"Everybody's so different, I haven't changed."
There may have been times in his life where that wasn't a good thing — who knows? — but right now we’ll take the same ol' Joe Walsh any day.
The 68-year-old rock icon appeared to be at full capacity Tuesday night at the First Niagara Pavilion on the aptly named One Hell of a Night Tour with Bad Company. It wasn’t one hell of a turnout, drawing around 5,000 in a pavilion-only set up, which is partly an indication of older fans being a little different and not wanting to drag themselves out to Burgettstown on a Tuesday night (particularly when Rt. 22/30 is torn up — again!).
The two acts are flip-flopping on the headline slot, surprisingly, given the extra artillery Walsh is packing. Bad Company, a British supergroup when they formed in 1973, opened with a set highlighting the well-preserved vocals of Paul Rodgers, considered by some to be among rock's finest singers.
I've never bought into that cult of Paul Rodgers, not because his voice isn't great, but because it's straight-down-the-middle great, and the best rock singers always had something a little odd about them. Same goes for the Bad Company songs, which are muscular, masculine and rather plodding (you can hear the seeds of Pearl Jam there). There's no boogie to Bad Company, which became even more pronounced hearing them back to back with Walsh.
Bad Co, as the logo goes, came out with the pedestrian anthem "Live for the Music" and worked their way toward their heavy “love” songs: "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Ready for Love" and "Can't Get Enough" (of your love). With original member Mick Ralphs sitting out this tour, Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes was in, playing a small role with Howard Leese taking most of the leads.
Bad Company built momentum toward the end of the set with the pitch-perfect Rodgers, either out front or back at the piano, leading them through "Movin On" (a song that does have some boogie to it), "Shooting Star," "Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy" (with them rather clumsily scrolling the same four old black and white pictures) and an encore of "Bad Company" puffed up with smoke jets.
Walsh hit the stage after dark with a “Good morning” and an exquisite 10-piece band featuring double drummers (including old friend Joe Vitale) and four backup singers. From the first chunky chords of “Walk Away,” the guitars sounded crisper and brighter in the hands of Walsh and renowned sidekick Waddy Wachtel. Walsh has that same squawking voice that had me wondering: How would anyone ever imitate him in a tribute band?
He went right into “Everyday People,” which, more than just a cover of a Sly & The Family Stone song, became a powerful declaration of how we need to treat other amid all this divisiveness. He didn’t make any speech, leaving it to the video of everyday people of all shapes, sizes and races to help make the statement. That, and backup singer Rickey Washington (why is that guy someone’s backup singer?) who took over with a gorgeous vocal.
Joking that the crowd might not know the next medley, “but your parents like it,” Walsh and company went way back to his first solo album for “Mother Says” segueing into the James Gang’s deep jam “The Bomber.”
“Dedicated to my brother and fellow bandmate,” the late Glenn Frey, he did a beautiful “Take It to Limit” with Washington once again soaring on the vocal. The epic “Turn to Stone,” with images of the presidential debates on the screen, turned into an smoldering guitar jam with Wachtel. He had images of the Pittsburgh skyline behind him, along with clips from “The Warriors,” for the beloved rocker “In the City,” one of his offerings to the Eagles catalog.
“Funk #49” started as the old James Gang song and then hilariously morphed into a banging remix with the band members leaving their stations to dance. He then brought the funk riff back in brilliantly.
As always just about everything he said was hilarious, especially introducing his synth/sampler player with “Clayton James! I’m not sure what he does... If you hear strange noises, they're supposed to be there.”
Saying “We all love this song; I'm kinda sick of it but we'll play it anyway,” he lurched into the riff of his signature hit “Life’s Been Good” and managed to not sound at all like he was sick of playing it. He kept the embarrassment of riches coming with “Life in the Fast Lane,” featuring a twangy showdown between the guitarists, and a high flying encore of “Rocky Mountain Way.”
No matter who he is with, any time Joe is in town, it’s going to be one hell of a night.
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576. Twitter: @scottmervis_pg
First Published: June 29, 2016, 2:00 p.m.
