Rod Stewart in Oslo: Forever Young

UTSOLGT - sold out, the organiser announced two days before the show started. The Oslo Spektrum Arena was bursting at the seams when Sir Rod Stewart took to the stage on Sunday and opened his third European concert of the year with the song Infatuation.
The Spektrum was opened in 1991 and seats 10,500 people at concerts. And they all turned up, eagerly anticipating a two-hour journey through Stewart's musical history.
And Sir Rod delivered. The evening took shape with the 80s hits Tonight I'm Yours and Some Guys Have All The Luck and the 1989 version of This Old Heart Of Mine. With Tonight's The Night and The First Cut Is The Deepest, Stewart took the audience back to the golden 70s for the first time that evening. With Forever Young, the violin and violin section of the Stewart band around J'Anna Jacoby really set the pace with a rousing solo, which Rod used for a first quick costume change and then continued just as quickly with his Young Turks.

The fans were thrilled with the performance. Chewy Schaal, who was at the concert with his wife, wrote: "Unbelievable, Rod Stewart! 80 years and still pure action on stage!" The couple swayed and sang along with fervour. You Wear It Well, Maggie May - these songs leave no one cold at a Rod Stewart concert.
Jacquelyne Ruud took plenty of souvenir photos and posted a few videos on her social media channels. ‘It was just fantastic,’ she wrote, adding lots of red hearts to her comment.
And the enthusiasm of the audience was reflected on stage: ‘A very nice, enthusiastic audience,’ Rod then praised, found a few words of praise about the city of Oslo and its cleanliness and continued his programme with another great version of I'd Rather Go Blind. Hardly anyone in the audience took it amiss that he missed the cue and had to start the song a second time.
After Downtown Train, Sir Rod disappeared backstage once again and the band took over for a strong version of the Pointer Sister classic I'm So Excited.
Stewart returned in a red suit and yellow shirt and let the audience reminisce (and sing along to the lyrics) with I Don't Want To Talk About It and followed it up with the Simply Red hit If You Don't Know Me by Now. Everyone in the arena agreed that Rod turns every song into a Stewart song, no matter who wrote it. ‘I'm playing Glastonbury Festival this summer and everything we're playing today is a run-through of what we'll be playing there,’ Stewart told the crowd.

After another short intermezzo by the band - Proud Mary - the final third of the evening began at full throttle. With Baby Jane, the Brit really cranked up the tempo again. During Da Ya Think I'm Sexy, the obligatory signed footballs flew into the audience and Rod got up close and personal with his fans, shook hands and had his photo taken at close quarters.
Then things got emotional once again. During Sailing, an oversized Norwegian flag appeared on the sceen above the stage, people hugged each other, lighters lit up and many sang along. Everyone in the arena agreed: this song is and always will be one of the greatest anthems in music history.
To round off the evening, Rod and the band turned up the heat once again - with the Faces classic Stay With Me and Rod's Hot Legs (Sweet Little Rock'n'Roller had originally been on the setlist), the two hours came to an end - far too quickly for many fans in the arena.

Setlist:

1. Infatuation
2. Tonight I’m Yours
3. Some Guys Have All The Luck
4. This Old Heart Of Mine
5. Tonight’s The Night
6. The First Cut Is The Deepest
7. Forever Young
8. Young Turks
9. You Wear It Well
10. Maggie May
11. I’d Rather Go Blind
12. Downtown Train
13. I’m Every Woman (Band only)
14. I Don’t Want To Talk About It
15. If You Don’t Know Me By Now
16. Proud Mary (Band only)
17. Baby Jane
18. Da Ya Think I’m Sexy
19. Sailing
20. Stay With Me (Encore)
21. Hot Legs (Encore)