Living in the 1980s!
A week ago I went with a friend courtesy of free tickets to see the “We are the 80s” concert at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood. Sponsored by VH1 Classic, the show consisted of four acts with Scandal, Loverboy, Eddie Money and the headliner Rick Springfield. While not exactly my cup of tea, the over four hour show was interesting and showcased classic rock at its finest, or not so fine depending on how you look at it. These aging rockers were enjoyable and I’m glad I went.
Scandal opened the show and we missed the first song or two, but Patty Smythe (the former Mrs. Richard Hell and current Mrs. John McEnroe) belted out classics “The Warrior” and “Goodbye to You.” Ms. Smythe even went into the crowd, perhaps channeling her punk rock roots. Of the four artists at the show, Scandal is the only one I have any music of, with one lone cassette still in my collection.
Loverboy was fronted by Mike Reno who has not aged so gracefully, but can still sing with a mighty roar. I had never heard any of the songs they played except the final two tunes which are radio standards, “Turn Me Loose” and ”Working for the Weekend”. It was loud and in your face, as a rock and roll show should be.
Eddie Money then took the stage opening with “Two Tickets to Paradise”, a big hit from my high school days. Eddie Money surprised me by playing saxophone on a number of songs and quite well I may add. His set clocked in at almost an hour and contained many radio staples.
Then it was time for the headliner, Rick Springfield. His show was very hard rock with both he and his second guitarist cranking Marshall amps to their fullest. Most would know Rick Springfield as a bubble gum sort of pop star in the early 1980s who was beloved by teenage girls, especially for his soap opera role on General Hospital.
The most surprising thing was his extraordinary guitar chops. He actually smashed his axe to bits during one number and pulled out all the stops on the blues classic “Red House” made famous by Jimi Hendrix. This was the highlight of the night for me as he channeled Jimi and even added quite a bit of pyrotechnics to the tune. He also covered The Who’s “My Generation”.
For the last half hour of the show, Rick Springfield went into the crowd and played while moving all over the 5,000 seat arena’s floor. He even took a fan’s cell phone and made a bit of a crank call for all to hear and then proceeded to play slide guitar with the cell phone! He finally made his way back on stage and broke into “Jessie’s Girl” to end the night. It was definitley entertaining, however, his songs were super charged hard rock with lyrics that for the most part were silly love songs.
All four acts were indeed first class rock acts, although their music seems dated, thus “We Are the 80s”. It was, however, a free chance to see seasoned professional musicians. Each act was led by a powerful front man (or woman) who really knew how to work a crowd and I found myself getting into it more than I thought I would.