Olivia Newton-John @ The Seneca Events Center (Inside the Seneca Niagara Casino), Niagara Falls, NY 7-23-16

In between her residency dates in Las Vegas, pop star Olivia Newton-John made a Western New York appearance this past Saturday at the Seneca Niagara Casino. Newton-John has quite the resume as one can imagine. Besides racking up five number one singles and four Grammy awards along with two platinum and four gold records, Newton-John has opened up the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia, along with being a partial owner of the Gaia Retreat and Spa in Byron Bay, Australia. You can say she is quite busy balancing a full life of being a humanitarian and promoting her musical career.

Newton-John took the stage at around 8:15PM to a sold out crowd. She and her band went right into Xanadu, which was the title track to the 1980 movie that also starred Newton-John. She surrounded herself with a talented group of musicians. The band included Kerry Marx on guitar, Mark Beckett on drums, Mack McKenzie on bass, Warren Ham on saxophone and on backup vocals, both Marlen Landin and Steve Real Y Vasquez. Also, Dane Bryant on keyboards (who doubled as the band leader).

For “Make a Move on Me,” video clips encompassing her entire career showed on the adjacent video screens. By this time Newton-John was warmed up and ready to go as she then did a crowd favorite “Mellow” followed by “Changes.” She looked for aussies in the crowd and no one replied initially until she couldn’t believe it and then someone chimed up. After that person responded by saying “aussie, aussie, aussie” to Newton-John’s specifications, she obliged and welcomed her fellow country person. She adorned a red kimono and Marx and McKenzie joined her on stools to sing her country songs. She did a commendable job on the John Denver classic “Country Roads.” Her voice was in tip top shape on the Dolly Parton standard “Jolene.” She donned a country hat for “Let Me Be There.” She had the crowd up and dancing during her smash hit “Physical.” She even moved around herself and said to the crowd “wasn’t that exhausting?” drawing some laughter. She talked about how the song was actually banned in some parts of the world. That song is a lullaby compared to what’s now being played on the radio, she joked.

The emotional part of the set is when she talked about the two songs that mean a lot to her and her husband, John Easterling (Amazon John). Those songs “The Promise (the Dolphin song)” and “Don’t Cut Me Down” have to do with saving the animals and trees. Videos of each subject accompanied her songs giving more heartfelt and emotion to them. She made you feel the cause within her lyrics. Newton-John was most emotional herself when she talked about battling breast cancer in 1992. She wrote and sang “Not Gonna Give Into It” with the same passion as the aforementioned…maybe even more so.

The latter part of the show was the part just about everyone waited for. Newton-John sang the hits of “Grease” which not only did she star in but it became the biggest movie made out of a musical of all time. She enlisted Ham to sing the part of co actor John Travolta in “You’re The One That I Want.” Ham did a bang up job as both wore leather jackets to dress the part. Ham and Real Y Vasquez battled Newton-John and Landin for audience participation during the song “Summer Nights.”

The show was really about having fun and reliving songs of one’s youth. Newton-John gave the fans what they wanted and judging by the audience’s reaction, the crowd loved it!

Setlist:

Xanadu

Deeper Than the Night

Suddenly Olivia Newton John and Cliff Richard song)

Make a Move/Little More Love/Twist of Fate (medley)

Mellow

Changes

Country Roads (John Denver cover)

Please Mr. Please (Bruce Welch cover)

Jolene (Dolly Parton request)

Let Me Be There

Physical