Rod Stewart, 57, is a false, lazy and inconsistent artist. He gladly talks bad about his disco period and he talks with respect about soul and his rocking years in the 60’s and the 70’s. But that’s when he’s not on stage… Because on stage it’s the same old painful songs that counts. ‘Sailing’, ‘Baby Jane’, ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy’, ‘Tonight I’m Yours’ and so on, in predictable arrangements that seems to have been the same since the 80’s. One can read this scottish playboy as an open greatest hits-collection.
It’s like he’s thrown together a setlist from his latest gig for some millionaire – you can rent Rod for private gigs if only the compensation is big enough. And it’s possible that ‘Some Guys Have All The Luck’, ‘Handbags & Gladrags’ and ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ sounds great if you’re on some cruiser in the Carribeans with a few drinks inside your life jacket. But yesterday these songs only sounded dutiful.
Sometimes it’s seems like it’s only the legends vocal cord and lively legs that’s on a visit to Sweden. Rod himself seems to be somewhere else. The flirting with the audience is a routine-job and it’s only when he talks about football that he seems to be interested. Several times he wishes the Swedish World Cup team good luck and as usual he kicks a lot of footballs out to the crowd. And the big videoscreens behind him shows Alexanderssons goal against England over and over again.
After the break the concert takes off a little bit – yes he so old now that he has a break in the show – when the band suddenly gets better and even Rod. They play the E Street Band in ‘Hot Legs’, ‘Forever Young’ and ‘Tonight’s The Night’ before another backing singer allows to spoil the show with another soul standard we heard too many times by disgusting cover bands like Commitments ‘Chain Of Fools’.
And what is the thing about that old Tina Turner duet ‘It Takes Two’? Isn’t that the worst song ever recorded?
If Rod doesn’t see that, if he doesn’t want more than this with his tours, then he should concentrate on the jetset life as a private entertainer.
Anders Nunstedt (The Expressen)
[translation by Jonas Wimark/RSC]