Review: DONNIE IRIS AND THE CRUSIERS at Bluestone

Perhaps Columbus is finally getting it right.

When the Cruisers toured with Daryl Hall and John Oates in 1982, singer Donnie Iris playfully goaded a Veterans Memorial crowd when playing his anthemic “Love Is Like A Rock.” After a lackluster delivery of the chorus, Iris shouted into the mike, “Come on, Columbus! That really sucked!!”

Near the end of his May 3 concert at the Bluestone, the 82-year-old singer didn’t need to prod the crowd this time around. It may have been a much smaller, much older crowd than it was in 1982, but what the audience lacked in numbers and youth, they made up for in sheer passion, delivering a powerful recitation of the chorus that made even Iris smile.

Even after performing at dance halls and arenas for decades now, Iris still knows how to push his audience. Asked how he can still give a spirited show at 82, Iris said he feeds off his audience.

“I'll tell you what it is. It happens because of the audience,” Iris said in an interview with BroadwayWorld.com in April. “The audience is there with you, you know what I mean? The joy we give them, they give it back to us. We just keep going back and forth with them and it’s a wonderful thing. It really is.”

Wearing a red and black stripped Brush Creek Inn baseball jersey with his name emblemized on the back, Iris ripped through a 16-song setlist. The Cruisers’ line-up of Iris, Mark Avsec (keyboards), Marty Lee Hoenes (lead guitar), Paul Goll (bass), and Kevin Valentine (drums) was supplemented by Joe Vitale Sr. and Joe Vitale Jr. as well as Austin Avsec.

There was no beer break, “let’s slow it down” ballads during the hour and a half performance. Iris’ repertoire included the highlights of his 11 studio album career, with a sprinkling of his hits (“Do You Compute?,” “Love is Like a Rock,” and “Ah! Leah!”), songs he worked on with other bands (The Jaggerz’ “Rapper” and Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music”) and a handful of covers (Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” with Vitale Sr. taking vocals, Ami Stewart’s “Knock On Wood,” and the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” delivered with a Joe Cocker type flair) as well as one head scratcher (“Polka Time” featuring Mark Avsec on the accordion).

One of the show’s highlights was a nine-minute version of “Ah! Leah!” Iris invoked a hymn-like reading of the song at the onset (which matched perfectly to the stain-glass windows of the Bluestone – a former church) and then built it, and built it, and built it to its climax with Iris dropping to his knees to deliver his trademark guttural scream.

Iris took only a one-song break, allowing Vitale Sr. to field a fiery delivery of “Rocky Mountain Way.” It was a fitting choice; Vitale Sr. co-wrote the song with Walsh as a member of Barnstorm. He was later an auxiliary member of the Eagles with his collaboration with Walsh, “Pretty Maids in a Row” making the Hotel California album. He also performed with Ted Nugent, the Who’s John Entwistle, Dan Fogelberg, and Peter Frampton.

Iris also touched on some of his lesser known pieces from a five-year apex of his career – “Agnes” from Back on the Streets (1980), “Pretender,” “That’s the Way Love Ought to Be,” and “Sweet Merilee,” from King Cool (1981), “Tough World” and “This Time It Must Be Love” from The High and The Mighty (1982), and “Ridin’ Thunder” from Out of the Blue (1985).

 But mostly the May 3 show was a celebration for Iris. The singer was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2023, days after his 80th birthday. Aveco announced Iris recently was told by his doctor that he is now cancer-free to a cheering Bluestone crowd.

As a result of his chemotherapy treatment, Iris may have far less hair than he did during the King Cool era, but the singer can still bring it vocally and can still bring out the best in his audience. And that is a wonderful thing, indeed.

Photo Credit: Paul Batterson