INXS & The Lovehammers - Philadelphia, PA, Tower Theatre, February 17, 2006

Audio Blog: INXS & The Lovehammers - Tower Theatre, Philadelphia, PA, February 17, 2006

Concert Review:

I love Art Deco architecture, so it was cool walking into the ornate lobby of the Tower Theatre to find such a gem of a building. It was built in the late 1920s and is quite beautiful.

The Lovehammers got a great crowd reaction tonight. Most of the first three rows were singing along to their songs. The band was chuffed. They gave a great performance and had lots of energy. As the tour has progressed, they have gotten tighter and tighter. Unfortunately the sound wasn’t that great for their set. I got up to dance, but the people behind me complained, so I approached the security guard at house left, and asked if I could dance near the front by the second row of the side orchestra. He allowed me to stay there for their set, as long as I didn’t obstruct his view or block anybody from seeing the show.

The sound for INXS was better but still a bit muddy. I love hearing Garry’s bass turned up high, but it was up a little too high and I think that was one of the problems. The entire floor in the theatre was vibrating considerably. It was a very weird sensation.

I managed to keep the same place for the INXS set. Most of Andrew was obscured by a big stack of speakers, but it was a trade off to be a few feet away from Garry’s swivelling hips. I could watch those hips swivel every night, all night long! He spent most of the gig grinning like a Cheshire cat, and shaking his booty. It was almost too much to take. He was dressed in blue jeans and an orange T-shirt.

Kirk was in great form too. He was really wild on the sax tonight. And being near the stage meant I got to witness the sax sex on ‘Taste It’ up close and personal. Wow. Kirk was so red hot I never noticed if JD was working on the sweet spot on the microphone stand. I was told it was a really subdued oral skills performance tonight.

Tim spent a lot of time over at house left shaking his booty too. And the man shakes his booty with a lot of style, and he looks really great in those brown leather pants. He had on a Morphine shirt too. Jon had on black pants and a black T-shirt, Andrew was in blue jeans and a black T-shirt, and Kirk was in jeans and yet another suave dress shirt. JD was sporting the lace-up jeans, and started out with the white long sleeve shirt again.

‘Kick’ was particularly fun. Throughout the song Andrew kept banging Kirk on the ass with the tambourine. And Garry kept air kissing JD.

This was the first gig where I was perfectly positioned to see Jon’s face for the whole gig. It was fun to watch him play, and see all his amazing feck faces. There was a point in the night when Garry was up on the drum risers and both he and Jon were making feck faces at the same time. It made me grin.

I had a great time at this gig, but it seemed like the night went by so quickly. One moment the first chords of ‘Suicide Blonde’ filled the venue, and then all of a sudden the final refrains of ‘Don’t Change’ echoed through the hall, and they gave a final bow, and it was over.

Set List:
Suicide Blonde
Devil’s Party
Mystify
Disappear
By My Side
Afterglow
Taste It
Original Sin
Hungry
Never Let You Go
Need You Tonight
What You Need
Kick
Devil Inside
Pretty Vegas

Encore
New Sensation
Never Tear Us Apart
Don’t Change

Updated April 2006