Rod Stewart delivered a great retro show at Wiener Stadthalle

If anyone can ask the question "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" in public, completely unembarrassed, just before turning 81 - it's Rod Stewart, as he proved on Tuesday evening in the well-filled Vienna Stadthalle. On the (allegedly) very last tour with the programmatic motto "One More Time," the Brit - the veteran rocker has since been knighted as "Sir" and CBE (Commander of the British Empire) - delighted his numerous and very cheerful fans.

Rod Stewart Enthralls in Vienna with Grand Career Revue

Rod Stewart took no time for a cozy warm-up: Right from the opener "Infatuation," he pranced across the stage with a broad chest - meaning: shirt wide open, as always. Most astonishing: His voice is - again - fully there, albeit not quite as rough as in earlier times. The overall picture is coherent: Retro TV sets on the background screens magnify the stage action, framed by 1970s wallpaper patterns. A show with a big wink.

And the six background vocalists and dancers in their - initially - polka-dotted petticoats fit well into the picture. "Some Guys Have All the Luck"... While the ladies proved to be multi-instrumentalists over the course of the concert: on guitar, banjo, violin, tambourine, big drum, and not least harp - which worked excellently, for example, in the intro for the Cat Stevens cover "The First Cut Is the Deepest."

Hits, Ballads, and Musical Flashbacks

Of course, the evening was predominantly a sequence of hits, from "Baby Jane" to "Maggie May" and "Sailing" to "Love Train" as an encore, during which colorful balloons rained down from the Stadthalle ceiling. Rod Stewart was also able to demonstrate his foot and head ball skills - no wonder, he almost became a footballer instead of a rock and pop star. But the Brit also had some musical treats beyond the mainstream for his audience: such as the old rock anthem from the Faces era "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (originally by the Temptations) and a cover of the Etta James classic "I'd Rather Go Blind" - still truly breathtakingly great.

This tour program just before career retirement could easily have degenerated into a cheap Las Vegas dinner show. But it was a convincing and impressive career revue of an inexplicably youthful rock and pop star. Somewhere in his villa, Rod Stewart must have one of those "Dorian Gray" oil paintings that ages instead of him.

(By Werner Müllner/APA)

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