Review by Shawn Perry
Photos by Joe Schaeffer
What happens when the world’s greatest electric guitarist gets together with the world’s greatest male rock singer and the world’s greatest female rock singer? To a visionary promoter, the stars align and dollar signs multiply. This is what it looked like at FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine on the second night of the 19-city Stars Align Tour featuring Jeff Beck, Paul Rodgers, Ann Wilson and Deborah Bonham. The facility, with its impromptu detachment none the wearier, easily serviced the 6,500 in attendance with free parking, plenty of drink and food options, rows of outhouses and restroom trailers, and ample seating on the grass and bleachers. Cast out on the outer limits of Irvine, the venue came alive when Beck, Rodgers, Wilson and Bonham reminded everyone of what a real rock n’ roll package show is all about.
Starting things out extra early was Deborah Bonham. The blues singer and sister of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham played a short set with an unnamed guitarist as revelers were still walking in. By the time most everyone was in their seat, Ann Wilson had already taken the stage with her feisty rendition of the Who’s “The Real Me.” The sun was still shining brightly, and had Wilson not worn a bright purple tunic, she might have been hard to spot on the bland looking stage. Of course, it wasn’t too difficult to peg that unmistakable voice as she tore through “Barracuda,” the only Heart she sang tonight.
Wilson told the audience that instead of more Heart songs, she and her band — Craig Bartock (guitar), Andy Stoller (bass), Dan Walker (keyboards) and Denny Fongheiser (drums) — would focus on material from her forthcoming album, Immortal, which she described as a record with songs by artists no longer of this earth. In all actuality, only three tracks from the album made the cut — Chrsi Cornell’s “I Am the Highway” (recorded by Cornell’s band Audioslave), Leslie Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me,” and the Eagles’ “Life In The Fast Lane,” with a shout out to Glenn Frey.
Three others Wilson covered by bands with most members still alive (unless you want to throw in Chris Squire and Keith Moon) were “Your Move: I’ve Seen All Good People” by Yes, an exquisite “She Talks to Angels” by the Black Crowes, and a second Who song that ended Wilson’s performance, “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” That’s right — Ann Wilson sang more Who songs than Heart songs. And no Led Zeppelin songs, which she regularly sings with Heart. Nevertheless, the performance was well received if for no better reason than that Ann Wilson can still belt it out like no other, and lives up to her greatest female rock singing title.
Paul Rodgers unquestionably delivered on the greatest male rock singer promise for over an hour with a selection of mostly Free songs, fewer Bad Company songs, and one Mott The Hoople song that Bad Company covered. Joined by Pete Bullick (guitar), Rich Newman (drums), Ian Rowley (bass) and Gerard “G” Louis (keyboards), Rodgers strolled through Free songs like “Wishing Well,” “My Brother Jake,” “Mr. Big,” “The Stealer” and ‘Fire and Water” with all the stamina and vigor of a singer in his 20s. Rowley cranked out a fat bass solo on his Gibson SG during “The Stealer,” and Bullick held true to the guitar riffs first brought to consciousness by Free’s fret-feeling wunderkind Paul Kossoff. Many of these songs appear on Rodgers’ 2018 album, Free Spirit.
As epic as it was to hear the songs of Free, much of it was lost on those in the audience yearning for the more hit-oriented music of Bad Company. Those songs were the ones that elicited the biggest response. “Can’t Get Enough” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love” were welcomed by the audience like long-lost childhood companions. “Shooting Star” had everyone singing; “Rock n’ Roll Fantasy” reminiscing. “Ready For Love,” written and sung by Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs when he was with Mott The Hoople, and later recorded by Bad Company for their 1974 self-titled debut, was perhaps the biggest surprise to those expecting to hear “Rock Steady” or “Bad Company.”
Rodgers and his band expectedly encored with “All Right Now” and exited to rapturous applause. The singer, who turns 70 in 2019, doesn’t get out to California that often. To see him, appearing sleight yet strong, expertly project his vocals with nary a flat or sour note, revisiting the songs of his youth, twirling his mic stand, interacting with the band, and smiling at the reaction — it was everything you could wish for in a masterful exhibition of pure British 70s blues-based rock.
With the vocals of two of music’s brightest embedded in everyone’s sonic-soaking membranes, Jeff Beck was faced with a challenge. The only singer in Beck’s show is Jimmy Hall, who popped out for “Morning Dew,” “Little Wing” and ‘Superstition.” Most of the night, Beck stuck to the instrumentals that define his whole modus operandi. The fact that he is widely regarded as one of the top, if not the best, guitarists in the world, only facilitate his zest for adventure as he plunders jazz, blues, classical, opera, World and rock with his inimitable no-pick scratch attack on a Fender guitar.
So he took the challenge and seemingly startled the first 20 rows with the aggressive tone of “Pull It,” before quickly turning the corner into the hop, skip and jump of Bill Cobham’s “Stratus.” Anyone with the taste of Bad Company still rolling around in their memory bank would have been fully reorganized by Beck’s fluid runs through Nitin Sawhney’s “Nadia.” Mahavishnu Orchestra’s “You Know You Know” squarely followed suit as bassist Rhonda Smith and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta each cut loose on free-form solos that likely helped land them their jobs into the band. Meanwhile, seated to the guitarist’s left, Vanessa Freebairn-Smith added majesty and stark elegance with her cello and occasional guitar. She and Beck spun the Irish folk song “Mna Na Heireann” into a lustrous, austere piece of raw beauty.
Beck’s rock roots surfaced when Hall was next to him, singing the songs he had recorded with the early Jeff Beck Group and Stevie Wonder. “Big Block,” “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” and “You Never Know” drew cheers from fans of the fusion records of the 70s and 80s. As always, the guitarist obliged with mild deference to his craft and natural ability. By the time he got to “A Day In The Life,” a song he never fails to include, there was no question it was beginning to wind down. Where it would go was anyone’s guess.
The take of Benjamin Britten’s hymn “Corpus Cristi Carol,” based in part on singer Jeff Buckley’s haunting arrangement, gripped the makeshift amphitheatre in its intensity before Hall returned for the raving rocker “Going Down.” Unfortunately, Rodgers and Wilson weren’t invited to join in, which would have really have tied the whole night into a neat little bow. There wasn’t much speculation as to if that was actually going to happen in the first place, and no one left the venue disappointed that it didn’t. When you put three legends on the same bill, the stars align and the imagination runs wild.
