A blast from the past

Evelyn C. McDonald
Arts & Culture Reporter
August 2, 2018

Last week I went to Orlando to help my daughter move into her new house. Before I left, I had a text from her asking if I was up for an “outing.” That gave me pause. My daughter does mini-triathlons and half marathons so when she says outing, you never know what to expect. Obviously, she didn’t want to tell me so I asked what I should wear. Dressy casual was the reply so I knew we weren’t going to be walking or engaging in other strenuous activities.

It turned out that the outing was going to see Rod Stewart in concert at the Amway Arena in Orlando, with Cyndi Lauper as his opening act. I didn’t remember Stewart being a favorite of mine but I had enjoyed Lauper’s music.
The concert started with a blast of music that vibrated your whole skeleton. Cyndi Lauper opened with her popular songs (“True Colors” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”) and some new material. She talked to the audience between and occasionally walked down into the fist few rows.

Then came the Gaelic fanfare and it was Rod Stewart’s turn. His backup band was good. My favorite sax player of recent time was Clarence of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. The guy on Stewart’s band was his equal. Also great were two of the guitarists and the drummer.

And the songs. As Stewart went through his repertoire, it amazed me to realize how many of the songs I had liked. “Maggie”, “Some Guys Have All the Fun” and so many others reminded me of the life I was living when they were originally released. Stewart did new material also, including a lovely ballad called “Grace.” It’s about a man arrested in the Easter Rising in Ireland. He asked to marry his sweetheart, Grace, before he was executed. Stewart did a really nice job with the song.

Stewart still has the wild and shaggy mop of hair, and a manic energy in concert. The audience was an interesting mix of ages. There were those of us who remembered the songs in their days of popularity. For others such as my daughter, those were the songs she listened to in school. I’m not sure what the younger part of the audience thought of them.

I recommend live performances. In addition to the good performers, you get a lot of energy just from being part of the crowd. Music can be uniquely unifying. People of all ages were standing, singing, swaying to the songs, and having a good time.

Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. Evelyn is vice-chair on the Amelia Center for Lifelong Learning and is on the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.