Rod's Return to Vegas: Always Expect the Unexpected

Sir Rod Stewart has made a full recovery from his sinusitis and the resulting enforced break of several days, and returned to the stage at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace yesterday.
The 81-year-old singer appeared to be back in top form, but admitted that he is not yet 100 per cent back to his old self. “I still feel a bit dizzy now and then,” explained Sir Rod, who had also rediscovered his trademark humour: “I’ve been on stage for over 60 years and this is probably the first time I haven’t had a drink before a concert,” he joked, securing a laugh from the audience.

“If that’s really how it was, then he should never have a drink before a show again,” grinned Silke Mock from Düren as she shared her impressions of the evening with our editorial team late at night (Vegas time). “He was in great spirits, completely different from on Wednesday, when you could tell he was brooding over something,” she reported. Silke had flown directly from Frankfurt to Las Vegas at the start of the week and, like many others, had been surprised by the cancellation of the shows on Friday and Saturday. “The two cancellations and the days off certainly did him good; he was almost back to his old self,” said Silke, noting that even after so many years on stage, Rod Stewart is still capable of surprising his fans. Yesterday, this happened with a concert opener that probably nobody – and I mean absolutely nobody – would have had on their radar, even in their wildest dreams.

Right on time at 7.30 pm, the band took to the stage and kicked off the evening with the instrumental classic “Soulfinger” – originally by the Bar-Kays (1967). Then, as Rod stepped onto the stage in his smart suit, the opening bars of “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay”, the Otis Redding classic, suddenly rang out – completely unexpectedly!
Some in the audience were so astonished they couldn’t close their mouths, whilst others reacted with quick thinking and lightning speed, filming this memorable start to the concert on their smartphones. After all, Rod Stewart hadn’t played this song live for almost 40 years. When news of this almost historic moment reached our editorial team, we immediately set about investigating. After scouring the World Wide Web at length, we discovered that Rod had last performed this song live in 1989 during a gig in Atlantic City, although the author of these lines somehow recalls that ‘Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay’ was also on the set list for the 1991/92 Vagabond Tour. However, this gut feeling could not be substantiated with certainty.

After that cracking start, Sir Rod sang his way through the evening in his usual style, performing his greatest hits as always. He did, however, make a few changes to the setlist: ‘Every Picture Tells A Story’, the Simply Red classic ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’, ‘Rhythm Of My Heart’ and ‘Tonight’s The Night’ were added to the setlist, whilst ‘Tonight I’m Yours’, ‘It’s A Heartache’, ‘The Killing Of Georgie’, ‘You’re In My Heart’ and ‘It Takes Two’ were ‘given a break’. However, these song changes did nothing to dampen the atmosphere in Caesars Palace, which was sold out apart from a few remaining seats. The fans celebrated the evening with dance moves that were sometimes graceful, sometimes less so, and by singing along with perfect lyrics, ensuring that Rod and his band had a great time on stage too.