Michael Bolton — A Spellbinding Vocal Seducer Bewitches Opatija (2023)

Michael Bolton
Opatija / Ljetna pozornica / Croatia
Thursday, 6 July 2023

---

Michael Bolton. Who hasn’t heard of him? The legendary American singer-songwriter and heartbreaker, who has sold over 75 million albums worldwide, racked up eight Billboard Top 10 hits, released a string of singles (two of which hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart), won two Grammys and six American Music Awards, isn’t exactly a regular visitor to our corner of Europe.

Does anyone remember Michael Bolton playing Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana on 25 January 2010? Unbelievable how time flies. And in Croatia it goes back even further — his last appearance there was at the Pula Arena on 12 July 2009, a full 14 years ago. This visit to Opatija clearly isn’t part of any proper European tour. Just three days before Opatija he only played Este in Italy. That’s it as far as Europe goes, making this a genuinely exclusive event. Mid-August brings a jump to Indonesia, then a handful of US dates — and you won’t believe it — two more Southern European shows in mid-September (in Plovdiv and Athens). The man clearly takes gig invitations on a case-by-case basis. Oh, and he’s just booked a show in Lucerne, Switzerland, for next year.

He’s not sitting on his hands, though. He’s on the verge of releasing his 25th studio album, »Spark Of Light«, due out in mid-July this year. A new Bolton album after quite a gap — and one where he’s gone entirely with original material. Not that he played a single one of those songs in Opatija.

Let’s back up a bit. Bolton broke through to mass popularity at the end of the eighties when he made the stylistic shift away from AOR/hard rock — a direction represented by the excellent studio albums »Michael Bolton« (1983) and »Everybody’s Crazy« (1985), plus two slightly older records he cut at the turn of the decade with the arena rock outfit Blackjack. Superb studio work all round, commercially overlooked on release, but essential listening for any AOR fan. You can’t leave out his first two solo albums either: »Michael Bolotin« (1975) and »Everyday Of My Life« (1976). Those rock years — stretching back from 1987 all the way to the start of his career — have consequently been all but invisible on his concert setlists for years, because after »The Hunger« (1987), and especially after the massively successful »Soul Provider« (1989), his audience completely changed. And naturally, that same audience shows up to his concerts expecting those hits — and gets them.

The show was billed for 9 p.m., but the venue filled up slowly, so they held off for an extra half hour — partly to let the lighting effects hit harder once the crowd was in place. Between the seats and the standing area at the back, around 2,000 people came together. All Bolton devotees. Or to be more precise, and it bears emphasizing: predominantly Bolton’s female devotees.

A pompous fanfare intro for Go the Distance (Disney animation fans will probably know it) — but only through the first verse. Then a pre-recorded announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen! Michael Bolton!”, and the man himself appears on stage, black guitar in hand. As he strolled from stage left to center, the band had already shifted through the transition into the first cover of the evening — Ben E. King’s Stand By Me. Hell of an opener, reaching all the way back to 1961. Its job? Warm the audience up, immediately, in an instant. Covers are a major part of Bolton’s career, and frankly, he owes them a tremendous debt for his commercial breakthrough. He kept digging into the sixties when the band moved on to the Bee Gees original To Love Somebody. The vocal cords were duly warmed up, and the crowd came alive in earnest — the lion’s share being women, as you could clearly hear every time a wave of excitement swept through the floor. Next came Bolton’s breakthrough single: a cover from the album »The Hunger« (1987), that transitional record where you can still find some real rock/AOR cuts, though it was already shrewdly laced with ballads. Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay. This is one of those moments you come to a Bolton concert for. This is where the legend lights up with everything he’s got. Vocally. That velvet voice ages like fine wine. And there’s something in it that captures the very qualities defining the vocal character of Black singers — which is exactly what makes Bolton unique. Between the expected soul acrobatics, Michael had the crowd thoroughly on their feet, proving that the legendary musician who turned seventy at the end of this past February refuses to let the years get the better of him.   

Bolton performed the first two songs with an acoustic guitar — much like he did in Ljubljana over a decade ago. The backing band is top-shelf. Every one of them razor-sharp, with jazz training in the mix. Keyboardist Brian BecVar has been with Bolton for eleven years, guitarist Ryan Parrino one year less. Then there’s the outstanding drummer Drew McKeon (credits include Hall & Oates, Daryl Hall, Peter Cetera, Richard Marx, Julian Lennon, Todd Rundgren, Living Colour, Ben E. King, Dave Mason, Ron Pope, Bill Champlin), bassist Nelson Braxton (Rachelle Ferrell, Steve Miller, Boz Skaggs), and the versatile Jason Peterson DeLaire, who moved between the keyboards and the right side of the stage whenever the saxophone parts came up. Bolton is also joined by two backing vocalists: Ashley Locheed and Chrissi Poland. This is the guarantee of perfection — the setting in which Bolton’s legendary vocal stature shines at concerts, magnetic, intense, irresistible…

For Make You Feel My Love (original by Bob Dylan), Bolton called Poland up to join him for the first vocal duet of the evening. That was only the second Bolton original of the night, followed by the expected »Soul Provider« smash How Am I Supposed to Live Without You — a track Bolton actually wrote back in 1982, originally intended for Laura Branigan, who recorded it first and narrowly missed the Billboard Top 10 with it. Then he stepped off stage, not before cuing up Check Please, leaving the band to let loose in an instrumental passage rooted in jazz and funk — a dazzling dialogue of performance finesse and flawless technical command.

Then came an interesting, if rather odd, decision. While Michael was relaxing backstage, Chrissi stepped back out front and performed two Bolton originals: Missing You Now and When I’m Back On My Feet Again. Why didn’t Michael do them? Or to put it another way — the show could have done without those eight minutes entirely. It vaguely recalled the Ljubljana concert in 2010, when Toni Cetinski jumped on stage mid-show as Bolton’s special guest and played four of his own songs. Bolton didn’t repeat that mistake this time around — Cetinski literally stole the show in Ljubljana (Poland is not Cetinski). The girl certainly showed off her vocal strengths during the set, but there are plenty of singers like her, and her solo spot, soul acrobatics and all, didn’t leave any particularly memorable mark. Which brings us to another (minor) gripe. Bolton’s voice would be better served in duets by a Black female vocalist — if only to more fittingly complement that astonishingly full and expressive ‘velvety richness’ that places him on a very particular pedestal among the world’s pop and rock singers. The contrast would be sharper, and the emotional and passionate payoff — the thing that pulls a concert audience along with the performer — would be that much greater.

Michael walks back onstage. The show is heading into its final stretch and needs to pick up intensity. Here comes Bolton’s mega-hit When a Man Loves a Woman — another cover, the original belonging to Percy Sledge — performed as a duet with Poland. Another gut-punch moment. Emotions surge, the crowd rises. Ryan Parrino swaps his Fender Stratocaster for a Gibson LP. The finale is sharpening its rock edge, calling for a fatter guitar tone. He stays on the LP right through to the end. Then another crowd favorite, this one more uptempo: How Can We Be Lovers. The crowd on their feet, then Steel Bars — co-written by Bolton and Bob Dylan — and a close with the title track of »Time, Love and Tenderness« (1991), a song the audience most definitely knew.

Back onstage for the obligatory encore, Bolton first introduced the members of his band, then launched into another cover — Bill Withers’ Lean On Me. The true finale belonged to the superb title track of »Soul Provider« (1989), which hasn’t been a regular fixture in Bolton’s live sets lately — making it a brilliant send-off, the legendary musician taking his leave of the audience in blazing, full-throttle style. Interestingly, Bolton didn’t work a cover of Georgia On My Mind into this set, though the first half — packed wall to wall with covers — certainly didn’t go without the original ballad Said I Loved You … But I Lied.

Bolton simply sweeps you off your feet with his vocal charisma. With his delivery and all the passion and emotion that radiate so intensely from every line he takes on. They come alive through his voice and shake you to the core. The man is largely quite static on stage — true chansonnier style — but his presence doesn’t need any running around. His voice does all the work. True, he doesn’t throw himself into the lyrics quite as ferociously as he did in his prime, having recently crossed into his seventies, but there’s something undeniable there. As a performer, that full, vivid voice keeps him in a category of one on the world stage. A seducer and a charmer. Nobody can take that away from him. Not even after all the years that have rushed by since his last major hit. An utterly captivating experience — one that, face to face with this musician, continues to move and shake you without losing an ounce of its power, with Michael Bolton himself, vocally and physically, still going strong.

Bolton’s new album »Spark Of Light« drops the day after tomorrow, 14 July 2023. We’ll see how much live support it gets in the coming year. On European soil included.

text: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik (no. 1 – 21) & Edita Klemen (no. 22 – 25)

Setlist:
1. Go the Distance (intro)
2. Stand by Me (orig. Ben E. King)
3. To Love Somebody (orig. Bee Gees)
4. (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay (orig. Otis Redding)
5. Said I Loved You…but I Lied
6. You Don’t Know Me (orig. Eddy Arnold)
7. That’s Life (orig. Marion Montgomery)
8. Make You Feel My Love (orig. Bob Dylan)
9. How Am I Supposed to Live Without You
10. Check Please
11. Missing You Now / When I’m Back On My Feet Again
12. When a Man Loves a Woman (orig. Percy Sledge)
13. How Can We Be Lovers
14. Steel Bars
15. Time, Love and Tenderness
—encore—
16. Lean on Me (orig. Bill Withers)
17. Soul Provider

---