Eighty-one years young, back from a year fighting cancer and looking better than a body has a right to.
That was Donnie Iris on Saturday night at UPMC Events Center, playing his first show since he celebrated his 80th at the Moon venue last March.
“You know what? To hell with cancer, man,” the Ellwood City legend said, taking the stage in a customized Brush Creek Inn baseball jersey and cap. “I’m so glad to be back…back with my boys.”
Those boys would be the Cruisers, the band he introduced way back in 1979. By then, he had already made waves with The Jaggerz and Wild Cherry and was ready for a third act.
Within a few years, he was a household name in these parts and the legend has only grown from there, thanks in part, to his uncanny ability to have a laugh at his legacy.
We can now say that, at least in Donnie’s case, bladder cancer has little effect on the vocal range. He was tasked with singing over the Cruisers rumbling in the sonically challenged gym, and he stood tall.
After opening with “Agnes,” the other woman on the 1980 debut, the crowd reacted with chants of “Dahn-nie! Dahn-nie!” and after falling to his knees and hitting the shrill screams on “That's the Way Love Ought to Be,” they were screaming too.
Something you don’t see every day is a rocker bringing out his medical team.
“I wouldn’t be here tonight without these two gentlemen,” Iris said. “These two gentlemen literally saved my life. I’m all glad I found them.”
His fans all over the region and the world are glad, too.
In a recent PG interview, Iris was confident his voice would cooperate and mainly had questions about his stamina. He did indeed do less jumping around, as he warned, and spent part of the show on a stool, but other than that, he held up well.
Donnie and the Cruisers do not have an endless supply of hit material, so for some midset filler, they messed around with a “Minnie the Moocher” blues vamp (with a crowd call-and-response and the “Rocky Mountain Way” solo), the groove jam “Ridin’ Thunder” and a Frankie Yankovic polka run.
The three songs everyone most wanted to hear came in a row: “Love Is Like a Rock” (with big crowd vocals), “Ah! Leah!” (done as a drone and then full force) and “The Rapper,” (which still rocks at age 55) appended with “Hush.”
A surprising number of people clearly came to hear “Ah! Leah!” and then streamed out after that.
They missed “Gimme Shelter,” which got a boost from members of the evening’s openers, the impressive Jackie Popovec of The Vindys and Scott Blasey of The Clarks, and a fitting finale of “With a Little Help From My Friends,” in the dramatic Joe Cocker style.
And with that, Donnie is back — on the streets and on the stages — and ready to tear it up for another decade or so.
Donnie Iris Set List
Agnes
That's the Way Love Ought to Be
Do You Compute?
Tough World
Sweet Merilee
Pretender
This Time It Must Be Love/Play That Funky Music
Minnie the Moocher
Ridin' Thunder
Ei Ei Ei O Polka (Frankie Yankovic cover)
Love Is Like a Rock
Ah! Leah!
The Rapper (The Jaggerz cover)
Hush (Joe South cover)
Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones cover)
With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles cover)
First Published: March 17, 2024, 3:14 a.m.
