Rick Springfield, Loverboy, and The Romantics On Tour!
The 80’s heartthrob trio is on tour! Rick Springfield, Loverboy, and The Romantics kicked off their new tour on August 29th at the Delta Classic Chastain Park in Atlanta, GA. Current schedule has Rick, Loverboy, and The Romantics touring until November 21st with the final show at Weill Center for Performing Art’s in Sheboygun, WI.
Win Tickets to a concert and a meet and greet with Rick through SiriusXM 80’s on 8. Deadline to enter is September 8th. For complete details visit here: https://www.siriusxm.com/RickSpringfield
Current States the tour will be visiting: NC, SC, IL, IA, OH, NJ, NY, PA, MI, MO, NV, OK, FL, LA, WI.
New concert locations could be added to the schedule. Check tour dates and find additional information here: http://rickspringfield.com/concerts/
As for this explosive tour this lucky writer got to be in attendance for the tour kick off in Atlanta, GA. The Romantics opened Saturday night to a nearly sold out venue. The Delta Chastain Amphitheater holds nearly 6,900 guests and looking through the crowd that night, their were hardly any seats left and those were ‘nose-bleeders’. This was a great kick off to this rocking tour. The Romantics got the crowd ready to go with songs “Friday At The Hideout”, “Talking in Your Sleep”, and closed out their set with hit “What I Like About You”.
Loverboy came out next. At this point a lot of the audience had worked through a majority of their wine and snacks and were getting into the music and dancing. Mike Reno is known for wearing his red leather pants and bandanna. Sadly, there were no leather pants for this show but I do not blame him a bit as it was rather warm outside. He did sport his bandanna. The crowd’s energy spiked and those sitting at the ground tables were up dancing as close to the stage as security would allow.
Loverboy’s set included “Lucky Ones”, “Take Me To The Top”, “Working For The Weekend”, “Lovin’ Every Minute Of It”, “Turn Me Loose”, and “Gotta Do It My Way”.
And finally; Rick Springfield! I have gone to a few concerts but this one will always be my favorite. Growing up my mother played 80’s constantly. When I’m asked who my favorites are it easily comes down to Prince, Michael Jackson, Loverboy, Madonna and Rick Springfield. (I still give mom grief about her getting rid of all her vinyls as I’m collecting them now. I could have had the originals! But no, she just had to upgrade to the A-Track and Cassettes.) Rick Springfield’s set started with a video shown on the screens on stage covering the history of Rick’s music and acting career. It was fascinating to watch and built the crowd to a roar for when Rick came out in a blaze of charisma. Everyone was standing, cheering, singing along, toasting their drinks, and holding out banquets of roses.
No one does a show like Rick Springfield. If you don’t know, Rick Springfield will take roses and smash them against his guitar sending pedals flying everywhere. This crowd was prepared for such entertainment as Rick had plenty of roses to smash throughout his entire set. By the end of the show the stage was covered in pedals. Another amazing thing Rick does is go into the crowd and sings, interacts, hugs, and dances with his audience. Before Rick joined the crowd he told the story of how at a previous concert he was out in the crowd and knocked into someone with his ass. The person sued him for it! (Who would be upset by that?) Rick won the lawsuit but it was a hilarious story to tell before he started up a guitar rift and hopped down from the stage. Another fun story Rick shared with his crowd was how his very first show was in Atlanta and that they opened for a porno.
Who knew? It was Rick’s 66th birthday (2/3’s evil) was on August 23rd and the crowd sung him ‘Happy Birthday’ which is one of my favorite videos I took. (Basically we’re all drunk and he’s amused by this. Happy to oblige my horrible singing skills.)
Rick’s set kicked off with “Light This Party Up”, and included “I’ve Done Everything For You”, “Affair Of The Heart”, and “Human Touch”. He also performed “Down” that was written with Rascal Flats and will be coming out soon. To add even more fun he covered “Roar” by Katy Perry. Then as Rick left the stage everyone held up their phones, lanterns, and lighters. With an intro video of how “Jessie’s Girl” has been used in many movies and T.V. shows, even showing clips from Fox’s hit show Glee that covered “Jessie’s Girl”, Rick comes back on stage and lights the crowd on fire once more with “Jessie’s Girl” and continued out his encore with “I’ll Make You Happy” (which he certainly did) and “Kristina”.
If you have a major love for the 80’s as I do, or perhaps you’ve a strong love for any of these bands then this is the concert for you. Don’t hesitate to get tickets as the show near you may sell out! (And if you haven’t yet be sure to check out Rick Springfield’s latest movie with Meryl Streep: ‘Ricki and the Flash’)