Ringo!

 You may not even think Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the Beatles. You may dismiss him as a clown who happened to luck into his stint with the greatest rock band of all time. You may think he only sang the stupid Beatles songs like Yellow Submarine and Octopus' Garden. And ya know, you could be right. But I don't care. He's a Beatle, he's Ringo. And I love the guy.

Ringo Starr brought his All Starr Band to the Astro Amphitheater last night and made a bunch of boomers like us very very happy for a couple of hours. This years version of the traveling road show includes the ever-present guitarist Steve Lukather of Toto (who has let his dark bushy hair go completely grey), sax player Warren Ham of Kansas and Toto, bassist Hamish Stuart of Average White band, drummer Greg Bissonnette of numerous bands, keyboardist Buck Johnson of Aerosmith and Colin Hay of Men At Work. 

The way a Ringo concert goes has been the same since he started this concept back in the early 2000's. It's an oldies tour. But with real band members and 3 hits apiece. It moves along, it changes directions, it keeps you interested the whole time and it's got no speed bumps.

The concert starts with Ringo, cracking jokes, singing off key (as is his schtick) and playing Matchbox and It Dont Come Easy before running back up the stairs to get behind the drums (yeah he did trip on his way up ). Lukather, one of the greatest and most underrrated guitarists of all time, takes over for a Toto tune, Rosanna. Now it's rollin. Stuart took over with Pick Up The Pieces, a hit from 1975's Average White Band, a great instrumental featuring the smooth sax of Ham. 

Then came Colin Hay. Colin Hay has some of the most distinctive pipes of all time (IMO) and his brief time on top in the 80's with Men At Work was glorious. I loved Men at Work. Hay's voice was like an instrument of its own. And dammit, he still sounds great. Much the same as when I saw him at the Civic back in 1984. Down Under was fabulous.

Taking turns on the hits we all knew backwards and forwards, Lukather did Africa, with Hay hitting the high notes and Hold The Line with it's distinctive keyboard opening from Johnson. Stuart fronted Cut The Cake and Work to Do. Hay sang Overkill and Who Can It Be Now with the same gusto he had in the 1980's.

Then Ringo would come front and center to close it out with Photograph (geez buddy stop yelling Photograph the entire concert) and With a Little Help From My Friends along with a bit of Give Peace a Chance.

I've seen this band of greats 4 times now and it's truly different each time because the band changes members except for Lukather who is never not working. We have seen Gregg Rolie doing Santana songs, Todd Rundgren doing his thing, the dude from Mister Mister hitting the high notes and one year had Randy Bachman doing Guess Who and BTO stuff.

If you are of a certain age, your youth is getting farther and farther away every minute. Ringo is 84 years old. McCartney is 82. Your chances to witness even a sliver of what the Beatles meant to us is fading. Go see this band before you can't any longer. You will be in heaven for two hours.