On a gorgeous Austin night on the day the annual SXSW festival kicked off in Austin, Rock Hall of Famer Sir Rod Stewart brought a party to Austin’s Moody Center.
Rockers Cheap Trick opened with one of the loudest sets we have ever heard. They sang all the hits including “Dream Police”, “I Want You to Want Me”, “Surrender”, & more. They proved they can still kick it but we had a feeling most were there to see the iconic Stewart.
The setting for the headlining crooner was beautiful-perhaps from his Vegas residency and looked like the old fashioned 70s TV show big band/orchestra sets with massive glass looking stage with stairs leading up to the drummers and musicians. The stairs came in handy for occasional respites during songs. After all, it was a set full of non stop songs and cardio- the guy is super fit- dancing across the stage, kicking, hip shaking, booty shaking, and more. We wish were in that good of shape! They guy is also still incredibly stylish, dawning a few different outfits throughout including a bight yellow suit with red shirt and gold shoes.
Stewart opened with the show with bagpipe music and jumped right into massive hit “Tonight’s the Night” then played all the hits including “Maggie May”, “Do You Think I’m Sexy”, “You’re in My Heart”, “Forever Young”, “Hot Legs” & more. Of course fans sang all the words. The songs and lyrics are quite simple but that’s what most classic and non-classic hits seem to be (and why we love them).
There was a nice mix of covers and originals with special tributes and covers to legends we lost- Tom Petty, Etta James, Tom Waits, Christine McVie, Muddy Waters, Tina Turner & more. He talked about how influential blues music was to him as he was coming up, so he showed videos of many blues legends…