Concert Review:
The pre concert meet-up was at an Irish bar called Connolly’s. I spent close to an hour looking for people there, and then walked over to Radio City Music Hall. By the time I made it inside I had missed about half of Dirtie Blonde. The lead singer strikes me as a cross between Jewel and Grace Slick, but without the edge the later has. She has a powerful voice for a small woman. She mentioned that she had wanted to play at RCMH since she was a kid, and she was excited to share the experience with friends and family in the audience. That was cool. Another dreamer living the dream! The band sounded good, but was a little too mellow for my liking. I looked up at the tiers of people sitting above the main floor, and it was packed. And many people had glowing red swizzle sticks in their drinks that lit the hall up all over the place. I’ve never seen that anywhere else.
Having looked at where my seat was I thought I might get my right ear drum blown out by the speakers, and was glad that I had brought some ear plugs. But the acoustics in the hall were impressive. I had an obstructed view of the stage due to two separate stacks of amps, so when INXS came on we moved up to the stage to see better, and spent the remainder of the night battling security. They really interfered with our enjoyment of the gig. INXS security came over a few times to tell them to cool it. At first they threatened to throw me out because I wouldn’t sit down, when we were clearly not blocking anyone behind us, since there were no seats there. Then another one wanted to eject me for writing the set lists and notes during the gig, because he thought I was writing about the security guards. As if I’d waste time on them during an INXS concert. At one point one of them pushed me back and handled my breasts in the process. I made a complaint to the head of security after the show.
As the curtain came down the first thing I saw was Garry in leather pants. I let out a loud squee. He was also wearing a tan jacket and brown T-shirt. Tim had on blue jeans, that lovely striped leather jacket, and a shirt with a red T-shirt beneath. Kirk was wearing a striped blazer and pants, and a khaki dress shirt. Andrew looked fine in blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a jacket. Jon was wearing a blue T-shirt and tight black pants. And JD was the vision of loveliness in a light coloured jacket, the lovely red zipper shirt (squee!), and black cords. The pants were low enough for us to see his hip tattoo. It was so thrilling to see them play the dynamic ‘Suicide Blonde’ again.
‘Devil’s Party’ sounded great, but security was really pushing us around so I didn’t get to see most of the song.
During ‘Mystify’ Kirk came from behind Tim and started clapping in front of him. It was cute. Then Garry sidled up to Tim, and then went off shaking his leather clad booty.
I was looking forward to hearing ‘Hot Girls’ played live, but the song sounded off key. I loved the strobe light they put on during the song though. It was a very cool effect with all the architectural curves in the venue.
‘By My Side’ brought Garry over to us again, and my mind became mushy as he swivelled his leather clad behind right in front of us. This was followed very shortly by JD coming over and singing directly to us for a good portion of the song.
Before they launched into ‘Afterglow’ JD did a little rap, “accept, reject, love....” I adore the red zip shirt. When he leans over with one foot on the monitor, which he does fairly often, it shows off his hip, tummy, and chest at the same time. Garry spent a lot of time shaking it on the risers. At the end of the song, JD was right in front of us when he changed into a black T-shirt with a sparkly skull and bat on it.
During ‘Taste It’ Kirk gave us the most orgasmic sax sex I’ve seen yet. It was awesome. JD came over and motioned across his chest when he sang “Taste It,” then gave us an interesting little rap mid song. Then I didn’t know where to look because there was hot sax sex to my immediate right, and hot microphone stand sex to my left. JD was really licking the sweet spot and then licking his fingers and rubbing it, while Kirk was saxing away on the stage almost in front of us. He kept misting the over zealous security with his reed mister.
My second favourite song of the night was ‘Original Sin.’ JD came over and showed us more love a few times during the song. We got JD twirling around the stage, and major drum feck faces throughout the song. And Garry was very enthusiastically getting everyone to clap toward the end.
‘Hungry’ sounded a little bit off. It seemed slower than usual, and JD seemed to struggle with the key. Garry did a lot of hip swaying during the break in the song. Jon did the crossed sticks, but no twirls this time. Tim came right up in front of us playing and getting attention. When security started pushing us again, Tim wagged his finger at them. We appreciated that.
During ‘Never Let You Go’ Kirk was having fun singing “you should see Kirk in the rain” and pointing to himself. I looked down for just a moment, and Libby from Switchboard knocks me in the arm. I looked up to see Garry swivelling right in front of me, and I couldn’t find my camera to take a picture. JD did that little dance hall rap at the end. I really love that. He has a way with rhythm and words.
‘Need You Tonight’ was a big crowd favourite. We got some man-love as JD was humping Tim was behind during the line “something about you,” with his arm around Tim’s neck. I’d almost forgotten how hot the man love is between the two of them. JD did some huge standing jumps a few times through the song. It was impressive.
A big highlight of the night for me was ‘What You Need.’ It rocked more than usual. We got tons of drum and bass feck faces, and Garry showing us his assets while he was shaking it.
On ‘Kick’ I loved watching Andrew’s double duty tambourine and keyboard playing. This is another song where he always looks like he is having a good time. As the song was wrapping up, we got classic Tim sticking guitar picks to his forehead.
Then it was “Time to go to church” as they launched into ‘Devil Inside’. More Garry shaking his assets on the risers, and I loved JD shimmies and the way he was pointing to people. And we got renewed security guard problems as they traded places with each other. Le sigh.
Before the encore started, JD was sitting on the drum riser, having a smoke, and just hanging out. Then he started the Chocolate Chip orgasm rap, and I squeed loudly. I had been reading reviews of this rap, but this was the first time I saw him do it. It was awesome.
It was sweet to see Garry and Jon hug as they met in the middle of the stage, having entered from opposite sides.
During ‘New Sensation’ Garry and Tim were rocking and singing together. I loved watching Andrew do his arm wind up between playing the notes on the keyboard. At the end of the song JD fell flat on his back.
JD joined the backup singers on their platform during ‘Amazing Grace,’ and it sounded incredible. ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ was next, and following ‘Amazing Grace’ it made me teary eyed because it reminded me of how much I miss my Mom, and it made me think of Michael. JD’s vocals were stellar. Tim played up the moment, as usual. I couldn’t see Kirk playing the sax solo, but it rocked.
‘Don’t Change’ for me was the best song of the night. At the start of the song Tim kneeled down just to the left of us and got lots of attention, which he enjoyed. Everything about this song was perfect tonight. We even got feck faces from Tim near the end! And it was one hell of an ending. Jon went nuts, Garry kept in beat with the drums, and Tim was dancing around while riffing. It was a great way to end a very energetic show.
This was a wonderful gig to kick off the first of ten gigs I’m going to on this leg of the tour. I'm hoping for a reappearance of ‘Elegantly Wasted’ and ‘Perfect Strangers’ in the set list at some point.
Set List:
Suicide Blonde
Devil's Party
Mystify
Hot Girls
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
Chocolate Chip Orgasm Rap
New Sensation
Amazing Grace
Never Tear Us Apart
Don't Change
2 comments:
hey--Radio City Music Hall question---were the obstructed seats, if you just sat in them, bad? I can't find a consensus. Thanks!
Hi Jenny,
Sorry to have taken so long to answer you.
If we had sat in our seats, we would not have seen half the band clearly, which was completely unacceptable.
What bothered me was that the seats we bought were not marked as "obstructed view."
I contacted RCMH and was told that sometimes a band's stage layout can limit the view from some seats. In our case the huge stacks of amps were at the edge of the stage, and were blocking our view.
Security was very strict, making it difficult for us, but the attention we got from the guys more than made up for that.
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