Concert Review
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band
Seneca Allegany Casino
Outdoor Stage
Salamanca, NY
Saturday June 4, 2016
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto
As Starr stated at his press conference on Friday “It’s still a thrill” to be out playing and he’s thoroughly enjoying it. Currently the band includes organist, keys Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey), drummer Gregg Bissonette (David Lee Roth), multi-instrumentalist Warren Hamm, bassist Richard Page (Mr. Mister) and guitarists Steve Lukather (Toto) and Todd Rundgren. This particular version of the All-Starrs has now been together for a shade over 4 years and it really shows in their playing as they are a very tight unit.
The show started off with Starr at the helm for the first three songs before a mind-blowing version of Rundgren’s 1972 hit “I Saw The Light” took over. Rundgren fresh off a solo tour of his own seemed to sing the song with more zest than he usually does even with his solo band.
This marked the start of the other band members intertwining their own hits as Rolie did Santana’s “Evil Ways” followed by Lukather’s “Rosanna”. The show flowed very well at times but I’m not quite sure we needed a ten minute version of “Rosanna”.
Starr must have a hard time deciding a set list. From the large number of songs he has to sift through of just his own alone must make it a very difficult process. Since the last time I had seen Ringo and his band (2014) they did add three songs to their 25 song set including “You’re Sixteen” and the John Lennon penned “I’m The Greatest”.
The show rolled along with Rundgren belting out Utopia’s “Love Is The Answer”, Page followed with his #1 smash “Broken Wings” before Lukather brought the crowd out of their seats for a rollicking “Hold The Line”.
To close out the show it was all Starr as he saved one of his best, “Photograph” for the start of his finale. This also included “Act Naturally”, “With A Little Help From My Friends” and “Give Peace A Chance” as Starr professed love and peace as he always does and quickly exited.
This band has gone through many changes since its inception in 1989. The supergroup lives up to their name and then some. This particular version of the band may go down as the most memorable for not only being together the longest but for pure musicianship. Each member felt very fortunate to be playing with each other and they all tipped their hat to Starr as for the reason. As for Starr he is really enjoying the whole experience and says how grateful and fortunate he is to still be doing this. His vocals are still strong as he demonstrated throughout the two hour set. Not too bad considering this was only the second show of the tour and everyone sounded like they were in mid-tour form. If it isn’t broke don’t fix it the old saying goes. Let’s hope we get to see another tour somewhere down the road.
Set List
Matchbox
It Don’t Come Easy
What Goes On
I Saw The Light
Evil Ways
Rosanna
Kyrie
Bang The Drum All Day
Boys
Don’t Pass Me By
Yellow Submarine
Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen
You’re Sixteen
I’m The Greatest
You Are Mine
Africa
Oye Como Va
I Wanna Be Your Man
Love Is The Answer
Broken Wings
Hold The Line
Photograph
Act Naturally
With A Little Help From My Friends
Give Peace A Chance
Special thanks to Phil Pantano from Pantano & Associates LLC
