Tina Live 2008/09 Era: A legendary career with legs endures (LA Concert Review)

Concert Review: Tina Turner
Bottom Line: A legendary career with legs endures

By Darryl Morden

Oct 14, 2008

Tina Turner has returned to the stage after eight years of retirement and brought her two-hour career retrospective to the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday.

With apologies to Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin and their feud over royal designations, Turner is the Queen of Rock -- from gritty, from-the-gut punches to over-the-top Vegas spectacle. Coming up on her 69th birthday, her voice boomed and rattled Monday at Staples Center. And while she can't move like days of old, her spirit was willing, and those legendary legs were still at work.

The first half kicked into high gear a few songs in with the rising rumbling of the Phil Spector classic "River Deep -- Mountain High," its Wall of Sound intact, followed by the British Invasion-styled "What You Get Is What You See" and a crunchy, commanding "Better Be Good to Me."

Sneaking off for the first of several outfit changes, some silly stage business by her male acrobats as fake security guards and stage crashers gave way to a synth-and-power-chord tease of the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" as she re-emerged in a diaphanous red dress for "The Acid Queen."

Surprisingly, hits from her mid-'80s comeback period came off as the least essential numbers of the night, such as a shaky "What's Love Got to Do With It." A cage match, Cirque du Soleil-goes-apocalyptic "We Don't Need Another Hero," with clips from "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," was absurd, but she pulled it off.

After an intermission of ads from tour sponsor Amway, Part 2 brought the night's musical highlight: a scaled-down run of songs that included a ballad version of the Beatles "Help," the slinky "Undercover Agent for the Blues," the soul groove of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" and earthy funk of Ann Peebles "I Can't Stand the Rain," all Tina-fied.

A fireball medley of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (but I Like It)" brought the crowd to its feet, while the James Bond theme "GoldenEye" was an obvious choice for more flashy production. But it was "Proud Mary," the Creedence song she put her stamp on 37 years ago, that still can't be beat, from slow and swampy nice to explosive and frantic rough.

For the encore, the former Anna Mae Bullock let loose with the biographical hometown rave-up "Nutbush City Limits" as she climbed into a cherry-picker crane that rose up from the stage floor and took her above the arena audience. The hoopla was contrasted by the gentle closing ballad "Be Tender With Me, Baby."

Turner began the evening telling the mostly middle-aged crowd that she was offering "a show of my past." But she delivered a confirmation that in the present, she's every bit deserving of the marquee celebration at night's end that flashed T-I-N-A, an icon-- no, make that a queen -- of American music.

Set list:

"Steamy Windows"
"Typical Male"
"River Deep -- Mountain High"
"What You Get Is What You See"
"Better Be Good to Me"
"The Acid Queen"
"What's Love Got to Do With It"
"Private Dancer"
"We Don't Need Another Hero"

Intermission

"Help"
"Undercover Agent for the Blues"
"Let's Stay Together"
"I Can't Stand the Rain"
"Jumpin' Jack Flash"/"It's Only Rock 'n Roll"
"GoldenEye"
"Addicted to Love"
"The Best"
"Proud Mary"

Encore:

"Nutbush City Limits"
"Be Tender With Me, Baby"