Billy Idol in Des Moines, IA

There are few performers that have IT and I've been fortunate enough to see a few of them this year. Bret Michaels has it. Tom Petty has it. George Thorogood has it. Ted Nugent has it. Alice Cooper has it. Billy Idol has it. The ability to not only envelope you in the music, but make you pay attention to the entire performance. Billy Idol played the Val-Air Ballroom last night. He has a tight band in Derek Sheridian (Dream Theater - Keyboards and a touch of Les Paul guitar), Brian Tichy (drummer and a touch of Les Paul), and Steve Stevens (guitar player extraordinaire). These guys came out guns ablazing with Devil's Playground and then ripped into the hits. We heard White Wedding, Eyes Without A Face, Flesh For Fantasy, LA Woman, Rebel Yell, Sweet Sixteen, and Hot In The City. Billy played a few of the new tunes since he is strongly supporting the new CD and they were heavier than most everything else he did. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand the entire show.

I stood front and center at this show and was right next to a young blond girl and her boyfriend. During the show, she seemed to know most of the lyrics and Billy spent a tremendous amount of time singing to her, reaching out to hold her hand, and make all kinds of gestures to flirt with her. She kept him entertained and during the last song of the main set flashed him. He acted like he was lost when she did this and had to be reminded where he was and what he was doing. She was clever and waited to do this until late in the show so he'd pay her that kind of attention. Fortunately, this wasn't the only person he was paying attention to. I'd struck up conversation with a young woman from Omaha and her friend. They had seen Billy Idol in Kansas City and this was her second show in the last few months. She was excited to be so close to the stage and right up front and center, too. During the show, I handed her my Rebel Yell CD and asked her to hold it up. She was able to get Billy's attention and he signed it for her. I'm so grateful for her doing this and she was grateful for the attention.

Steve Stevens was given a solo opportunity during the show. He is one of the masters on guitar. He was playing an electric acoustic that had a built in guitar synthesizer or something that made it sound like keyboard swells when he would strum a chord. He turned that feature off for a bit and went into some Spanish style guitar. When a guy does this, you have to be very accurate to hit all of the notes with the right intensity and there is no room for sloppiness. Steve pulled this off like the master he is. He was kind enough to flip out a pick my direction, too, but it fell short and the security guard gave it to me at the end of the show.

There was no opener for this show and it was just an awesome night with Billy Idol. He was energetic, conversational, excited to be performing, and making funny faces and gestures throughout. Go see this show and buy the new CD, Devil's Playground. Billy Idol is back in a strong way.