Rod Stewart – Xcel Energy Center – St. Paul MN – July 8th 2022

Live Nation and Xcel Energy Center present Rod Stewart with special guests Cheap Trick

Review and photos by Kyle Hansen

Cheap Trick was solid as always. They have been around forever and are always touring. That is why it is great being a fan of a band that is touring all the time. This tour they have been changing the set list every night. Tonight they added Hot Love which is somewhat of a deep track so it was amazing to hear live again. Downed was sung by Robins kid Robin Taylor, he did an amazing job. They also pulled out She’s Tight which is one of my favs. I love the 80’s Cheap Trick there are a lot of songs that get lost. But they also have a massive catalog so it has to be hard to choose the setlist every night. They kept the rest of the set to the standard greatest hits which is always welcome because they all are such great songs. It is amazing how Robin Zander still sounds so good.

Rod Stewart is still touring at 77 years of age. Now that this is even happening is wonderful. This is the third time I have seen Rod Stewart and every time is great. Now with being 77 and not touring for a while his voice was about 60 percent from previous times. Now that did not bother me. He still put 100 percent into the show. He had this massive curtain that came up to a massive stage, There were two huge screens on the side and a bunch all over the sides to create an amazing stage. There were three wonderful backup singers, and Rod’s amazing band.

He came out looking like the Robert Palmer video I’m Addicted To Love with the singers in black on each side. That’s exactly what he went into. He has recorded several albums under the Great American Songbook and his set list had a lot of covers tonight. The highlights were Some Guys Have All the Luck, The First Cut is the Deepest, Call Me and Rhythm of My Heart. He still was all over the stage all night long singing and dancing. It was a wonderful night of classic rock.