He's back: Rod Stewart rocks Hamburg

Exactly 206 days after his performance in Bremen, Sir Rod Stewart was back on stage in Germany last night.
In the almost sold-out Barclays Arena, around 15,000 fans celebrated an evening of rock, roll and plenty of entertainment.

Right on time at 8 p.m., the curtain rose and the 80-year-old, who flew into the Hanseatic city in the early afternoon and was chauffeured directly from the airport to the arena, kicked off with a bang with ‘Infatuation’.

Fans were torn from their seats

The fans were torn from their seats from the very first beat and were treated to world-famous classics such as ‘Tonight's The Night’, ‘Baby Jane’, ‘Young Turks’ and ‘Maggie May’.
The atmosphere was electric, mainly because Stewart and his band conjured up a show in a class of its own on the stage.

Sir Rod was in high spirits, repeatedly seeking contact with the fans in the front rows, flirting and blowing lots of air kisses into the crowd.
‘Downtown Train’, ‘Have I Told You Lately’ and “Sailing” were on the set list, as were ‘I Don't Want To Talk About It’, ‘I'd Rather Go Blind’ and ‘Da Ya Think I'm Sexy’. During the 1970s disco classic, the obligatory footballs flew into the audience, while during the final song, ‘Love Train’, hundreds of balloons rained down from the arena ceiling.

Critical press

The visitors to the arena got their money's worth and went home completely satisfied. Silke from Düren, who hardly ever misses a concert by the singer in Germany, was thrilled after the two-hour show, just like many other fans: ‘It was great and the atmosphere in the arena was fantastic.’

While fans almost unanimously praised Sir Rod's performance, opinions in the media were a little more mixed. While radio station HH2 said that Stewart had delivered an ‘inspiring performance’, the online portal Hamburg.T-Online had some criticism.
‘Stewart's music is timeless, but his performance showed clear signs of age,’ the critic summed up, concluding: ‘It's time to say goodbye to the stage, Rod Stewart.’ However, the writer was quite alone in this opinion, as the vast majority of visitors rated the evening as a great show of music and entertainment and would certainly not mind if Sir Rod performed on the Elbe again.

Setlist:

• Infatuation
• Havin' A Party
• Tonight I'm Yours
• It Takes Two
• This Old Heart Of Mine
• The First Cut Is The Deepest
• Tonight's The Night
• Forever Young
• Baby Jane
• Young Turks
• Maggie May
• I'd Rather Go Blind
• Downtown Train
• Lady Marmalade (Band only)
• I Don't Want To Talk About It
• If You Don't Know Me by Now
• Mandolin Wind
• Have I Told You Lately
• Proud Mary (Band only)
• Da Ya Think I'm Sexy
• Some Guys Have All The Luck
• Hot Legs
• Sailing
• Love Train