Rod Stewart is an old road who knows what it takes to vibrate a site the size of the plains of Abraham: successes. That’s good, he has enough in his fabulous repertoire to fill in a concert of more than 90 minutes without dead time, as he has proven the opening of the 57e Summer Festival.
Sir Rod and the plains, another of these meetings that go without saying, but which were long overdue, like that of next week with Shania Twain. In 2020, we thought we were there. The name of the British legend garnished the programming of the FEQ, but the pandemic has screwed up everything.
Five years later and at the age of 80, Rod Stewart was finally there, on a chilly Thursday evening in early July, in good shape, very happy to reconnect with the Quebec public and obviously still on a four-day cloud after having experienced a form of consecration at the prestigious Glastonbury festival, at his home, in the United Kingdom.
A few dance steps from Rod Stewart, in good shape in Quebec, Thursday.
Photo Stevens LeBlanc
He gave the kind of spectacle that have generously rewarded us, formerly in the same place, the Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder and Elton John, all legends passed by the capital to remind tens of thousands of people, over the FEQ, the precious place they occupy in the great history of rock.
All eras
Rod Stewart is part of this linely line.
His famous rocky voice no longer has the tone of yesteryear and sometimes betrays it, as was the case from the first moments on Some Guys Have All The Luck. The presence of a solid troop of choristers, who took over a few times to allow him to recharge his batteries, and the contribution of his excellent musicians were of precious help for this purpose.
The pleasure of reversing all the successes of “Rod the Mod” was not spoiled.
Rod Stewart was well surrounded for his concert on the plains of Abraham.
Photo Stevens LeBlanc
Besides, The First Cut is The Deepest has Baby Janeincluding a dynamic Young Turks and the always engaging Maggie Mayalmost everything that has climbed in the summits of the charts since the early 1970s (Stewart was likely to give the year of his songs all evening) had a place on the program.
We have gone through all its eras, blues (detour to faces with Stay With Me), disco, soul and … Rock relaxation on the air of Have I Told You Lately.
True to his clothing habits, Rod Stewart had released his most flamboyant costumes of his wardrobe to accompany this sparkling musical menu, going from the sparkling to the leopard and the yellow sun.
The 51e État
As he has been doing for a few concerts, he dedicated the song Rhythm of My Heart To the Ukrainian people and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, while referring, with a disgusted mine, to the Donald Trump project to make Canada on 51e US state.
Wands to the late Tina Turner and Christine Mcvie, whose faces appeared on the giant screen, made it possible to recall that Rod Stewart had rubbed shoulders with the older ones.
If we make the fine gules, we may regret not having heard SailingMagnificent final point of the Glastonbury concert on Sunday, but we doubt that festival -goers left the plains of Abraham while holding against him.
The note of Journal: 4 out of 5 stars
