Rod Stewart celebrates quadruple in Tampa: press grumbles – fans cheer

Tampa, a city with a population of around 415,000 on the Gulf Coast of Florida, enjoyed a Rod Stewart concert for the fourth time in a row (2022-2026). And once again, for the fourth time in a row, the Hard Rock Event Centre was sold out. Tampa celebrates Stewart's quadruple!
With a smile and a wave to the crowd, the 81-year-old singer took to the stage punctually at 8 p.m. local time and kicked off at his usual fast pace.
With ‘Infatuation,’ ‘Tonight I'm Yours’ and ‘It's A Heartache,’ Sir Rod immediately stepped on the gas.
The audience immediately joined in, dancing and singing along loudly to the rocking tunes. Even the press representatives were swept up in a kind of enthusiasm during the first few minutes of the evening. The Tampa Bay Times noted: ‘He still looks damn good.’ The paper also emphasised that his voice is still ‘rough. How does he do it?’
Nevertheless, media representatives look very closely and often seek to find fault. ‘His band concealed imperfections,’ the writer grumbled at first. ‘He had difficulties at the beginning with a cheesy, jazzy and, frankly, somewhat strange version of his most famous hit, “Maggie May”. And he messed up the beginning of “Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?”. These mishaps were surprising, as he plays both songs conscientiously at every show,’ grumbled the Tampa Bay Times.
The audience clearly didn't care, even if there were a few hiccups here and there. The fans sang along loudly to ‘Maggie’ and many other songs, and during ‘Da Ya Think I'm Sexy’ they snatched at the signed footballs that were kicked and thrown into the audience.
So was the Tampa Bay Times critic just in a bad mood? He complained that ‘Stewart too often took a back seat, resting on the drum riser or leaving the hard work to his band.’ He also didn't like that he disappeared backstage for two songs, leaving his band to entertain the fans with ‘I'm Every Woman’ and ‘Proud Mary.’ ‘When the song ended and Stewart returned to the stage, he waved to the applauding crowd as if he had something to do with it. But he really didn't,’ the press representative noted. Well, it seems to have escaped him that these parts have been part of a Stewart concert for decades. More thorough research might have helped.

Overall, the writer, Mark Katches, remained very negative in his review. He complained that Rod interacted very little with the audience (‘was hardly noticed’) and concluded by noting that Rod left the stage without an encore, but pocketed a lot of money in the process. ‘Is that what an audience deserves?’ asked the author, who was pretty much alone in his opinion.

‘Rod Stewart was just fantastic,’ raved one concertgoer. And another fan said, ‘That was the best concert I've seen in a long time.’ And the cheers from the audience didn't stop: ‘What a show,’ croaked one in a hoarse voice and laughed, ‘I sang along too much, my voice is almost gone.’

‘Fantastic, as always,’ said another concertgoer.
So let's forget about Mr. Katrches' point of view. Maybe the Tampa Bay Times writer was just having a bad day. And if not, it doesn't matter.