Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band Concert Review

Ringo Starr has been on tour again lately, and in fact, he just announced that he and his All-Starr Band will be going on tour yet again later this year.

However, I was able to catch one of his shows last month, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

I had not seen a Ringo show in about four years or so, although I did see him at a public event last October at Strand's Bookstore in New York City (see my review from October 17, 2016:)

In any case, I figure Ringo and his All-Starr Band are a sure thing as far as concerts are concerned. You have one of the two remaining living members of the Fab Four, so already, you have a musical legend on the stage. When you add the prominent members of other bands on the stage along with him, you are bound to get an enjoyable night of music and fun.

And that is what we got at this show, which I took my son to go see.

The wait before the show began was unusually long, because the security line to get into the building was atrocious. Of course, later in the night came the Orlando attack in the gay night club, so one can understand the need for tight security, given where the world is right now, the state of things.

Still, eventually, Ringo and the band came on, and Ringo began right away with a joke, saying good evening to everyone at "Worchestershire." Later in the evening, he mentioned that there was a bit of a debate on the tour bus as to how to pronounce the name of the town (the correct way to pronounce is, as I understand it, is Worster).

Surprisingly, Ringo did not open with "It Don't Come Easy," which distinguished this concert as the first one ever where I saw him and he did not open up with that particular song. However, it was the second song on the set list this evening.

Of course, he sprinkled in some of the Beatles songs that he was known for, particularly his traditional closer, "With a Little Help From My Friend."

I was a bit surprised by some of the songs that he did not include in this particular set, including "Back Off Bugaloo." Not sure if he played it in all of the previous concerts that I saw of him, but pretty sure that he played that in most of them. Also, he did not perform "Octopus's Garden," which is always one of my favorites that he does.

However, the main thing was that this was a very enjoyable concert for both of us! It was a real pleasure, as it always is, to share this experience and the memories that both my son and I will share. And it was an opportunity to see a real rock icon in person, as Ringo is one of the two remaining ex-Beatles still alive. True, he has been touring for some time now, but at age 76, you just cannot say with certainty how many more opportunities there will be to see him perform like this. I wanted to make sure that my son got the chance to see a member of perhaps the most legendary group, if and when the chance came. And this was the big chance, so I took him to see it!