The last time I saw Erasure was at American U.'s Bender Arena back during the "Cowboy" tour and I have to say I enjoyed that show a bit more than this one. It's certainly cool to see a band as "big" as Erasure in a place like 9:30 because you really get a good view of the talent (though it was about as crowded as possible). But all in all, while they played pretty much every song you'd think they would (though I would have liked to hear "Victim of Love" or "It Doesn't Have to Be Like That" ) the arrangements were pretty standard and could have been tweaked a bit more for a live show. Also, sounds like Andy Bell's voice is starting to go -- can't quite hit the falsetto notes like he used to. And in stark contrast, to, say, Pet Shop Boys (who packed Nation last year) who are scrupulous in presenting both members as "equal" in terms of stage presence, Vince Clarke doesn't seem to crave audience attention at all -- half the time he wasn't even facing the crowd and he rarely if ever managed a facial expression. They're supporting a new album made up entirely of cover songs. At the concert they played a pretty good version of "Solsbury Hill" and not-particularly-creative versions of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" and "Can't Help Falling in Love", plus maybe one other song I assume was a cover because I didn't recognize it. Some bubblegum DJ/diva duo named Cooler Kids opened. They weren't anything special, though apparently one of their tracks is having some luck on the dance charts.
I'm going to the show at The Beacon in NYC this Friday night. I haven't seen them live since their "Abba-esque" show, which was better than most Broadway musicals I've seen, and since The Beacon's a bit more spacious stage-wise than 9:30, I'm hoping for more stage show than described above. As for Vince Clarke's stage presence...the first time I saw him on stage was with Yaz the first time they played NYC. He stood all the way to the back of the stage and literally just hit trigger keys to start each song, while drinking and smoking. He literally didn't move a foot from the same spot all show. Kelly's a rockist mook.
Kelly, No offense taken. Why should I care what kind of music you listen to? That said, suicide is not the answer. Footix, I was thinking of getting tickets to one of the NYC shows but ended up unable to do so. Let me know what you think -- I had read an article suggesting that there was going to be more on-stage production, so maybe it was just a symptom of the 9:30's size after all. Vince spent most of his time either playing, or perhaps pretending to play, a guitar this time around. I think I may have also spotted him turning a dial at one point.
You play your cards right and I'll do The Safety Dance next time I'm at RFK. Shouldn't you be on your way to the Tsunami reunion show in Philly?
Sadly, I wrote a Metro version of safety dance after the Columbus open cup game where Brent and I were joking about it, but thought better of trying to drum it out. M,m,m,m,E,e,e,T,t,t,R,r,r,O,o,o Metro Dance etc. I liked Abba-esque, and I can remember playing the tape in the car in high school and my dad going "have I heard these songs before?" until he realized they were covers. I liked erasure a lot in HS, but I was a synth pop weenie back then (still am, I guess). It does seem, though, that they've run out of things to say. I am always weary of a band that comes out with a new album of just covers. It's like saying "we have nothing going on, but if you like us enough, you might like us signing this..."
I'm that way too about covers albums, but since Erasure are the kings (queens?) of synth-camp, you have to take their stuff in the spirit with which it's made...just good-time stuff. Count me in on the Metro Dance.
I thought the first 50 minutes of the show were great, but it kind of ran out of gas toward the end. I'm not sure why they'd choose to slow the whole thing down at the end with acoustic-ish ballads...Andy had a hell of a time staying on key, but I'm sure those couple of songs were very important to hardcore Erasure fans. I also was a bit disappointed in some of the new covers. Aside from Solsbury Hill, they were really just duplicates of the original set over a disco beat--not terribly creative or exciting. The stage set was really cool, and Bell's costume changes were so outrageous that Metrocorazon would have turned gay on the spot just by being in the same room! All-in-all, though, it was a fun night. By the way, The Cooler Kids were fun too, and I suspect their act would go over better in NYC than anywhere else on that tour since they are so "Downtown 1982". Totally Deee-Lite. They actually had the whole theatre singing The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" acapella at one point. Their album is out on Dreamworks next month. http://www.coolerkids.com
Wonder if I missed that part, or if they didn't do it in DC... It's definitely a very New York sound, not bad but not really my thing.