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More: Rick Springfield to Rock Out Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Aug. 29

More: A.Y.C.E. Buffet at Palms in Las Vegas Announces 2026 Theme Nights + Holiday Feasts

Grammy Award-winning pop and rock music legend Rick Springfield headlined Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Saturday, Aug. 29, and Springfield rocked the music venue from start to finish with a high-energy, surprisingly loud and nostalgic 90-minute performance.

Takeaways from Saturday evening’s concert just west of the Las Vegas Strip:

• Springfield played his hits – “Affair of the Heart,” good friend Sammy Hagar’s “I’ve Done Everything for You” (they’ve been buddies for 50(!) years), “I Get Excited,” “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” “Love Somebody” (my favorite Springfield song and accompanied by scenes from “Hard to Hold”), “Human Touch” and the show-closing “Jessie’s Girl” – and covers including ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” (RIP, Frank Beard) and “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks.
• Speaking of “Hard to Hold,” which critics skewered as “hard to watch,” who else remembers Springfield’s towel slip scene in “Hard to Hold”? So scandalous at the time!
• I was expecting an evening of the familiar hits, which the audience received, but Springfield was also front and center with his collection of electric guitars and plenty of guitar solos when his band and he weren’t slaying as a group.
• Springfield, who turned 77 on Aug. 23, looks incredible. If he’s had work done, it’s money well spent. He performed “Jessie’s Girl” shirtless. He still has long, luscious locks (his own). He credits his health and looks on his pescatarian diet (he became too thin as a vegan | vegetarian), working out and a healthy lifestyle.
• His wife Barbara Potter and he have been married since 1984 (despite his admitted infidelity).
• Springfield was born in Sydney, Australia, but his family is mostly English, and he speaks without an accent, partly because he took speech lessons early on in his career to sound American and, as he said, to be more competitive with other actors.
• I would absolutely see Springfield in concert again. He rocks!
• Sun & The Saint served as the opening act.

The evening not only featured Springfield in the spotlight, but it also was a reunion with my friend and former Las Vegas Sun journalism colleague Kyle Roerink, who recently moved back to Las Vegas from Reno to attend law school at UNLV. Pittsburgh native Roerink’s friends and neighbors growing up included Dan + Shay and Christina Aguilera.

Roerink, my brother Charles and I dined at A.Y.C.E. Buffet next door to Pearl Concert Theater pre-concert, and it was busy because it was Hawaiian Night in a year of themed and holiday dinners. The buffet was bustling all night as dancers entertained and people feasted on two whole roasted pigs, an assortment of poke, loco moco, ribs, pulled pork, salmon, crab legs, Dole Whip and much, much more.

Springfield probably didn’t dine at the buffet before the concert. Oh, what a super-fun Saturday night with Springfield and seafood!