Episode 063 - Ringo Starr Concert Review

This week, I am reviewing the Ringo Starr & his All-Starr Band show that I saw at the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, CT on June 12, 2025. Ringo put together a solid if not spectacular band for this year's tour, and the show was solid but not spectacular. Still, seeing a living Beatle perform his greatest hits with some of his musical pals (and disciples) was entertaining all by itself.

I will go into the highs and the lows of the show, and share my insights as to what I think is happening, and I hope you'll join me for this review of Ringo's All Starr Band, right here on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Rock and Roll Show podcast. I'm your host, Alex Gadd and this week I've got yet another concert review for you. I went to see Ringo Star and his All Star Band on their annual North American tour at the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where they played a 21 song set in just under two hours. And I'm struggling to reconcile my feelings about this show. I'm a huge Beatles fan, and I was curious to see who was in Ringo's Band this year and how they sounded. I'll give you my honest take and I've got videos. So please join me for my Ringo Star and his Allstar Band concert review coming up right now. As I said in the intro, I'm a huge Beatles fan. If you check out episode 17 of this podcast, I talk about how foundational the Beatles were to my life and my love of music. You can check out that episode anytime online. Now. I never got to see John Lennon play live. He had stopped playing out before his untimely death, and he died when I was only 11. I also never saw George Harrison live. Because he also never toured while I was of show going age before he ultimately passed away in 2001. I finally saw Paul McCartney in 2016 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where I took my two daughters to see their first proper rock concert, which wasn't a bad one to start out with if I do say so myself. That was a great show, but I had never seen Ringo, so I made a vow to myself when I started this podcast that I would go catch Ringo in his All-Star band before he stopped touring so I could at least have seen half The Beatles perform live. Since he tours pretty much every summer, I figured that would be an easy vow to keep, and since he started his tour this year at the local amphitheater, I bought some aftermarket tickets a few days before the show. Got my girlfriend Jeanne to agree to go with me and off we went. The venues in Bridgeport, it's about 25 minutes away, and it's a great place to see a show. The parking is Jeannerally free. The amphitheater, as you'd expect is outdoors, but it's totally covered by a circus-tent like tent. So there's airflow and fresh air, yet you can't get really rained on, and it's pretty new. So the facilities are excellent. Plus there's good food and cool drink options and almost no bad seats. All in all, it's a great place to see some live music. Oh, and it sounds pretty good too. We got to the venue just about seven 30 right when the show was going on, and by the time we walked across the plaza from the garage, got through the gates and started making our way to our seats, the band had already gone on, so I don't have my typical opening song video. They opened with two Ringo songs, as you would expect, starting with his cover of Carl Perkins'"Honey Don't," from the 1964 Beatles album, Beatles for Sale. And then the band followed that with a classic Ringo solo song"It Don't Come Easy." It's a single that he released in 1971 right after The Beatles broke up. And that is my favorite of all his solo song. We made it to our seats during the middle of"It Don't Come Easy," and I was surprised to see the crowd was so varied in age. There were more old people than young people, of course, but there were way more young people in the audience than I expected, and that was great to see. Given that Ringo didn't have a ton of hit songs either with the Beatles or as a solo artist. Part of the appeal of his All Star band is that it's always included other rock stars. The first year Ringo did this Allstar Band concept was back in 1989. That was while I was still in college. And his all stars then were truly an Allstar band. He had Nils Lofgren and Joe Walsh on guitar. Two absolutely brilliant guitar players. He had Dr. John and Billy Preston on keyboards. They're both top-notch keyboard players. Levon Helm and Jim Kelner joined Ringo on drums. He had Rick Danko from the Band on Bass, Clarence Clemens from the E Street Band on the saxophone. The entire set list were all hit songs. Since then, the makeup of the band is varied from tour to tour with a who's who of 1970s and eighties rockers, making up the lineup from Randy Bachman, from BTO and Mark Farner from Grand Funk Railroad to John Entwistle and Peter Frampton. To Jack Bruce, Ian Hunter, Gary Brooker, Roger Hodson, Sheila E Billy Squire. Richard Marks, Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, and many more. Having said that, the current lineup is kind of underwhelming compared to that. The star player on the team this year is Steve Lukather, the guitarist from Toto and maybe a thousand other albums and songs that you know and love and perhaps the most interesting storyteller in rock and roll today. Check out his autobiography. It's called The Gospel According to Luke, and it's one of my favorite rock bios ever. Also in the band this year is Greg Bissonette on drums. He's just personality incarnate. He's a great drummer. Played with tons of people. I first saw him playing with David Lee Roth in Dave's solo band following his leaving Van Halen back in 1986, and Greg Bissonnet is just a great drummer. The 2025 version of the band also includes. Colin Hay, who is the lead singer of Men at Work, and Hamish Stewart, the former guitar player from the Average White Band. So the format of these shows is that Ringo sings a few songs. Then the other band members sing their biggest hit songs and Ringo's either playing drums along with the primary drummer again this year. That's Greg Bissonette, or taking a break off stage. This season, the third song was"Rosanna" by Toto, sung by Steve Lukather. Now, Luke was not the primary singer in Toto, and he didn't sing on any of their biggest hits, and he didn't sing on Rosanna on the record, but he did just fine. Here's a little bit of that. And also, here's the solo at the end of that song. If you haven't picked up on it yet, I'm kind of a big Steve Lukather fan. That was followed by the only Average white Band song I know,"Pick Up the Pieces." You might know it too, if only by listening to it. And that was Hamish Stewart taking the lead, singing his former band's biggest hit, which actually has very few lyrics, but a great groove. That was followed by the first Men At Work song,"Down Under," with Colin Hay on vocals. And that got a surprisingly big response from the crowd. I didn't know what to make of that at the time, but I will get back to that later. From where Jeanne and I were sitting, we couldn't really see Colin, so I recorded off the screen above the stage. To. Then Ringo stepped up to the front again to sing one of the cover songs that The Beatles recorded on their first album. The first album was, Please, Please Me, the song, a cover of The Shirelles' Boys." So he did that one, followed by a song from his 1973 solo record. The record was titled Ringo. The song was"I'm the Greatest," which was written by John Lennon and had both John Lennon and George Harrison playing on it with him. And that's the only time the three of them played on a recording post Beatles, as far as I understand, anyway. I'm not a fan of that one, but it was followed by Yellow Submarine, and that's when I picked up on something that left me kind of conflicted. Ringo seemed to be kind of phoning it in. Now, before you get all in a huff, I know Ringo was almost 85 years old at the time of the show. He's since turned 85 and he's been performing since the late fifties. But hey, I didn't get a discounted price on the ticket because the artists are all old. So I'm reviewing the show based on its merits, and while I wanted to see Ringo perform live, no matter what, it became apparent, that he either doesn't have his all to give anymore or he just wasn't giving it his all. The rest of the band sure is they all seemed to be thrilled to be sharing the stage with such a massive historical figure in rock and roll. But I've seen Paul McCartney and the Stones perform recently and they're basically the same age as Ringo and they still give it their all, and I definitely acknowledge that it's uncomfortable for me to even be sharing this take with you because I love Ringo and wanted to tell you how great he is. Uh, and he is great, but performing wise, I'm calling it like I see it. Check out a little bit of Yellow Submarine and let me know what you think. Ball. Ringo left the stage after this one as the band started another AWB song(that's Average White Band). The song was called Cut the Cake, which I had never heard before, but it sounded kinda like Pick Up the Pieces except that this turned into a medley of cover songs. They did A little bit of Sly in the Family Stone's Thank you for letting me be myself, little bit of Queen's"We Will Rock You A little bit of Chicago's"25 or 6 to 4," as well as a number of drum parts, where Greg Bissonnet did a drum solo, basically showing off his considerable chops playing bits of songs from Rush's YYZ. He played a little bit of"Wipeout" from the Surfaris. He played some of Led Zeppelin's rock and roll. Then Ringo came back out. And did Octopus's Garden and his solo hit the No-No song, and then he did a new song, which he said he had never performed live before. The title track from his new country record. Look Up that he just released in January of 2025. It was, okay. Next up was Colin Hay again, playing the Men At Work song, Overkill, which again got a really strong crowd response. I didn't know there were so many men at work fans in the Ringo Star crowd that was followed by the Toto song Africa, which also got a big crowd response. Here's a little bit of that Two songs later, Ringo stepped up to sing another one of the early Beatles tracks that he sang on. This one was one, the Rolling Stones had also recorded the Lenon and McCartney track. I Want to Be Your Man. It was released on the Beatles record With The Beatles, and he did that one. Well, hey, it's a great song. Even if John Lennon dismissed it as a throwaway that they only gave to the stones because they weren't gonna give'em anything great. At the time. They were kind of more competitors than they would be later. After that, Colin Hay stepped up to the mic for the third time to lead the band through"Who Can It Be Now?" And it was apparent by the end of that one that the Men At Work songs were, in fact, the most popular songs played the whole night. They were going over huge. I don't know why and I can't explain it, but it was fine with me. And from where I was sitting in the middle of the venue, it sure seemed like the crowd was loving the three Men At Work hits the most. Take a listen to a little bit of"Who Can It Be Now?" To myself. The last Toto song of the evening was next, one of my favorite rock and roll songs of all time. Hold The Line again. Luke was singing a song he didn't sing on the record, which was released all the way back in 1978, but he sounded great. Here's some of that. From there, Ringo took over with the final three songs of the night. Photograph from his Ringo album in 1973, then Act Naturally from the Help soundtrack album, and he wrapped up the show with his signature number, the Lenon and McCartney song with a little help from my friends from the seminal album, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The whole crowd was up for these three songs and singing along with the finale. Here's some of that. I. You. I need somebody to love. After that, it was over. There was no encore. The band just took their bows and they were gone and we were off to our car. And then after some serious traffic in the parking garage. We were on our way home. So my overall takeaway is that I was really glad that I saw Ringo, but seeing him perform like this. In elastic waistband track pants with his dyed jet black hair pulled forward to cover his obvious thinning hair, which I certainly know a thing or two about. Made me regret not having gone to see his earlier tours when the band was more star studded and he was in better voice and maybe greater enthusiasm, and again. I'm not picking on an old man. I'm sharing my perspective on a show that cost me as much money as the Kings of Leon show that I saw at the same venue last summer. If I'm paying full price for the ticket, I expect a full effort. And in my eyes I didn't get it. As a completist and as a diehard Beatles fan, it was still worth it going to see Ringo, but only for those reasons. And so all I can say is that you should go see Toto and or Men at work when they go on tour again. They toured together for the rest of the summer, once the June Ringo dates were complete. And if they tour again next summer, I'll be going because both Steve Lukather. And Colin Hayes sounded great, and if you've never seen Ringo before and you enjoy his offbeat charm and his musical stylings as much as I do, he is taking the All-Star Band out for another set of dates starting next week on September 10th and Chicago going through the 23rd of September. That's two weeks of shows. That includes shows in Milwaukee, Louisville, then three dates at the Venetian in Las Vegas. He has two California dates squeezed in there before he does three more nights at the Venetian to wrap up this year's touring. So go out and see a true living legend get by with a lot of help from his friends. Just keep your expectations in check. And with that, that's it for this week's episode. Thank you for joining me. I'll be back next Tuesday, and if you like what you heard today, I'd appreciate it if you would like and either subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about each new episode. And please tell your friends. Also a reminder that I release a playlist for every episode. Look for the Rock and Roll Show podcast playlist on Spotify every week. This week featuring all 21 songs from the set list of the Ringo Star Show at the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater this past June, as well as all the songs referenced in that drum solo section. So check that out. Additionally, I wanna know what you think. I'm sure you're gonna have opinions about my opinions, so leave me a comment and I'll try to respond to all of them. The Rock and Roll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and until next time, remember that life is short. So get those concert tickets.