Concerts, Concerts, Concerts
I am waaaaay behind in these and I worry that my memory may be a little hazy but we will see how I go because I want to get them done as I have other concerts coming up.
Lady Gaga - Fame Monster Ball
Laga Gaga
Oh Gaga you really are a bit of a mess aren’t you, although in a way you are not quite as much a mess as I want you to be. After listening to your latest album and all of its religious themes I was kinda hoping for a full blown psychotic break on stage. It is possible that I had already decided that all of the words that I couldn’t understand on your album where you attempting to speak in tongues and I am a little sad that you held it together (well as together as you ever hold anything).
It could be that I am old (or it could be just what I do for a living) but I do find a lot of your antics tedious. I’m not talking about having meat spinning around while you sing (I am down with that), or your ridiculous costumes that obscure your face and make me wonder if you are even on stage, or the over the top sexuality (I was amused when you road a women around like she was part of a bike but the heavily simulated sex on a desk in ‘Government Hooker’ did put me off a little - because for some reason I love that song - maybe it’s that “put your hands on me, John F Kennedy” makes me think of Megan Hilty), what upsets me is all your little monsters talk and you going on about how you claim you are stealing souls for your creativity.
There was a whole bit about suicide and the need to prevent it that I feel the audience in general found moving but I found draining (I don’t mean to sound callous but I’m not sure that you get to scream out to people about how they should be the freaks that they really are and then want to be the be the voice speaking out against pain, suffering and suicide - you know what would have gotten you bullied, beaten and have been total social death in the town I grew up in, Gaga? Wanting to show your little monster, freakside to the whole world). I’m not saying it’s not an important issue, I’m just saying you may not be the most appropriate champion for it. Being yourself is one thing. Actively putting yourself in a position where people are going to judge and potentially reject you may not be the most effective method of suicide prevention though.
I’m not saying that I didn’t like your concert, I did. I like your music and you do put on quite the show with your elaborate sets and special effects. I’ve mentioned that I could have done without ‘Government Hooker’ being so graphic and my only other problems productionwise were the literal giving birth to yourself via giant vagina for ‘Born This Way’ and the staging of ‘Bloody Mary’ - I think that song had the potential to be really eerie live but the restricted movements due to the weird costumes that appeared to worn by women riding on segways didn’t really work for me.
I did love getting to belt out ‘You and I’ and I adored the sharp, fast choreography to the bizarre little song that is Schiesse (“I don’t speak German but I can if you like” - hee)
I do wonder what will happen to you and your career as times goes by. Will you manage to stay relevant, will you mellow, will you implode in your ongoing attempts to outdo yourself? I will be watching and if you keep coming to Australia I will keep coming to your concerts.
Melissa Etheridge Fearless Tour
Melissa Etheridge
Well if I thought there was a lot of flannel and short hair at P!nk that was nothing compared with the crowd at Melissa. It was close to a uniform but not for the couple sitting next to me - she was overdressed and he seemed frightened that he was going to be attacked by lesbians. He seemed genuinely surprised by the audience. I have no idea just who he thought would be at a Melissa Etheridge concert but clearly his thoughts were not related to reality and I have to admit that it amused me greatly.
This was a very different kind of concert to the previous one I attended. For a 51 year old woman she really knew how to rock out and I had far less “just shut up and sing” thoughts than I did at Gaga. In fact I wasn’t all that bothered by Melissa talking. Her story about the young nail technician who didn’t know who she was, not even when she said what she was famous for singing, was endearing and when she talked about her cancer it related to the songs and where the concert was going.
My favourite moment was when she sang ‘Enough of Me’ and after the line “and I gave you my soul and every ounce of control” she said “well that may have been the problem” - hee!
The audience went nuts for ‘Come to my Window’ which is all well and good but they were nowhere near as excited as I was about ‘Bring Me Some Water’ which I simply can’t understand. My only real problem was that she didn’t sing ‘I’m the Only One’ forcing me to have to play it and sing it loudly in the car on the way home.
Kate Miller-Heidke - Nightflight Tour
Kate Miller-Heide
Before I get onto Kate I will digress and talk a little about her support act - The Beards. I was aware of their existence and I have to admit that they caused in me a knee jerk reaction of old person prejudice - I really wasn’t down with the idea of a group of bearded guys who only sang songs about beards.
It turns out that I was wrong because they were awesome. They are funny in a campy, ridiculous kind of a way but they also happen to be really talented musicians. I am pretty sure I will now frequently sing ‘If Your Dad Doesn’t Have a Beard, You Have Two Mums’
A little taste of The Beards in all their bearded glory for you
Moving onto Kate. This concert pushes her even further ahead in the tally of the artist of whom I’ve seen most concerts (it does kind of help that Brisbane is her home town).
She was excellent at always. Although at times I did think that her backup vocalist stole the show. One of the joys of seeing Kate live is seeing her expressions when she does one of her quirkier songs but this setlist didn’t really feature any of those. That’s not to say it wasn’t fun. She did a cover of The Beards ‘You Should Consider Having Sex with a Bearded Man’ and an amazing cover of parts of both “The Real Slim Shady’ and ‘Monster’ by Kayne West.
The main thing that intrigues me about the Nightflight Album is why it would have taken her so long to include ‘Sarah’ on an album. That event seems such fruitful fodder for a songwriter although I admit that it is fraught with emotion. The first time I listened to it the line “the next day the sergeant found her blue dress in the creek” really spooked me.
I will also briefly mention how much a love the lyrics in the title song of the album ‘I’m 35 hours and 3 bad movies away’ and ‘ladies and gentlemen mind the gap between what I say and how I act.’
Back off the album and onto the concert. She does know how to interact with a Queensland audience - she was talking about how good it was to be back in Brisbane and someone yelled out that it was a shithole. Kate’s response to this was “Did you just say it was shithole? That is why I love Brisbane. Speaking of shitholes that last song was used in [an Australian attempt to make a version of Jersey Shore]”
She also talked about Momma and that hearing her mother have an organism when she was a child (but not realising what it was) was one of the most musically informative moments of her life.
For the one Queensland show of this tour she sang ‘Toowoomba’ which I had never seen or heard her sing before. I have got to say that I’ve been to Toowoomba and it is an accurate representation and it certainly extends to other parts of small town and probably the world.
And now I wait for my next concert which at this stage I am too embarrassed to admit what it is ;)
Lady Gaga - Fame Monster Ball
Laga Gaga
Oh Gaga you really are a bit of a mess aren’t you, although in a way you are not quite as much a mess as I want you to be. After listening to your latest album and all of its religious themes I was kinda hoping for a full blown psychotic break on stage. It is possible that I had already decided that all of the words that I couldn’t understand on your album where you attempting to speak in tongues and I am a little sad that you held it together (well as together as you ever hold anything).
It could be that I am old (or it could be just what I do for a living) but I do find a lot of your antics tedious. I’m not talking about having meat spinning around while you sing (I am down with that), or your ridiculous costumes that obscure your face and make me wonder if you are even on stage, or the over the top sexuality (I was amused when you road a women around like she was part of a bike but the heavily simulated sex on a desk in ‘Government Hooker’ did put me off a little - because for some reason I love that song - maybe it’s that “put your hands on me, John F Kennedy” makes me think of Megan Hilty), what upsets me is all your little monsters talk and you going on about how you claim you are stealing souls for your creativity.
There was a whole bit about suicide and the need to prevent it that I feel the audience in general found moving but I found draining (I don’t mean to sound callous but I’m not sure that you get to scream out to people about how they should be the freaks that they really are and then want to be the be the voice speaking out against pain, suffering and suicide - you know what would have gotten you bullied, beaten and have been total social death in the town I grew up in, Gaga? Wanting to show your little monster, freakside to the whole world). I’m not saying it’s not an important issue, I’m just saying you may not be the most appropriate champion for it. Being yourself is one thing. Actively putting yourself in a position where people are going to judge and potentially reject you may not be the most effective method of suicide prevention though.
I’m not saying that I didn’t like your concert, I did. I like your music and you do put on quite the show with your elaborate sets and special effects. I’ve mentioned that I could have done without ‘Government Hooker’ being so graphic and my only other problems productionwise were the literal giving birth to yourself via giant vagina for ‘Born This Way’ and the staging of ‘Bloody Mary’ - I think that song had the potential to be really eerie live but the restricted movements due to the weird costumes that appeared to worn by women riding on segways didn’t really work for me.
I did love getting to belt out ‘You and I’ and I adored the sharp, fast choreography to the bizarre little song that is Schiesse (“I don’t speak German but I can if you like” - hee)
I do wonder what will happen to you and your career as times goes by. Will you manage to stay relevant, will you mellow, will you implode in your ongoing attempts to outdo yourself? I will be watching and if you keep coming to Australia I will keep coming to your concerts.
Melissa Etheridge Fearless Tour
Melissa Etheridge
Well if I thought there was a lot of flannel and short hair at P!nk that was nothing compared with the crowd at Melissa. It was close to a uniform but not for the couple sitting next to me - she was overdressed and he seemed frightened that he was going to be attacked by lesbians. He seemed genuinely surprised by the audience. I have no idea just who he thought would be at a Melissa Etheridge concert but clearly his thoughts were not related to reality and I have to admit that it amused me greatly.
This was a very different kind of concert to the previous one I attended. For a 51 year old woman she really knew how to rock out and I had far less “just shut up and sing” thoughts than I did at Gaga. In fact I wasn’t all that bothered by Melissa talking. Her story about the young nail technician who didn’t know who she was, not even when she said what she was famous for singing, was endearing and when she talked about her cancer it related to the songs and where the concert was going.
My favourite moment was when she sang ‘Enough of Me’ and after the line “and I gave you my soul and every ounce of control” she said “well that may have been the problem” - hee!
The audience went nuts for ‘Come to my Window’ which is all well and good but they were nowhere near as excited as I was about ‘Bring Me Some Water’ which I simply can’t understand. My only real problem was that she didn’t sing ‘I’m the Only One’ forcing me to have to play it and sing it loudly in the car on the way home.
Kate Miller-Heidke - Nightflight Tour
Kate Miller-Heide
Before I get onto Kate I will digress and talk a little about her support act - The Beards. I was aware of their existence and I have to admit that they caused in me a knee jerk reaction of old person prejudice - I really wasn’t down with the idea of a group of bearded guys who only sang songs about beards.
It turns out that I was wrong because they were awesome. They are funny in a campy, ridiculous kind of a way but they also happen to be really talented musicians. I am pretty sure I will now frequently sing ‘If Your Dad Doesn’t Have a Beard, You Have Two Mums’
A little taste of The Beards in all their bearded glory for you
Click to viewMoving onto Kate. This concert pushes her even further ahead in the tally of the artist of whom I’ve seen most concerts (it does kind of help that Brisbane is her home town).
She was excellent at always. Although at times I did think that her backup vocalist stole the show. One of the joys of seeing Kate live is seeing her expressions when she does one of her quirkier songs but this setlist didn’t really feature any of those. That’s not to say it wasn’t fun. She did a cover of The Beards ‘You Should Consider Having Sex with a Bearded Man’ and an amazing cover of parts of both “The Real Slim Shady’ and ‘Monster’ by Kayne West.
The main thing that intrigues me about the Nightflight Album is why it would have taken her so long to include ‘Sarah’ on an album. That event seems such fruitful fodder for a songwriter although I admit that it is fraught with emotion. The first time I listened to it the line “the next day the sergeant found her blue dress in the creek” really spooked me.
I will also briefly mention how much a love the lyrics in the title song of the album ‘I’m 35 hours and 3 bad movies away’ and ‘ladies and gentlemen mind the gap between what I say and how I act.’
Back off the album and onto the concert. She does know how to interact with a Queensland audience - she was talking about how good it was to be back in Brisbane and someone yelled out that it was a shithole. Kate’s response to this was “Did you just say it was shithole? That is why I love Brisbane. Speaking of shitholes that last song was used in [an Australian attempt to make a version of Jersey Shore]”
She also talked about Momma and that hearing her mother have an organism when she was a child (but not realising what it was) was one of the most musically informative moments of her life.
For the one Queensland show of this tour she sang ‘Toowoomba’ which I had never seen or heard her sing before. I have got to say that I’ve been to Toowoomba and it is an accurate representation and it certainly extends to other parts of small town and probably the world.
And now I wait for my next concert which at this stage I am too embarrassed to admit what it is ;)