Forum guest
May-04-2011, 07:28 GMT
USA - United Staates America
 | Just got back from First Avenue, the Minneapolis club that Prince made famous long ago.
Seeing Paul in such an intimate venue, well, it was the most memorable night I´ve spent in that dark little club since I saw Prince himself show up there unannounced and run through on a half-full Monday night the setlist that he played a few nights later in opening for the Stones at L.A. Coliseum in fall 1981.
Just some quick thoughts:
* For the first several numbers, I kept finding it hard to believe that eight-piece band and Paul Simon was up there on such a relatively small stage. It was awful cozy getting all those guys and all that equipment and just really cool to see him in the same place you saw bands such as the Ramones, Squeeze, Paul Weller, the Jayhawks, Aztec Camera, the Pretenders and a bunch of others I can´t remember just now way back in the proverbial day.
I saw about five people back from the stage and thought the sound could have been louder. Maybe it was the relatively quiet volume -- at least compared to, say, Motorhead there from years ago -- or not, but the night seemed to lack a little energy early on, but built steadily after the first four or five songs.
* Not sure if it has been this way the entire tour or just because Paul played back-to-back nights, but it seemed like he really struggled with his voice. It cracked more than a few times and a couple times it seemed like he couldn´t get the word he wanted out. Really noticeable on a song like Only Living Boy and kinda painful to see and here at times, but it seemed to get better actually as the show went on.
*It was pretty much the same set list as the one he played at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Monday night except: As he has done on the second of consecutive nights in the same city, he subbed Boy in the Bubble for the opener and dropped Crazy Love.
He also dropped Questions for the Angels and added That Was Your Mother and perhaps Getting Ready for Christmas (I´ve seen conflicting set lists/reports that he both did and didn´t do it on Monday).
* I thought the new stuff sounded really good, particularly SBOSW and Getting Ready for Christmas Day.
* Others I really liked: The back-to-back-to-back combination of Vietnam-Mother And Child Reunion/That Was Your Mother/Hearts And Bones and then later, Obvious Child.
That Was Your Mother almost felt like you were in some little Cajun club in Louisiana, just sounded really good.
*Paul had some fun with the phrasing on the encore cover of "Here Comes the Sun," playing to the crowd with the lines about the long, cold, lonely winter, which brought hoots and laughter from a crowd that saw sleet fall here the day before, on May 2!
I put this up on the set list file, but here it is, too, just the same:
1. Boy in the Bubble
2. Dazzling Blue
3, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
4. So Beautiful or So What
5. Vietnam
6. Mother and Child Reunion
7. That Was Your Mother
8. Hearts and Bones
9. Mystery Train
10. Slip Sliding Away
11. Rewrite
12. Peace Like A River
13. Obvious Child
14. Only Living Boy in New York
15. Getting Ready for Christmas Day
16. Love is Eternal Sacred Light
17. Father and Daughter
18. Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
19. Gumboots
Encore
20. Sound of Silence
21. Kodachrome/Gone at Last
22. Here Comes the Sun
23. Late In The Evening
Second encore
24. Still Crazy After All These Years
|
Ian
May-04-2011, 09:36 GMT
Australia
 | Hi Royd,do you know who´s doing ´front of house´ on this tour? The thought that the sound could´ve been a little louder is the same one I had about S&G in 2009. It does seem to affect the energy level if the overall master volume is set too low,but thanks for the great review as always. |
royd
May-04-2011, 13:54 GMT
USA - United Staates America
| Good guess, Ian, but I didn´t write that, although I agree with most of it. I thought the sound levels were perfect, actually. I was dead center in front of the stage and maybe five people in front of me. This was my first time at First Avenue (I drove over 600 miles each way to be able to attend the shows). I don´t know who is doing sound this tour. |
Ian
May-05-2011, 06:31 GMT
Australia
| Sorry about that Royd,and ´forum guest´. I forgot which thread I was on I believe. |