January 20, 2020

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Donnie Iris and the Cruisers are out celebrating their 40th Anniversary this year.  The Pittsburgh area outfit made a stop at the Robins Theater on Saturday night to a very enthusiastic audience.

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Iris, soon to be seventy-seven years young, has maintained his voice and can still hit all of the high notes and screams.  Not only that, but he and the Cruisers were on stage for over two hours. 

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The band played selections from all aspects of Iris' career.  Mostly sticking with their own tunes like "Agnes," "Do You Compute" and "Tough World" early in the set.  However, songs like "The Rapper" from his time in Jaggerz and "Play That Funky Music" from Wild Cherry were played towards the end of the show.

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In the middle of the show, Iris brought out Jennifer, a young lady who has special needs and happens to be his "number one fan."  Iris had the audience sing happy birthday to her.  The smile on her face was worth the price of admission.

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The party continued with a cover of "Minnie the Moocher" and "I've Been Injured In the Game Of Love."

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The band had a little fun when bassist Paul Goll went into a solo then played snippets of a few classic tunes like "Thank You," "For The Love Of Money" and "Another One Bites The Dust."

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The show ended with the two songs everyone came to hear, "Love Is Like A Rock" and "Ah! Leah!"

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The only negative to the evening was that the band extended songs and improvised a few times too many.  

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Donnie Iris and The Cruisers ended the show with the Joe Cocker's version of "A Little Help From My Friends."

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Review and photos by Greg Drugan

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