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Hello Again Let's Go Shake It Up Best Friend's Girl Candy-O I Saw The Light Dangerous Type Moving In Stereo All Mixed Up Black Maria You Might Think Drive Bang The Drum You're All I've Got Bye Bye Love Not Tonight
Just What I Needed
Review by SueW:
I arrived about halfway through Blondie's set - partly because there was more traffic than I anticipated and partly because I wasn't too bothered about seeing them again. Someone pointed out to me yesterday that Blondie are actually a co-headliner (and not Kasim's opening act as I've been viewing them!) but it's been very obvious at all the concerts that The New Cars are the main draw.
I don't know how many this venue holds but as you can see from the photo it's probably 2,000 to 3,000. The balcony was closed but when I walked in the rest was probably 95% full. Of course you couldn't tell how many of these were Comps and how many paid. During the interval I was chatting to the people around me and of the ones I spoke to, 4 had won tickets in radio contests about The Cars and the other 2 were Comps - I was the only one who had paid!! (This was in the Pit area and there were several spare seats there....more than there were in other parts of the venue.)
When I arrived there was only a few people standing and it seemed a very muted audience. (Deborah Harry was wearing a dress for the first time on the tour - but it was a dress that you could have worn out shopping!) Once they started Rapture near the end of her set, loads of people ran to the front of the stage and during the encore a couple of people actually got on the stage and gave her a hug! (The stage was less than waist high.)
During the interval our usher told us that Blondie had asked for fans to go to the front at that point in the show but that The New Cars had instructed them not to let anyone stand there so she had to check our tickets that we should all be sitting in the pit! That struck me as strange as I was sure that Todd and Kasim especially wouldn't have issued those instructions! All through the interval there were lots of security and ushers around and people giving them instructions!
As soon as The New Cars took the stage loads of people came down the aisles but they were stopped before they got to the pit by security so about 30 people just stood there in the aisle for a while until they realised they weren't being allowed to the front! Kasim even said into the microphone at this point "Feel free to come to the front" but they weren't allowed - it was bizarre! About 15 people from the pit stood at the front of the stage and security even made them return to their seats until right near the end of the set!
The New Cars gave another great performance tonight and Todd is chatting more on stage so that it's less like a Cars orchestrated "keep to the plan" gig and more like a relaxed Todd one. Tonight all the band (except Prairie) were in black and white (I don't know if that was planned or not). Kasim looked the smartest (of course!) in black trousers, a white shirt (with no pattern) and his longer black jacket with the velvet collar. Todd was wearing black trousers and a black jacket (that didn't match as they were different shades of black!) and a white shirt with black dots. During some downtime on stage when they were trying to sort out Kasim's bass, Todd took off his jacket to some striptease kind of music! Elliot Easton was wearing a black jumper and white trousers (which looked as though he'd just played a round of golf!). Greg Hawkes was wearing a black and white stripped shirt and the same colours but different sized stripes jacket. Prairie was wearing a The New Cars T-shirt and when Todd introduced him he said that he was advertising the merchandise!
Right from when they started Hello Again Kasim started mouthing to the technical guys that there was some problem with his bass. It didn't appear to be with his signature bass itself but rather with the pick-up. Every so often he'd talk to the techs and they would twiddle things on the "big black box" on the stage. At one point there were 2 techs and Kasim trying to sort it out! This went on for about 5 or 6 songs and eventually Kasim switched to using a guitar chord but that still didn't seem to be 100% right! Todd came over a couple of times to see what was up and then Elliot came over to use Kasim's microphone and mouthed "You okay?". The one plus side for me of Kasim using a guitar cord was that it limits how far he can move away from his microphone so he stayed this side all the concert!
At one point early on in the set while they were trying to fix the bass, Elliot told us all to talk amongst ourselves and Greg told us a really unfunny joke! Todd then asked us if anyone knew any magic tricks!
I thought that the rest of the sound was fine at this venue - the vocals came across really clearly tonight. Kasim's voice was again really rich on both Drive and (especially) All Mixed Up.
The version of Bang The Drum on this tour really is good fun and it's nice to see the 4 vocalists singing (loudly!) into the microphone. When they switch to guitars Todd has started making hand movements onto the video screens!
Kasim usually picks on someone in Good Times Roll to get them to sing "good times roll" and tonight (as there was hardly anyone at the front) he chose a bald probably 60 year old usher who didn't have a clue what was happening!
As I walked out everybody I heard was saying how much they enjoyed the concert - roll on Los Angeles tomorrow!!
Kasim Sulton:
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