A year and a half after his “One Last Time” tour, Rod Stewart returned to Hamburg on Tuesday. But performances at the Barclays Arena rarely shine.
When Rod Stewart begins his world tour in 2024 with the motto “One Last Time”, it seems like a final goodbye. At 80 years old and nearly six decades on stage, that’s understandable. But “One Last Time” became “One More Time” – the tour continued. On Tuesday, Stewart returned to the stage at Hamburg’s Barclays Arena.
Spectators came in large numbers, even though the arena was not completely full. Tickets, all seats, cost between 92 and 414 euros – a price that brings great expectations for this global star.
The curtains immediately rose at 8 p.m. Rod Stewart took the stage in his signature look: tousled hair, gold jacket, open shirt, gold shoes. Almost everything is the same – except for one thing: the sound. The famous grater is still there, but it sounds much thinner and weaker than before. Stewart often asked the audience to sing or let his band perform long instrumental solos while he changed clothes backstage. It seemed to be a cleverly disguised way of taking a breath.
However, he still maintains his charm. Rod Stewart repeatedly sought contact with the front row, joking and sending air kisses. And yes: his hip swing is still very precise even at 80 years old.
Musically, Rod Stewart offers a colorful potpourri of his diverse work. Anyone who has been successful for so long, of course, has a lot of great classics in their baggage: In Hamburg, these include “The First Cut Is the Deepest”, “Young Turks”, “Baby Jane”, “Maggie May”, “Downtown Train”, “Have I Told You Lately”, “Sailing” and “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”.
Stewart and his band particularly scored songs with arrangements that leaned toward swing or blues – such as “Tonight’s the Night” or “I’d Rather Go Blind”. This is fitting for an 80 year old man, who has musical roots in this genre. But what was annoying was that two songs (“Proud Mary”, “Lady Marmalade”) had to be performed without the main actors and were taken over by the band.
Traditional show elements were also not to be missed: before “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” several balls flew towards the audience, and for the finale after about two hours – “Love Train” – countless colorful balloons rained down from the ceiling of the arena.
The atmosphere fluctuated significantly throughout the evening: when the hit songs came on, the audience immediately stood up and sang along enthusiastically, but in between the atmosphere was calmer. Rod Stewart failed to captivate the audience permanently.
The 80-year-old man tries to put on an entertaining show, but often looks tense. His music is timeless, but his performance shows clear signs of age. Often the vocal power is lost, there are too many unused moments. Maybe it’s time to change the motto “One More Time” to “The Last Time” – this time for good.
