LIVE AND KICKIN'

Kristina     

According to US

I had forgotten how much I loved this concert until I received this DVD recently. Thanks to whomever was ultimately responsible for having this mission accomplished. I am forever in your debt.

This takes me back to when I was 14, literally. I was one of the fortunate ones who had Showtime and lived in utter bliss while this was showing. This was pre-VCR for my family, so to make the most of it, I watched it every time it was on. I'm not joking. If it aired on Tuesday night at 2am, I set my alarm and got up and sacked out on the living room couch to get my Rick fix. I'm sure my high school teachers wondered why I was extremely tired in that time frame - or also why I was extremely testy those times I knew it was on at home while I was there at school. I wanted every moment branded into my brain as I didn't know when or if I'd ever see this concert again. The last time it aired, I even audio taped it. By then I knew every kick and every pose Rick struck in each song that I could see it in my brain while I listened. After that audio taping, I also learned every breath that Rick took, and every scream-filled moment from the audience in-between those breaths.

Flash ahead 22 years, and I'm amazed that I knew that concert so well that even now I can tell you what is missing from the original. Ok, so I cheated a bit on the years and did have a very snowy and very static-y bootleg copy from Showtime that I acquired about 7 or so years ago. I popped in that DVD, and my brain immediately thought, "it's so clear!" and "it sounds so good!"

Light of Love      

I wish it had been released on DVD exactly how it originally aired, but that's me being anal. I liked seeing the "Behind the Scenes" backstage stuff before the show, and Rick getting ready in the dressing room, singing a few bars of Jessie's Girl (because we all know that he does that every time, right? <wink>) and the practical joke pie-in-the-face to Dana. Then, the band taking "The Walk". It's nice these are included as extras, and I guess if you don't want to see that every time you watch, it is more convenient. When the music starts up for Kristina, and you see Rick doing his stretches and waiting for his cue you feel like you're still getting a bit of the behind the scenes treatment. 

Ahh - the announcer. "Please welcome, Live & Kickin' from the Universal Amphitheatre....Rick Springfield!!" I absolutely love that this is what you hear on the DVD menu. It just keeps playing repeatedly until you choose something. I listened for a while. You guys already know I'm a geek, so that statement doesn't embarrass me. The smoke machine, the parachute pants, I'm totally eating this up. :-)

I love(d) this set list. It makes me long to hear Rick do some of these songs live again. His energy is still the same, the voice not so much the same. I guess I really haven't noticed the difference until now. There were no cover songs - or if there were, they are not included here. His banter with the audience is diminished some on this DVD also, and that is one thing that I love about his live shows - that he doesn't just stand there and sing and then leave. The audience noise is also extremely lowered in the DVD version. That kind of upsets me. One of the things I find so appealing about live shows & live CD's is hearing the audience. There is one spot in particular that stands out for me on this DVD - it's where Rick is talking to the crowd before performing "Inside Silvia". He says, "This next song is from Working Class Dog" The roar from the crowd is great - and Rick does his sheepish look, and his smooth the hair down in the back move -- which looks funny in the DVD version, because you don't know why he paused and did that because you can't hear the screams. Then he says, "It's called Inside Silvia". The crowd roared again, but the viewer doesn't hear that.

I do have a new-found affinity for the "What Kind of Fool Am I" performance on this. I never noticed the way he stroked the microphone stand before when he did this one. Or the way he scrunched up his shoulders, and just hung onto that dang thing. Now that I've pointed this out to you, you won't forget it again either. I'm starting a petition to bring this one back to the current set list -sans guitar- just give the dude a mic stand please. :-) 

 

Love is Alright Tonite
The other extra worth mentioning, the "backstage pass costume change" of course occurred in the original as it happened, in-between JG & IDEFY. You still see a bit of that now while watching the concert, except you can't hear what Rick and the band are saying. It's at this point that you hear the screams from the audience. When you watch it as an extra, you hear the comments, the joking about the man peeing as they walk into the bathroom... Rick changing his pants. The darn DVD still won't let you scroll down a bit there though. THAT they could have improved :-) Why they've bleeped-out the swearing is anyone's guess, there is no rating on this DVD so I don't know why that was necessary. It's just annoying. Speaking of annoying, that's the other extra: The slideshow of NEVER BEFORE SEEN private photos. Just a few photos, which I swear I've seen before (if not those, something extremely similar then) that cruise by in silence - no music, no nothing. Good thing there are some captions. The first three are album covers. (gee, I've seen those somewhere before) Why only 3? Why do the photos stop in 1983? Rick's career didn't end there, LIO wasn't the last album.... this extra gets a big WHATEVER stamped on it.

Now I'm going to pick on the packaging, specifically the front & back. Who picked the picture that's on the front? Were they fired? God, I hope so. This is obviously the pose at the point (which is edited out of the DVD) where Rick tells the audience, "If anyone gets intimidated by the cameras, just intimidate them back, alright" and proceeds to look sexily into the camera. Which I'll state again, looks stupid & out of place if you haven't seen the original -- all of the sudden Rick is coming on to the camera before breaking into the next song. Why didn't they use the "tour pose" from the Live & Kickin tour shirt, or program? That would have been a better choice in my opinion. On the back -- a couple of better shots of the show, and one fan frozen in an immortal scream. I wonder who she is, and if she knows she's that "famous" now? One more picky thing, and then I'm done -- Track number 7 is listed as "What Kind of Fool am I to lose" You and I both know what's wrong with that one. 

In case you couldn't tell by now, I'm extremely happy to have this piece of RS history on DVD -- regardless of it's flaws. I think a novel idea would be for Rick to perform this set-list again, now, in 2005 so we could have the two to compare. It won't happen, but I can dream - can't I? - Michelle P.

 

Everybody's Girl

It's pretty obvious why they named the show Live and Kickin, he sure does a lot of kicks and jumps. A lot! I thought he had way, way too much blush on (and just who was in charge of make up for that - BJP). It was funny to watch him do the water spit in the bathroom without having anyone to spit it at. I guess that was something he used to do, then it turned into an audience thing at some point in his career. I hate the way the audio is out of synch on the DVD, it really messes it up. And whoever decided that the background singer needed to be more prominent on the DVD than they were on the Showtime Special needs to be shot! I much prefer the Showtime version. I thought Rick's voice just sounded better in general on that. And though I thought getting the DVD would save me from having to transfer my copy to preserve on a DVD, I will be doing that at some point because they've messed it up enough for me to want to keep the original
Back when this came out, I was working my way through college, making minimum wage working at a hotel. I knew someone who would compile footage of Rick and sell it for 25.00 for a 2 hour tape. That was a lot of money for me back then, but I'd save up and about every 3 months I'd order one. I had no idea there had been a Showtime Special (certainly couldn't afford cable back then) or what was coming on the tape. So when I got it, I popped it in the VCR (that I had paid about 800.00 for and charged it on my JC Penney charge card, and then it took me about 2 years to pay for it) and was in total awe. To be able to see him perform a lot of the songs I had only been able to listen to up to that point was just incredible. That white outfit certainly made and left an impression for a long time.

 
I Get Excited

Kristina
Love the smokey entrance he makes and he starts it right off with one of those high kicks.
The Light of Love
Nice double kick - lots and lots of energy
Love is Alright Tonite
More kicks! Love the "sweat from the brow" move. The song seems to have a little more energy now, oddly enough (odd to say because this performance as a whole is so full of energy). The problem with it now is you know it's the last song, so that's kind of a bummer
Everybody's Girl
Nice Spot light and guitar moment. Nice move during the "seasoned connoisseur lady killer" line. Love the slap during "woke me up in a hurry"
Nice move kind of doing the splits as he plays the guitar. Kind of does that same thing a lot now.
A lot of the girls were sitting down, I wonder if they were told to. 
I Get Excited
This is probably the most famous and watched part of the show since they used this as the video for the song. LOVE him singing that second version by himself. Then at the end, the oh so famous point.

 
Just One Kiss

Just One Kiss
Love the eyebrow raise. Pretty straight forward performance. I love this song, but I like it when he does it now and pokes fun at it. Very entertaining.
What Kind of Fool Am I
No guitar, which is usually a problem for Ron, I mean Rick (they kept calling him Ron on the special photo section of the DVD) because he doesn't seem to quite know what to do with his hands or his legs, but he was busy seducing the mic stand during this, so everything worked out fine. And he had his legs in control.
Calling All Girls
He had a lot of hand movements in this and didn't play his guitar as much as he would now if he was performing this. I think since this was the first time I had ever seen him in concert, I got the impression that the guitar was just there kind of as a prop and that he'd play it just whenever. It wasn't until late 2001 when I saw him play the Star Spangled Banner at EFX that I thought "damn, that was good" and it kind of hit me like a brick what a good (and real) guitar player he was. It's just now when I watch this concert that it occurs to me that this must be where I got the misimpression of his skills.
Inside Silvia
Suck! Background singer is too overpowering. This is my favorite Rick Springfield song, and this is probably my least favorite performance of it. Interesting to see a guitar solo instead of a keyboard solo during this.
April 24, 1981
His eyes are so great during this

 

What Kind of Fool Am I?

Carry me Away
Love this version the way it starts out just Rick and his guitar and the band joins in later.
Red Hot and Blue Love
He makes a trip out in the audience. Obviously this is something that is just in his blood. He took some roses. I'm sure I'm not the only one just waiting for him to smash them. He does this double kick move. It's the exact same kind of move I'm supposed to do at some point during my Tae Bo workout, and I just won't ever get there. "Up and down your nylons" move Aye!!
(I didn't know Fergie was in the audience, but I swear I saw the younger version)
Don't Talk to Strangers
No Cell Phones! But he still wanted the audience to sing, just not anyone individually.
Jessie's Girl
Like the intro, he got to use his acting skills with his show of angst. Loved his entrance back in after the encore, but here comes that damn background vocal messing everything up again.
I've Done Everything For You
Again, didn't play his guitar as much as he would now.

All in all it was a great concert. I just wish the people who made it into a DVD would have done a better job. It would have been just fine if they had taken the Showtime special and left it alone and just given us a great quality version of it. They definitely didn't improve on it. - rlh

 

Calling All Girls
I just finished watching Live & Kickin. Yes, the sound sucked, but I loved going down memory lane. While I was watching it, it was almost like it was 1982 again. Rick was wearing that same outfit when I saw him for the first time at a concert in Houston. (I wonder if he still has those pants? LOL)

The only thing that comes to my mind when I think of how to describe this performance is "that the more things change, the more they stay the same." It was fun to see so many moves and facial expressions that he still uses in his concerts today. It's apparent that even in 1982, he was connecting with his audience.

They edited out some of when he was changing clothes. I need to find my VHS copy, but I remember more talking going on in the changing room and also Rick walking in on someone who was using the John (or am I dreaming that part up).

The one thing I didn't get was how come so many older people (and I'm saying that nicely because I'm probably at the same age now) were sitting down. The younger girls were standing and dancing and I could see a lot of people out in the audience standing and dancing. -Char P.

Inside Silvia

April 24, 1981

Carry Me Away

Red Hot and Blue Love
Don't Talk to Strangers

Jessie's Girl

I've Done Everything For You