Billy Idol stills has it
Xcite Center, Bensalem, Pa, USA March 30, 2019
By: Steve Trager
The musical career of Billy Idol has been nothing short of greatness from his early days with Generation X, to a limelight of a commercial success as a solo artist, we the music fans of his music have watched him gracefully mature while his music has become timeless classics throughout the years still remaining as a true pioneer in rock and roll.
While Billy Idol is no stranger to selling out venues in the Philly area throughout a music career spanning days at the legendary Spectrum in the nineties, to packing even small venues in the mid-summer season, Billy Idol hasn’t slowed down even packing fans in at the popular Casino venues across his recent run of dates.
There is nothing like sitting in the first few rows at a small intimate show to gaze at a stage while one of your favorite performers truly sets a music career on fire even at an “UNPLUGGED “setting.
For months leading up to a recent performance at the what we can now say is a great new venue to see any great artist up close “ The Xcite Center inside the Parx Casino nestled in Bensalem Pennsylvania just outside Philadelphia, was nothing short of fantastic.
For nearly two hours fans of Billy Idol alongside guitar axe slinger Steve Stevens were treated to a trip down memory lane with many of the cult classics spanning thirty years while giving fans an up-close storytelling segments of how many of these great songs have come full circle into prime existence molding into a mega hits for Billy Idol.
When we think about any major artist performing ”Unplugged” in the back of our minds, a few stools and a few acoustic guitars and a very relaxed show from start to finish, just the opposite the minute both Idol and Stevens walked the center stage, they didn’t sit down for a minute passing.
Just thinking about all these great songs spanning Idol’s career, many for the first time ‘Unplugged” for what I would say was a great show had to be the best ever sitting what five rows left of the stage, diffidently being that close gives you that eye contact with the performer.
Billy Idol did cover a lot of ground in this performance with a few covers, his life as a performer, and how some of his songs become a staple in his career.
Surprisingly enough, Idol left out “ The Cradle of Love “, not an overrated song, a song that reigned on MTV for weeks in the top ten back when MTV truly stood for Music Television.
Overall, it was a stellar evening full of hits, “Eyes without a face “,
“Dancing with myself “, and sealing the evening with a great acoustic version of “White Wedding “
At that point the venue went from a relaxed typical sit-down show to a full-blown everyone on your feet and time to rock out, nothing says a great show with that fan to artist interaction especially on the grandee finale to end a great evening such as this rare intimate performance.
A packed house yes, a great acoustic show, absolutely, and above all an outstanding performance from Billy Idol and Steve Stevens who never sat down once, now that’s a rock star show.
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