PHOTOS — Soto & Bieler 2025 ⋆ Shows I Go To | 🎤 Florida Concerts, Festivals, & Giveaways

PHOTOS — Soto & Bieler 2025

Jeff Scott Soto & Jason Bieler • October 16, 2025 • Murray Theatre at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, FL • Photos by Randy Cook

SOTO & BIELER LIVE REVIEW

Soto & Bieler’s Musical Mayhem | October 16, 2025 | Murray Theatre at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, FL

Review by Randy Cook

Vocalist extraordinaire Jeff Scott Soto and guitar virtuoso Jason Birler shared the stage at the Murray Theatre at Ruth Eckerd Hall, on Thursday October 16th. It was a night of comedic musical mayhem with Jeff’s emotional, soaringly powerful vocals combined with Jason’s creative technicality on his axe mixed with hilarious banter between longtime friends. This was my first time seeing a show at this theater within Ruth Eckerd Hall, at which I had seen twenty-eight previous shows and was not familiar with this part of the campus. Before this show I was more than a little curious about how it would be laid out and once I arrived and entered the seating area it was the most intimate venue I have ever attended a show at. Seating capacity is just under two hundred and as expected, I saw many familiar faces in the crowd.

This was my seventh time seeing Jeff and Jason perform together and as an added surprise, Howard Goldberg sat in as percussionist and joined in on the fun and laughter. Also, being a sort of ‘hometown’ show for Saigon Kick, we were treated to songs across their catalog and more than once Jason jokingly asked if there were any Saigon Kick fans in the audience. They also shared the news to keep an eye out for a Clearwater ‘Soto Kick’ show next year so that comment generated some buzz across the audience.

Early in the set we were treated to a cover of ’Escape (The Piña Colada Song)’ by Rupert Holmes and that set the tone for the show. Soon after that Jeff commented on how Jason gives their music an Edie Brickell ‘sound’, which was the intro of a song I did not recognize that segued into an unorthodox acoustic version of Iron Maiden’s ‘The Number of the Beast’. What a great night it already was and that surprise was just a few songs in the show! Comedically, they stopped my musical highlight song, Saigon Kick’s ‘All I Want’ to heckle a lady who had gotten up mid-song to leave the seating area, promising to wait for her return to finish the song. Other musical highlights included Seals ’Crazy’, most of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’, among many references to Jeff’s time in Journey. There was a lyrically Viking themed song they performed to the music of Extreme’s ‘More Than Words’, and a very Ozzy ‘Diary of a Madman’ sounding version of Barry Manilow’s ‘Mandy’ which was referred to as “Diary of a Manilow”. You cannot make this stuff up and I doubt even they knew what songs they would play for us this evening.

Both Jason and Jeff mixed into conversation the words “befuddled” & “kerfuffle” quite liberally during their in between (and many times during) song repartee always drawing a response from the audience at the mention of either of those words. There were many songs where the audience was asked and we joined in quite strongly to participate. Playful jokes about Jeff’s heritage were not off limits as it felt like it was a night of great friends hanging out, cracking jokes on or about each other and playing some jams in between the laughs.

After a mention of Jeff’s upcoming time with this year’s Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour they joked about making a Slayer sounding dreidel song, then played a “F*** You, it’s Christmas!!!” song that was meant to put us into an early Christmas spirit and mood. The evening closed with a standing ovation and soon after the show ended Jeff, Jason and Howard were chatting with and taking photos with fans. It was a night of unscripted (and in some places quite obvious unpracticed) musical fun with some really unique covers. It was a great evening of good friends, great music and many laughs.