Rick Springfield rocked the Lawrenceburg Event Center on Saturday, February 4, 2017. I hadn’t seen Rick in concert in almost three years, and it was worth the ticket price to see him again.
Originally, I had planned to go with a friend, but he ended up not feeling well. I debated for a split second whether to drive the two hours and go by myself. The concert won out. And I was glad I went. Was I ever glad I went!
The two-hour drive wasn’t bad at all. It was mostly interstate driving until I had to get off for the last little part of the trip on a state highway. Darkness set in before I made it to the small town where the venue was. And I got lost. Martha, my GPS, didn’t know where the street was. The address must have been newer, and my GPS has never been updated.
Before I had left home, I had found someone to take the extra ticket so she was messaging me their location. After telling her I was lost, she gave me the directions. The map made it look like the casino and the event center were closer together. I parked in the garage for the casino and hopped on a shuttle for the few blocks to the event center.
The preconcert
Before finding my seat, I bought a T-shirt — a must for me. Then it was time to head inside and find my seat. I had no idea how small the venue would be, but I liked it. No, I loved it. The smaller the venue the better in my opinion.
Looking at the stage, I saw how close I would be to him. I hadn’t been this close to the stage in a long time. The woman, who had taken the extra ticket, and I chatted. That helped make the half hour before the show pass quickly.
The concert
A few minutes after 8 p.m., the lights dimmed, and the show started. Rick came out in this awesome looking leather jacket with yellows, oranges, and reds across the top part of it and began singing, “Light This Party Up” from his newest album, Rocket Science. He went into “I’ve Done Everything for You” and “I Get Excited.”
From there, Rick sang one of the best songs from the new album called “Down.” I don’t know what there is about this song, but I love it. Maybe it’s the fact that he did the video for it overlooking the ocean. I don’t know. “Affair of the Heart” was next. It’s probably one of my favorite songs from the Living in Oz album.
He sang Katy Perry’s song, “Roar.” He does a great job of covering. I only wish he would sing his own songs. He has so many I would love to hear.
When he made a comment about having an affair with a married woman at age 21, I figured it was “Alyson.” That song sure took me back to 1999 when I saw him in downtown Indianapolis at Circlefest. He stood on top of a concrete divider while two of us held his legs so he wouldn’t fall. Gosh, what a memory.
The middle
From that song, he went into the medley, which gives us some of several of his hits, like “Bop ‘Til You Drop,” “Celebrate Youth,” “Calling All Girls,” “Don’t Walk Away,” “State of the Heart,” and “What Kind of Fool Am I.” I love all of those even if all I heard was a small part of them.
Moving the show along, Rick sang, “Love is Alright Tonite.” He had the guitar tech, who turned out to be his former guitarist Dave Whiston, bring him his pretty teal guitar and a stool. Rick sat down and introduced “Miss Mayhem.” This is one of my favorite songs from this album.
The guys relaxed and did some surf music followed by Rick playing an instrumental. Man, he can play that guitar. I could sit and listen to me do that for hours.
Rick did another cover song. This time it was Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” He loves his fans and got them involved singing the girl part toward the end of the song. He told us he wasn’t going to sing that part because he was a guy.
The rest of the show before the encore was the best part, not that there is a bad part to any concert Rick does. He sang “Don’t Talk to Strangers” clapping hands of the people in the audience.
He found a seven-year-old boy named Jacob wearing a Lego Star Wars shirt. Jorge, the drummer, told Rick that the boy looked like his mini me with blond hair. The boy did a great job of singing the line as Rick always get the audience and kids to sing. Some of the adults didn’t do such a great job, but it was funny seeing Rick’s expressions.
The human touch
When Rick started singing “Human Touch,” I had no idea what would happen during this song. I’m still thinking about it over a week later. I imagine ten years from now I’ll always remember this one moment, just like I can remember certain moments from each concert.
When he reached a certain part of the song, he headed out into the audience. He started out on the opposite side from where I stood so I figured he would stay on that side.
No, he didn’t.
He walked all the way back to row 10, the row I was on. He stood there for a minute and looked down the row my way. “Oh, sh*t” were the words that came to me. I couldn’t believe he was heading my way!
As he walked down the row of chairs, he high fived people with his right hand. He couldn’t do that to me with the microphone in his hand, but I did brush my right hand across his hip to make sure he didn’t fall off the chair as he had at the other end. He stopped on the chair next to mine with his back to me. You can only imagine the view!
He stepped a couple of rows behind me, turned around, and came back. He stepped off and headed down the wide aisle. I lost track of him then, but he ended up back on stage within a couple of minutes and finished the song.
Rick ended the concert with “Love Somebody.” He and the band exited quickly. Within a couple of minutes, he and the band returned and sang three songs for the encore, “Jessie’s Girl,” “I’ll Make You Happy,” and “Kristina.”
After the concert
After the concert ended, I hung around to watch the people start taking things down and chatted with the woman next to me. Her daughter joined us, and they headed to the stage. The security made them leave so we walked out to the lobby.
At this point I was ready to head home so I thanked them for using the ticket and hurried off to find the shuttle back to the parking garage.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Rick walking past me all of the way home. Some fans may not see this as a big deal, but for me, I have admired this man for over 35 years. And here he was standing right in front of me.