At about 8:30, the band took to the stage, with Ringo running on to the strains of the “Billy Shears” intro of “With A Little Help from My Friends”. The band broke immediately into “It Don’t Come Easy”, with Billy Squier playing Rickenbacker electric guitar, and Edgar Winter handling saxophone duties.
Next up was Ringo’s performance of “What Goes On”, which proved to be a treat for the ASB faithful. ASB tour veterans have long lamented the inclusion of any “new” songs being rotated into the set list. The song makes its stage debut on this tour (and was performed on the aforementioned Tonight Show broadcast). It sounded remarkably fresh, and Ringo was in fine voice, singing this one in the original key. He introduced the song as “the only ‘Lennon-McCartney-Starkey’ song ever written”, adding “but I’m going to change all that – I’m gonna change it to ‘Starkey-McCartney-Lennon’” which had the Beatle fans in hysterics, with reference to the much-ballyhooed Lennon-McCartney/McCartney-Lennon conflict.

Ringo then played the old Carl Perkins standby “Honey Don’t” before turning the mic over to the rotating ASB cast. First up was Billy Squier, who acknowledged Ringo’s introduction, replying “thanks Paul”, which was met with a mix of good-natured chuckles and groans. Following his performance of “Everybody Wants You”, he introduced “our next contestant”, Edgar Winter, who led the band through a blistering version of “Free Ride”.

Next up was Sheila E. with “A Love Bizarre”, followed by Ringo singing from behind the kit with “Boys” and then it was on to Richard Marx. While his placement in the band raised a few eyebrows by Beatle fans early on, he turned in a couple of suitable hits for the night and played solid rhythm guitar throughout the set. Before kicking in to his first single “Don’t Mean Nothing” he alluded to his placement in the cast, saying it was all a mistake, as he is right next to Ricky Martin in Ringo’s Rolodex.

Marx turned it over to Rod Argent, who croaked his way through “She’s Not There”, a hit for his old band, The Zombies. What he lacked in vocal presence, he more than made up for with his virtuoso Hammond organ playing.

Closing the first set was Ringo’s tribute to George Harrison, “Never Without You”, and a rousing “Yellow Submarine”. Ringo then left the stage for the “solo” set, which included Winter (with help from Argent) doing “Dying To Live” and Squier & Winter performing Robert Johnson’s “Ramblin’ On My Mind”. The rest of the band, sans Ringo, returned to the stage for a ripping version of “Frankenstein”, on which Edgar Winter alternately played synthesizer, timbale drums and saxophone. ASB and Ringo fans will note that “Frankenstein” was a #1 hit in 1973, and was knocked out of that slot by Paul McCartney’s “My Love”, which in turn was replaced by George Harrison’s “Give Me Love”, which was then supplanted by ASB-alumnus and 5th Beatle Billy Preston’s “Will It Go Round In Circles”. Talk about being known by the company you keep…

Ringo returned to the stage for the second set, leading off with “Photograph” and the title track from his most recent album “Choose Love”. Marx followed with “Should’ve Known Better” (NOT the similarly titled Beatle song “I Should Have Known Better”, which ultimately had me lamenting a blown opportunity to include even a riff or vocal reference from that one for good measure. Besides, think of the inevitable Lennon/Marx jokes!).

Sheila E. came front and center for a percussion laden “The Glamorous Life”, and Ringo remained at the kit for “I Wanna Be Your Man”. Squier opted to forsake his signature hit, “The Stroke”, in favor of “Rock Me Tonite”, and Rod Argent closed the guest portion of the show with the anthemic “Hold Your Head Up”. His vocals were far better suited to this “stadium” rocker than to the more delicate Zombies song performed earlier in the show.

Ringo closed out the set by leading the band through “Act Naturally” and “Memphis in Your Mind” (which was also performed on the last tour in 2003). The latter was largely lost on those in attendance. While my usual set list gripes have focused on rotating alternate titles (i.e. hits he has not yet performed on stage) into the repertoire, delivering, say, the oft-performed “You’re Sixteen” in place of “Memphis” would have been a welcome substitution. In addition to these minor set list quibbles, many fans (myself included) were disappointed that bassist Hamish Stuart (of Average White Band fame and one-time Paul McCartney band member) was not given a spotlight turn to perform either “Pick Up The Pieces” or “Cut The Cake”! (Editor's(RK) Note: We will be seeing Ringo in South Florida July 8 - hope these songs are included in the show by then. I saw AWB in Detroit - it was a riot - literally - and I met Hamish backstage at a McCartney show awhile back "Oh, you were at THAT show?").

The evening closed with the “built-in” encore of “With A Little Help from My Friends”. In all, the set was fast-paced and featured both better backing vocals and musicianship than the last outing. Ringo’s playing was solid and energetic throughout, showing no signs of a slowdown as he approaches his 66th birthday next month.

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It should be noted that while “Hold Your Head Up” was credited to Argent’s namesake band, he was not the vocalist on the original recording (it was sung by Russ Ballard).; Similarly, while Argent wrote the aforementioned Zombies song, it was his band mate Colin Blunstone who handled lead vocal chores on the original hit. While on point, “Free Ride”, performed earlier in the show, was a hit for The Edgar Winter Group in 1973; however, that recording featured lead vocals by Dan Hartman. This is not a major issue, as the ASB has always been about the songs (“the ones you know and love”). Precedent in this case rests with Simon Kirke performing “Shooting Star”, Joe Walsh singing “Life in the Fast Lane”, and even Ringo himself belting out “Love Me Do”, among others.

As the 20th anniversary of the All-Starr project looms in the not too distant future, Beatle fans will be feverishly anticipating which rock luminaries will be next to join in the fun. A long overdue and most welcome addition to our Beatle bookshelves would be an Anthology-type retrospective of the wealth of musicians and performances connected with the band. In the meantime, take the time to see this incarnation of this ASB, which is rich with hits, memories and spirited performances.