Purist's First Show of TC Tour

Thanks for that great review!

"Hey God" - you are so lucky! I got to hear HG in Munich 2008 and I went beserk over it, I just love that song so much!!! I made a little dance when I saw the setlist to celebrate its return.

One thing I haven't fully understood is how the stage designs and screens actually dictate the setlist structure or just leave certain spots for new songs. Usually if they didn't play a certain song, the video that had been made for it just wasn't shown and everything was good. How is it this time - do they blend together like a story or something?

I'm very much looking forward to Paris!

The songs that are interchangeable have relatively basic presentations and video effects that can be changed on the fly. The staples have elaborate video effects with the screens moving into intricately programmed positions so that those songs each make the stage their own. The screens are actually made up of small individual blocks that come together to form one large screen ranging to MANY individual boxes that can be positioned anywhere.

They didn't skimp on production.

Aloha !

That's all very well but they had made video's for every song of the Bounce record, including Open All Night and Love Me Back To Life. Both songs were never played, and songs like Hook Me Up and Joey weren't played every night either. They didn't dictate the set just because they had made special visuals for the song.

I don't think Something For The Pain and the acoustic version of Saturday Night will stay every night, they can easily change them for other acoustic stuff. They did that a few times on the LH tour with them playing Never Say Goodbye in Sydney or Mystery Train in Calgary.

They can mix it up, and just because 6 individual videoscreens can combine 1 big video screen doesn't mean that the visual otherwise won't work. The person moving the screens can say "Right, this video goes on screen 1, 2 and 3, yet the other 3 will show the band, etc. Saying that the visuals dictate the set therefore doesn't make any sense at all. They could always get Lost Highway out of the set and change it for another song and just show the band on the visuals, just as they can switch the opener rather easily. The same counts for the order of songs, right now the show has a terrible flow and I'm pretty sure Jon knows this.

In Europe We Got It Goin' On wasn't needed to get the crowd on their feet. It's just that Lost Highway and Superman Tonight don't work live and the crowd doesn't get into it. We Got It Goin' On does get the crowd on their feet because there are 2 rather dull songs before it. Would the band play Raise Your Hands and Have A Nice Day before it the effect of We Got It Goin' On wouldn't be noticed as much as you do now.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

It's more than six screens and it's not just simple videos shown on the screens, which is what the deal was on the Bounce tour. This is why I am making that point. There isn't some guy moving these screens around manually, they are programmed. It's way too involved for someone to manually position these things in all the variations they have. The interchangeable points in the show have a basic set up. Hey God just used video filter effects while showing the band on a basic screen set up, for example.

During Living On A Prayer, they begin showing all of those videos people have been sending in of themselves lip syncing. Each person gets an individual separated block of screen and they are showing a lot of these all at once. On the other songs, the way the videos are presented across the screens is no quick job.

I have no doubt that eventually the songs that have elaborate designs around them will move on, it just won't be a quick change due to the time invested in developing them into the production. They'll likely work out more designs for other songs to introduce into the set over time.

I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself. Though during your description of being the lonely island standing when everyone one else was sitting I saw myself

I even started a thread on this board during the Prudential shows in 2007 asking if anyone thought I was being a big shithead for refusing to sit down. The answer was a big NO and I continued to stand during the rather apathetic Newark shows.

There is no way I will be sitting down for Richie singing Homebound Train.

And yes - certain venues are dead sonically. And others simply sing. I'm thinking of the Spectrum in Philadelphia which is being torn down and I could cry about it. It's a big drafty old arena but the sound was always excellent there.

Nice review, glad you had fun!

Aloha !

They are programmed for a position, yes. There's still a guy saying "Screen 1,2 and 3 make a combination, just like screen 3,4,5 do that on the right." It doesn't matter how many screens there are, it's the way it works. With stuff like this they've got a layout on the screen at the soundboard and the guy who does the lightning can select a layout for the screens. It then moves in that direction.

I know what you mean with the Prayer vids and although I think that the layout for that is connected with the performance of the band (it has to be in sync with the performance of the band), they can still take out a certain video and replace it with something else.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

You are really going to have to see the show first. I haven't seen any show with a production presentation like this have a set list that is variable. You are making it a bit more simplistic than it actually is, just trust me on that. I'm not a silly ignorant observer who doesn't understand these things and needs them explained. They aren't using random pre-programmed screen positions than can be used interchangeably with the videos. It's a couple of levels beyond that.

I haven't been checking the You Tube videos yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that not a single one is getting that aspect through to anyone.

Incidentially, what you are describing occurs during the points in the set I mentioned, which is why I pointed it out. They have greater flexibility there. There is very clear distinction between the songs that are going to be sticking around for a while and the songs that are going to get changed around from night to night, it's not based on whether they have a video.

Of course, I can just sit back and let the tour prove my point on which ones are going to stick and which one's won't. This doesn't mean you'll get WGIGO overseas, it just means it's not going anywhere for the U.S. tour.

First off, very glad you enjoyed the show, and that you got Hey God. Second, your review itself is quite good. I agree with you about the video screen aspect, as everything I've seen reminds me of the screens from the MSG shows on the LH Tour, which was some of the coolest stage design I've ever seen, with the highlight being the WGIGO step routine. Do the screens still do that venetian blinds bit?