Back in BOS early. Missed out on certain things and people, which is a situation that I will resolve in June. Prepare.
Five good points of last night's Erasure show:
Four bad points of last night's Erasure show:
All in all, a fine show that offered very few musical surprises. I do wish they'd managed to work in a few older numbers along the lines of "Phantom Bride," which was nice to hear. Several albums were skipped entirely; nothing from Cowboy or Erasure was performed and I was disappointed in the way that only a discography-memorizing fan can be.
On the bus down, I read the new Slave Labor graphic novel, Nil: A Land Beyond Belief and will do a full review soonish as it deserves a proper look.
Five good points of last night's Erasure show:
- Opening band Elkland did a good job of the whole Joy Division-meets-Duran Duran thing. A little too arched-eyebrow in places and the lead singer's dancing is, frankly, dreadful, but all in all quite enjoyable.
- Erasure themselves were spot on and quite wonderful to behold as a slab of disco fun, fun, fun. Andy played to the crowd well and Vince seemed to be having a great deal of fun. The backup singers were gloriously outfitted and did a great job of giving me some eye candy while the disco boys were all about The Andy.
- Sarah had a great time, which was important to me. I even caught her singing along with the chorus a few times.
- Gaggles of cute Asian girls around me for some reason. I ain't complaining.
- There were some very lovely people in the crowd, including a nice enough couple that we shared some words with.
Four bad points of last night's Erasure show:
- Jesus Christ, some people need a life outside of certain bands. Wearing costumes during certain songs? Throwing glitter? Interpretive hand dancing? I mean, yes, that's quite fun for you, but it makes you a giant obstruction to those standing in your wake.
- You know, if you wanted to be up front in a general admission show, you should show up early. Stop trying to bully your way to the front. It's hard enough putting up with the crowd bumping against me without drunken buffoons showing up three songs before the end and causing a scuffle to my left.
- Judas priest, when did I get so old? Sarah and I had to sit down on the steps near Union Square for twenty minutes after the show, complaining about our aching feet. Andy goes and gets his hips replaced and dances about like a 13 year old sugar freak for two hours, we're contemplating our sciatica issues.
- Didn't bring my camera, assuming that the Irving Plaza staff would grab it from me, so I ended up taking a few pictures with my cameraphone, which you can see here. Meanwhile, everyone else is shooting with their nice units and my god, the lighting was excellent. Bah.
All in all, a fine show that offered very few musical surprises. I do wish they'd managed to work in a few older numbers along the lines of "Phantom Bride," which was nice to hear. Several albums were skipped entirely; nothing from Cowboy or Erasure was performed and I was disappointed in the way that only a discography-memorizing fan can be.
On the bus down, I read the new Slave Labor graphic novel, Nil: A Land Beyond Belief and will do a full review soonish as it deserves a proper look.
