It was a double dose of rock royalty last night as Sir Rod Stewart, with openers Cheap Trick, made a stop at the Canadian Tire Centre as part of their 2023 North American tour. Cheap Trick kicked things off with a solid opening set, including hits such as “I Want You To Want Me,” “Dream Police,” and “The Flame.”
After a brief changeover, Stewart’s intro music, “Scotland The Brave,” piped in over the public address system. Stewart’s entrance onto the stage was preceded by a line of five women dressed in the style of Robert Palmer’s iconic “Addicted to Love” video, before he joined them to play the song as his opening number. Stewart looked and sounded great, backed by a large band of talented musicians who were dressed to the nines in classy attire.
With decades of hits to draw from, Stewart treated the large crowd to a lengthy set of his classics such as “Young Turks,” “Maggie May,” “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” and a number of his well-known covers of other artists’ songs such as “People Get Ready” and “The First Cut Is The Deepest.”
The experience was augmented by the expansive set of video screens surrounding the stage, which highlighted the action and added a visual dynamic to the great music.
Despite cancelling a recent show due to a vocal cord injury, Stewart was in fine form last night and left Ottawa fans more than satisfied. His North American tour continues tonight in Montreal.
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