Ringo Starr didn’t walk onto stage to great the sold-out crowd in Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s American Music Theater; he jogged.
A lot has been made of the Beatles’ drummer’s enduring energy, carrying him through nearly seven decades playing music. But to witness this 86-year-old in person, dancing, singing, darting around the stage waving peace signs and, of course, nailing drum solos, is nothing short of wondrous. A miracle of rock ‘n’ roll if there ever was one.
Ringo and his All-Starr Band have toured through the summer and fall supporting his latest album, Long Long Road, his second record in two years produced by the legendary T-Bone Burnett; their second-to-last show landed them in rural Pennsylvania. The band played just one cut from Long Long Road (the delightfully on-brand “Choose Love”)—rather, the tour’s setlist creates a veritable jukebox of pop and rock hits spanning more than half a century.
That’s because Ringo’s band aren’t just backing musicians—they’re stars themselves.
Guitarist Steve Lukather and saxophonist Warren Ham were members of Toto. Guitarist Colin Hay led Men at Work. Bassist Hamish Stuart sang in Average White Band. Percussionist Gregg Bissonette has played with David Lee Roth and ELO. And multi-instrumentalist Buck Johnson has toured with Aerosmith. In short—there’s a deep catalogue of hits to choose from.
“I promise to everyone in the room, you’ll know at least one song,” joked Ringo.
The All-Starr Band kicked things off by going way, way back, opening with the Carl Perkins song “Matchbox,” which the Beatles recorded in 1963. They followed it up with “It Don’t Come Easy,” from Ringo’s post-Beatles 1973 solo album.
Then the jukebox effect began to kick in as the band launched into Toto’s hit “Rosanna” (complete with a fiery saxophone solo), Average White Band’s “Pick Up the Pieces” and Men at Work’s “Down Under.”
The theatrical pop of Toto, horn-driven funk of AWB, and playful new wave of Men at Work—alongside classic Beatles and solo Ringo cuts—might not seem the most natural bedfellows. But that’s not quite the point here; Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band present such a joyful, exuberant show, the crowd is easily caught up in the magic of these songs, sung by the men who made them hits.
A sense of levity was present throughout—from the older couple slow-dancing in the aisle to peace signs shooting up between each song to Colin Hay’s stage banter.
“I don’t get recognized as much anymore as I did 45 years ago,” he said, grinning. “Except sometimes, when I’m picking up my medication at the CVS pharmacy and my song is playing in the store. Don’t you realize I’m a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning artist? Nope? And so I step forward to the counter, tell them my birthday, and get my meds.”
Unsurprisingly, it was the Beatles cuts that drew the most energy. Ringo stepped down from his raised drum kit to sing “Yellow Submarine,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and “Octopus’s Garden.” During the 1965 Beatles cut “Act Naturally,” Ringo sang of a man “beggin’ down upon his bended knee,” and actually knelt down on the ground, then bounded back up.
He wrapped the show with likely his most beloved tune: “With a Litlte Help From My Friends,” before returning for a quick encore of John and Yoko’s “Give Peace a Chance.”
Ringo’s show isn’t a Beatles review. It’s better: a handful of musicians who’ve been around for decades, truly representing the history of rock—and—roll, playing their most beloved music to an adoring audience. It’s as real as it gets.
