Vegas has always had a soft spot for a rock star with a bit of front, and Billy Idol arrived at the Fontainebleau with plenty of it. This was the first night of his residency at the hotel, and the theatre was packed and loud long before the band came on. He opened with “Viva Las Vegas,” all sneer and swagger, and the room roared its approval before he had finished the first verse. That noise kept building all night.
“Still Dancing” followed and set the pace. From there the set moved fast through “Cradle Of Love” and “Flesh For Fantasy,” and Idol worked every inch of the stage while he sang. The voice has held up remarkably well. That trademark curl is still in it, and on “Eyes Without a Face” he pulled the whole room down to a hush before letting it rip again. He knows exactly how much rope to give a song before hauling it back to the hook.
Then there is Steve Stevens. As a musician myself, I found him hard to look away from, and there was plenty to take note of. He gets his tone out of his fingers before the pedalboard gets a look in, which is why his quiet passages carried to the back of the theatre as clearly as the loud ones. He also plays with the beat rather than on it, dragging slightly behind when a phrase needs air and snapping onto the front of it when the chorus lands. That is where the drama in his playing comes from. His guitars were a show in themselves, bright and glittering under the lights, and his solo spot took in flamenco fingerwork, howling feedback and a straight rock and roll payoff without ever losing the thread.
Halfway through, the shirt came off. Bare-chested, prowling the front of the stage, Idol still has all the old mannerisms in place: the curled lip, the raised fist, the wink aimed at the front rows. The women down the front lapped up every second, and he played to them shamelessly. Forty-odd years on, the swagger has not gone anywhere.
He spoke about the early days between songs, the punk clubs and the first steps with Generation X, and about how lucky he counts himself to still be up there doing it. The crowd gave that back to him in spades. “Ready Steady Go” and “Blue Highway” into the “Top Gun Anthem” kept the pace up, then “Rebel Yell” arrived and shook the place from the back wall forward.
The encore did the rest. “Dancing With Myself,” “Hot In The City” and “White Wedding” sent a full house out into the Vegas heat still singing. Four decades in, Idol and Stevens still sound like they have something to prove, and the Fontainebleau has landed itself a cracking residency. Catch it if you are anywhere near the Strip.
Setlist: Viva Las Vegas (Elvis Presley cover), Still Dancing, Cradle Of Love, Flesh For Fantasy, 77, Love Unchained, Eyes Without a Face, Steve Stevens Guitar Solo, Mony Mony (Tommy James & the Shondells cover), Trouble With the Sweet Stuff, Ready Steady Go (Generation X song), Blue Highway / Top Gun Anthem, Rebel Yell
Encore: Dancing With Myself (Generation X song), Hot in the City, White Wedding
GALLERY – Photos by David Beech Photography
