A Regeneration Tour review!
August 5th, 2008 Posted by: Dust Devil
Hello everybody,
I joined quite a few people in their thirties, forties and fifties at the Regeneration Tour concert this past Friday, August 1, at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, AZ. I left a happy man, thrilled that for a few hours I felt like I was 16 again.
The Missing Persons started off the evening with a decent set of six songs. Dale Bozzio’s voice has not held up overly well over the years and to try and re-create that pitch she became well-known for was a mighty task. Destination Unknown led off the set, much to the delight of the crowd. The last two songs performed were Words, which was performed fairly well and led into my favorite tune of theirs, Walking in L.A. The band delivered its best overall performance on the quirky Mental Hopscotch, one of their earliest tunes. Dale Bozzio’s vocals were great on this song and the energy from the band really shone through. A decent start to the evening.
A Flock of Seagulls came on next. Mike Score is the only original member left and the guitar player that evening really made me wish Paul Reynolds was still around. Be that as it may, this was a great, great set, short and very sweet. The band only played four tunes, but all four were big crowd pleasers. Telecommunication, their first single, led off the set and led into the fabulous Space Age Love Song. Always my favorite Flock of Seagulls tune, this song still sounds as fresh today as it was twenty-six years ago. Naturally the set ended with the classic “one-hit-wonder” I Ran. The crowd went absolutely nuts. It was great seeing everyone dancing and hearing everyone sing along to the chorus of that tune. It is too bad Mike Score hates playing the song as much as he does.
ABC came on next and were simply wonderful. One of the classier bands to come out of the eighties new wave scene, ABC has actually released new material and some of that music was played on this evening. However, they too realized this was a retro crowd at a retro show, so they did not disappoint at all. Classic versions of Poison Arrow, Be Near Me and How To Be A Millionaire were performed. A highly energetic When Smokey Sings really got the crowd pumped up and the beautiful Look of Love ended a great set. Martin Fry looks and sounds as good as ever, wearing one of his signature suits and still possessing a wide vocal range, allowing him to hit the high notes that are key on many of their songs.
Belinda Carlisle was next and for what it’s worth, I felt this was the best set of the night. Belinda looks as amazing as ever and after all these years still possesses a great voice. Gone is the high-pitched vocal delivery evident on all the classic Go-Go’s songs, Belinda now possesses a smooth, mature vocal delivery. A set comprised of seven songs featured five solo classics, including her first solo venture Mad About You and her Number One hit Heaven is a Place on Earth. Much to the crowd’s delight she pulled out two Go-Go’s classics, Vacation and Our Lips Are Sealed. Wonderful, wonderful tunes, but made me miss that great band all the more seeing her perform the songs without the other four ladies. What a great set!
The Human League capped off a great evening, but in this writer’s opinion a bad way to end things. Obviously this is subjective on my part because I was never a big fan, but the Human League simply did not make a lasting impression on me during their heyday. Philip Oakley is the only original member left, but Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, the two female singers on their biggest hits, are still with the group. They led off with Mirror Man, a decent song that I remember. The next three tunes I did not recognize and for me were simply mindless excursions of repetitive keyboard noise. Human, their second U.S. Number One single, was played next. I do like this ballad and the song sounded great on this evening. However, halfway through the next tune I had enough of the repetition and had to leave, so I never did see if they played (Keep Feeling) Fascination or Don’t You Want Me. I would have to assume they did.
There were two other factors that kept this from being a perfect evening. I find it hard to believe the Dodge Theatre only had Duran Duran and Hall & Oates to play in between sets. Worse, the only Duran Duran music played was from Rio, so I heard tracks from that album three times in one night! Last, the “music critic” sitting behind me did his best to kill the show for me and the ladies I sat next to, but oh well, aren’t we all critics in the long run? I had a great time and even leaving the concert early did not dampen my spirits one bit. A fabulous evening folks, kudos to the Regeneration Tour!
Cheers,
The Dust Devil
Filed under: Event Reviews
9 Comments Add your own
1. Jon | August 6th, 2008 at 9:35 am
I agree with most of your comments. I just saw the show in LA and had much the same experience. We didn’t have Missing Persons or A Flock of Seagulls. Instead we had Naked Eyes, who weren’t bad. Actually just the lead singer with a backing band. Same for ABC. Belinda was by far the best and I didn’t really understand why she wasn’t the headliner. She had far more hits in the US than The Human League and had much more stage presence. All I can say for the Human League is that they sucked. I also almost left half way through their set, but I felt that I was owed “Don’t You Want Me” for having to listen to the rest of the garbage they played.
2. Ronnie Wexler | August 12th, 2008 at 1:37 am
I just got home from the show at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA. No Missing Persons on the bill. AFOS opened the 3 1/2 hour show with a strong 1/2 hour set of hits, including Wishing(I Had A Photograph Of You), & The More You Live(The More You Love), 2 of my favs of theirs. ABC followed with a strong, crowd pleasing set of new & classic ABC songs. Belinda Carlyle was third on stage, singing a half hour set of her hits, & 2 of the Go-Go’s hits. The Human League were the last on, and my favorite of the night. They played a great 45+ minute set of their hits, & 2 great album cuts(Seconds & love action). After ending their regular set with a 2500 voice singalong of Don’t You Want Me Baby, they came back for a 1 song encore of Philip’s solo hit, Electric Dreams.
Over all, it was a great nostolgic flashback to my club DJ’ing days of the 80’s. And yes, the only music the venue played between sets was Duran Duran & Hall & Oats.
3. Vinny | August 21st, 2008 at 7:25 am
Went to the Regeneration Tour concert last night in Boston. I also agree with most of the review. Naked Eyes started off with their hit “Always something there to remind me”. I wished they did a couple of other songs before this one as people were still going to seats when the song started. They finished up with “Promises, Promises” which was good. Flock of Seagulls came on next. They put on a good show though only a few of their songs I liked. ABC was next and the singer really tried to get the crowd going. He did well with “Poison Arrow” and “Look of Love” but “When Smokey Sings” was lacking something.
Next was Belinda Carlisle who was great. She came out with alot of energy and get the songs coming. Instead of two Go-Go’s songs, she did three. Her performance was the best of all the groups. After her Human League came on. The bass from the speakers could be felt against my chest. I did not care for the first few songs they played. I also did not like the political pictures being displayed behind them. But when they finally played “Human” and “Fascination”, it was great. The closing song “Don’t You Want Me” was awesome. We left after that but heard them come back out to play “Electric Dreams”.
The venue was a little expensive on the food and drinks. It also played the same music between sets.
4. dt | August 21st, 2008 at 7:55 am
Just saw the Regeneration Tour last night in Boston. Bought fifth row tickets the night of, a little disconcerting there, but the place did seem to fill up after a while.
Naked eyes, or more appropriately Naked Eye sans Rob Fisher, seemed a little too heavy on the melancholy /sadness scale.
Flock of Seagulls - Real tough. When they first came on stage making adjustments to the instruments, I thought they were Roadies. They looked like they walked out of a homeless shelter and or Rehab.
Thankfully. things picked up considerably when ABC took the Stage, excellent performance even if Martin Fry’s voice sounded a bit strained. I guess the old pipes don’t quite recover after a few gigs like they did 20+ years ago.
Belinda Carlisle seemed to be a bit catty with the stage hands and back-up band, but she sounded & performed great. Nice mix of Go-Go’s and Single stuff.
Human League, very entertaining, Synth Pop Performance art in all it’s glory. Phil Oakey got his cardio in kicking a highly theatrical performance on stage. I did feel a little bad for Joanne Catherall, she was painfully too ample for those costumes, but she soldiered on workin’ it to the Max. Susan Ann Sulley looked fantastic, and sang back up flawlessly.
All in all good show, but take your time getting there, grab a cocktail & skip the first two acts.
5. English Mike | August 21st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I also went to the Mountain Windery Show and the Mezzanine show in San Francisco (HL and Naked Eyes only). I loved Flock of Seagulls, thought Martin Fry was awesome, Belinda Carlyle was OK and THL were fantastic. Now maybe to explain this, I grew up in England and listened to three of these bands a lot but my knowledge of Belinda Carlyle was pretty limited. I can tell you that if Human was your idea of THL song that you liked it is no wonder that you were dissapointed. What impressed me was the crowds knowledge of songs not only from DARE (the biggest album) but also some of the aforementioned album tracks such as Seconds and of course the classic “Being Boiled” track. Both the crowds ate the Messanine and Mountain Winery were having a fantastic time and in S.F. by the time DYWMB was performed it was more like a punk concert with the crowd bouncing up and down. I would say everyone had a great time and music is of course a personal thing for everyone. having said that Belinda did look a bit skinnier than when I remember last seeing her and as we say in England “I wouldn’t kick her out of bed”.
6. Zooooooooob | August 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Saw the show in Trenton NJ last night, and it surpassed my expectations. Very little time wasted between sets, sound was good, and Belinda Carlisle surprised us with a third Go-Go’s song, a little number called We Got The Beat!
After reading your review and others on the web, I was a little concerned about Human League, but they were really great… set looked good and the videos were really cool. And Fascination and Don’t you Want me were well worth the wait!
7. Marcy | August 25th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I just saw the Clarkston, MI (Detroit area) show, which featured Naked Eyes, A Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Belinda Carlisle, & The Human League. I thought, like many others have commented, that it was a really fun night and that the bands were overall better than I was expecting. Unlike some others here, I thought Belinda Carlisle was, um, “pitchy” at times and a bit boring compared to the other acts, but that may just be my own personal reaction to her. I like The Go-Gos about 100 times more than her solo work, so enjoyed the 3 Go-Gos tunes she played. I thought ABC won the night - that was the only act that had everyone on their feet from the beginning of their set to the end, and Martin Fry’s voice is amazing!
8. Mark Miller | August 27th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Went to the WolfTrap show last night (August 26) in suburban Washington, DC. A great time was had by all.
Naked Eyes sounded strong, and was a good choice for the opener.
Mike Score of Flock of Seagulls. ………..not the most enthusiastic performer you’ll ever see, but then again, when has he been ? He delivereed the goods, and as a FOS fan, I was happy.
ABC was a lot of fun. Belinda Carlisle is still on top. She is just one new hit away from headlining her own tour.
Human League did a fine set, but like the others on this board, I think Belinda Carlise was the highlight of the show.
For 50 bucks, this show was well worth the money.
9. Effessenes | December 31st, 2008 at 6:19 pm
fzshjahtbgpfxipzwell, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch
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