Walking out of Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band's CMAC show last night, erstwhile man-about-town Tim "gimme the low-down" Brown summed it up like this: he said if someone had put all the songs played during the show on a CD, it would have been a way-cool mix. And it would be a powerful mix, too, just based on the pedigree of the All-Starr Band alone --- Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Wally Palmer, Greg Bissonette, and Richard Page --- not to mention the drummer of the remaining Fab Two, Ringo Starr.

Bounding out like a spry and flexible teenager, Starr opened the set with his "It Don't Come Easy" before morphing into Carl Perkins' "Honey Don't" --- a song covered by The Beatles in 1964 on "Beatles For Sale." Halfway through "Choose Love" Starr finally made it to the drums, where he spent a good deal of time as each of the band was given a chance to showcase his own material, and in some cases remind folks where they remembered them from.

I won't say Edgar Winter stole the show, but you could at least call him the evening's MVP. He brought the room to a quick boil with "Free Ride" and later completely destroyed the joint with "Frankenstein," switching off masterfully from synthesizer to sax to drums where he traded off the song's call-and-response drum section beat for beat with Greg Bissonette. It was if there was a giant snowflake (Winter, get it?) as a backdrop as opposed to the giant star (Starr, get it?) that hung behind the band.

Derringer did his McCoy's hit "Hang On Sloopy," and later ripped through "Rock and Roll Hootchie Coo" complete with a blistering wank-a-thon guitar ending. I could go on and on --- Wright doing "Dream Weaver," Page doing "Kyrie," and Wally Palmer doing his two Romantic's hits, "Talking In Your Sleep" and "What I Like About You." Palmer is on the younger side of the All-Stars --- all of whom incidentally still dress like rock stars, with the exception of sensible shoes --- and I couldn't help but imagine, "Holy shit, a Beatle is playing along to one of my songs!" going through his head.

Despite it all, it was still Starr's night, as he hit The Beatles catalogue as well as his own with a little help from his friends. What a sensational show.