Concert review: Does Tony Bennett deserve standing ovations just for touring at 91?

Someday, we will no longer be able to marvel at the live vocal chops of Mr. Tony Bennett, who Frank Sinatra once proclaimed to be “the greatest singer in the world.”

But today will not be that day. Tomorrow probably won’t either. In fact, at this rate, we may be blessed with the gift of seeing the legendary crooner perform under the bright lights at Ovens Auditorium – like he did on Thursday night – two or three more times before he soft-shoe-dance-steps off into the sunset.

Truth be told, back in 2015, I was at least to some degree eager to catch him simply because I figured I might not get another opportunity. He was 89 then. He’s 91 now.

I never should have bet against the guy.

Anyone who enjoyed that concert and returned hoping for more of the same surely walked away satisfied, as Bennett closely replicated the look and feel of that show by using the same opener (his daughter, Antonia), basically the same four-piece band (Gray Sargent on guitar, Marshall Wood on bass, Harold Jones on drums and Tom Ranier instead of Mike Renzi on piano), and a setlist that was identical in length (75 minutes) and swapped out just half a dozen songs.

There’s a bit of a novelty quality to his act, but it’s probably unavoidable. When you see a crisply suited 91-year-old man try to dazzle you with a little spin on the ball of his foot, even if he doesn’t quite make it all the way around, you’re going to “oooh” or “ahhh” or clap for the simple fact that he didn’t fall down and break his hip.

And while it may sound condescending for me to say that, you have to step back and consider what I (and everyone else there) observed/participated in: clapping and cheering and, yes, laughing, all because Bennett managed to make a 360-degree turn.

Look, you tour into your 90s, and everyone’s going to view you through the lens of you being in your 90s.

So the crowd’s going to chuckle when you talk your way through opening song lyrics that have become ironic, like “As I approach the prime of my life” (from “This Is All I Ask”), or “The more I read the papers the less I comprehend” (from “Our Love Is Here to Stay”).

Anytime you do anything resembling a dance, it’s going to cause a commotion.

And if you can hold a powerful, pitch-perfect note for eight to 10 seconds, like he did at the end of “Watch What Happens” and “(In My) Solitude,” you’re going to be celebrated as if you just hit the winning shot in an NCAA tournament game.

Speaking of standing ovations, I counted six on Thursday night. He got one at the outset, when he first walked on stage; one after a loving “The Way You Look Tonight”; one after a bittersweet “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?”; after crowd favorite “For Once in My Life”; after spellbinding “Who Cares (So Long As You Care for Me)”; and, finally, after a cappella closer “Fly Me to the Moon.”

Awkwardly, some of the standing Os did feel foisted upon us. Not that he didn’t deserve high praise – most of his renditions were so nuanced and innovative and unpredictable that it sometimes seemed as if he was freestyling (and masterfully, I might add) – but in each of the aforementioned cases save for the first and the last, the house lights came on as if to say “Stand up, dammit.” They didn’t come on at any other points during the concert; as such, it felt like we were being conditioned.

Bennett definitely earned the last standing ovation, though.

As has become his trademark, he sang “Fly Me to the Moon” without the aid of any amplification whatsoever, and while he didn’t quite fill this vast auditorium with his voice as commandingly as he did in 2015, you still had to appreciate the showmanship and the bravado.

I mean, do you know any other 91-year-olds who would be up to that task?

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 1:20 AM with the headline "Concert review: Does Tony Bennett deserve standing ovations just for touring at 91?."