REVIEW: Hit-making Marx on target with fans

By Diana Nollen

RIVERSIDE - Richard Marx may think of himself as primarily a songwriter, but he's a darned good performer, too.

He's the whole package. He sings, he writes, he plays guitar and piano. And he heckles the audience.

“It's the high rollers,” he said to an entire row of people showing up long after his concert began Saturday night in the Riverside Casino Event Center. The show came to a screeching halt as they fumbled with their tickets, trying to figure out in the dark who should sit where in one of the front rows.

“Can I get you anything - like a watch,” he asked, as we laughed. “(Bleep), now we've got to start over. The four songs you missed were AWESOME!”

Ready to launch into his acoustic set, Marx turned to his band and said, “What are we doing?”

 Do it naked,” shouted a female voice from the audience.

“I think you have me confused with someone else,” he replied. “I'm not Rick Springfield. I do on occasion still get underwear thrown onstage - usually Depends.”

Don't let that self-deprecating banter fool you. At age 46, the '80s and '90s hit-making machine looks great, sounds great and best of all, he's totally relaxed and at home playing for his fans. No crowd count was available, but I'd guess about 1,000 people were there to hear him begin with “Take This Heart,” “Endless Summer Nights,” “When You're Gone” and “Angelia.”

He's right. Those songs were awesome. His voice is a little edgier than I remember, but in a good way, and he can still milk those high notes for all they're worth. It may be his name on the marquee, but he's clearly a part of his band, not apart from his band, playfully playing with them, dueling with his lead guitarist and reveling in the moments.

Obviously jazzed for his first performance in a couple of months, he just as easily scaled it all back for his acoustic set, beginning with a quietly beautiful take on his first No. 1 hit, “Hold Onto the Nights,” followed by “Now and Forever” and “Keep Coming Back.”

The mood quickly turned ominous as he played what he originally “thought was the dumbest song,” before it, too, shot to the top of the charts. “Hazard,” his little ditty about a girl who gets murdered in Nebraska, was the yin in the evening's yang, fueled by pulsating, menacing percussion.

He also gave us a few glimpses off his latest CD, “Emotional Remains.” He taught us part of the chorus to “Over my Head,” then tore into his electric guitar, which was a big hit with the audience.

The loveliest moment came when he sat at the keyboard and played the gorgeous homage to his late father, “Through My Veins.” He had us so far under his spell that everyone jumped about a foot off their chairs during a dramatic cymbal crash.

Going back to that early songwriting comment, he then unleashed several songs that he's written for others, from Keith Urban to 'N Sync's “This I Promise You.”

The driving beat of “Satisfied” got everyone onto their feet, where they stayed through the funky electronica of “You Never Take Me Dancing” and “Should've Known Better” to the encores of “Right Here Waiting” and “Don't Mean Nothing.”

It meant everything to this legion of fans.