Ringo on the Strip: Jumping jacks, peace signs and family in the crowd

You need to check out the people in the crowd who turn out for headliners on the Strip, especially the legends. They are happy, excited, spinning around to take selfies.

The woman in front of me Friday at the Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band show at The Venetian Theatre was like that. Sitting on the aisle near the front, with what seemed a group of family and friends. She wore a black, button-up sweater with silver stars down the sleeves.

She knew all the words, even to the new stuff. She swayed along with the legend, in her yellow submarine, and threw peace signs to the stage.

Soon I realized this was no ordinary fan. She was Barbara Bach, the accomplished actress and Ringo’s wife. This happens sometimes, with spouses of superstars attending shows, dancing at the side of the stage for a few songs or checking out the scene from the wings. But Bach stayed for just about the whole party, being led from he seat just before the “With A Little Help From My Friends” finale.

Bach must have seen more All-Starr Band shows than we can count. But she acted with an exuberance as if she was seeing the peace-and-love festival for the first time.

We all felt that way.

Starr jaunted through the penultimate performance in his latest Vegas stop with the All-Starrs. At age 85, he gets it. The drummer-as-front man knows how to hold a crowd.

Before unspooling a tireless classic, Starr announced, “I’m going to do a song for you now I’ve been doing for a long time. I know they all seem like I’ve been doing them a long time. This one, I’ve really been doing for a looooong time. I used to do this song with Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. I also did it with the band you’re thinking of.”

“Boys” was that song. Hah. A reminder, there was a Ringo before The Beatles.

Starr pumped out “Act Naturally,” “I Wanna Be our Man” and “Honey Don’t,” songs afforded him in the Beatlemania years. “Yellow Submarine” was un-docked in the middle, a huge crowd favorite. The John Lennon-penned “I’m The Greatest,” and George Harrison’s, “Photograph,” which actually is Starr’s greatest solo hit (I say anyway) further reminded of Starr’s Beatle lineage.

But Ringo knows to share the wealth with the All-Starr Band, one of the act’s great strength. Steve Lukather of Toto and Colin Hay of Men at Work are superb additions. The band is loaded with long-time members, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Buck Johnson and Gregg Bissonette. They are master musicians and seem to smile, all the while, behind the guy Lukather simply calls “Boss.”

Hay still still goes high, vocally, with “Down Under,” “Who Can it Be Now?” and “Overkill.” Lukather takes over with Toto hits “Rosanna” and “Hold The Line,” which hold their own in any hit parade.

After the latter, Starr stepped from the drums and approached Lukather, seemingly off-the-cuff, “That is such a beautiful song. It gets me, every time.”

Prior to the closing “With a Little Help From My Friends,” Starr told the cheering crowd, “If you don’t know the words to this song, you’re in the wrong venue.” He suggested maybe the legions had though they were at a Led Zeppelin reunion.

But the guy in his mid-80s ended on a high note, singing that classic and Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance,” again performing jumping jacks, to show there’s a lot left in the tank. Buoyed forever by peace and love, Ringo makes us all feel like family.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.