David Cassidy on the Web
Cassidy needs to chat less, sing more
February 15, 2010
By Karen Sorensen
The Courier News
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews
Given that David Cassidy spent years of his career doing splashy Las Vegas spectacles, it probably should be no huge surprise that in concert he's a bit heavy on the schmaltz and "you're the best audience in the world" patter.
And that's a shame, given that Cassidy has a voice that's almost as strong as it was in his teens and a stage presence that belies his 59 years.
His Saturday night show at Elgin's Hemmens Cultural Center started out strongly, with a revved-up version of the "Partridge Family" classic "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat" followed by an interesting choice, Robert Johnson's "Crossroads." Eric Clapton need not worry he'll be challenged in the blues department, but Cassidy took a nice vocal approach on the old classic.
From there, however, the show devolved into too much inane "conversation" with the audience and not enough music.
As might be expected, much of the crowd was made up of middle-aged women who still harbor a crush on Cassidy from his heartthrob "Partridge Family" days, now 40 years in the past. Their enthusiasm was infectious, with one woman shouting, "I feel 17 again!"
Two in particular were delighted to be in the presence of their idol, and Cassidy seemed equally entertained by their front-row antics. "How great are those two," he asked early on. "They're just laughing their butts off."
By the fifth or sixth time he gave them a shout out - not to mention the seemingly endless rounds of hand-shaking with front-row audience members - the whole thing had grown a bit stale. And it became downright boring later in the show, when he discovered a group of women who had traveled from Germany and the Netherlands to see him.
Cool? Yes. Who knew he still had such devoted fans? But irritating, as well, in that he asked each woman their name at least twice and had them keep repeating the towns from which they came. At one point, he asked them to give him a phone number where he might contact them later and that seemed to take at least five minutes.
Fortunately, those there to get a "Partridge Family" fix were not disappointed. Of the dozen songs Cassidy performed, at least half were from his television heyday, including "Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque," "Echo Valley 2-6809," "I Woke Up in Love This Morning," "I'll Meet You Halfway" and a jazzy version of "Get Happy." As would be expected, "I Think I Love You" closed out the show, which featured a 15-minute intermission and no encore.
Interestingly, one of the highlights of the concert was an impromptu version of "Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted," which he said he hadn't performed in 35 years and for which he had to help his band by shouting out the chord changes. He also did a nice version of "Cherish" from his 2004 platinum CD, "Then and Now."
If only all of his "improv" material had been as successful. An acoustic section in which he attempted and sort of completed three Beatles songs - "In My Life," "Blackbird" and "Hide Your Love Away" - was a mess. The spontaneous session seemed to delight Cassidy, who chatted away about how much he loved his fans, but left that audience wanting more.
As Elvis would have said, "a little less conversation, a little more action, please."
