling down from the top of the ceiling capped off a great performance from Stewart and the audience shuffled out smiling from ear to ear.