Lou European Tour
Hey Velvi$, fantastic shot. What kind of camera?
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Homme Fatale
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Hey Velvi$, I love the fact that your camera captured motion, as opposed to a perfect "still." I take it you didn't use a flash? I figger he might have thrown a rock at the people who used flashes!!
Bargain bin gold, favorite bands, concerts, photos, and my record collection: All Good Music
I think this is about it (cut & pasted from the crobar thread)
I'm no real expert on Lou's solo stuff so this may not be completely correct, looks about right to me tho'
Adventurer
The Proposition
My House
Ecstasy
Guilty
Mad
Talking Book
Slip Away
Charley?s Girl
Burning Embers
Halloween Parade
Change
Vanishing Act
Why Do You Talk?
Guardian Angel
The Blue Mask
Encore: Perfect Day
Tony was there with the usual suspects: lady on the cello, Mike, Fernando and Tony.
The band made a few mistakes! During the early part of the gig, Tony missed an ending, they went round again and nailed it on the second attempt. During one song Lou was improvising and had a small communication breakdown with the rest, a couple of other minor slips - I notice these things!
Re the photos, I never used a flash, I much prefer the natural colours using no flash. Although no one stopped me, the ticket stated that no photography was allowed, so I think using flash would have been a mistake. Lou saw me taking the photos and gave me a grin, so I s'pose he didn't mind too much!
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I'm no real expert on Lou's solo stuff so this may not be completely correct, looks about right to me tho'
Adventurer
The Proposition
My House
Ecstasy
Guilty
Mad
Talking Book
Slip Away
Charley?s Girl
Burning Embers
Halloween Parade
Change
Vanishing Act
Why Do You Talk?
Guardian Angel
The Blue Mask
Encore: Perfect Day
Tony was there with the usual suspects: lady on the cello, Mike, Fernando and Tony.
The band made a few mistakes! During the early part of the gig, Tony missed an ending, they went round again and nailed it on the second attempt. During one song Lou was improvising and had a small communication breakdown with the rest, a couple of other minor slips - I notice these things!
Re the photos, I never used a flash, I much prefer the natural colours using no flash. Although no one stopped me, the ticket stated that no photography was allowed, so I think using flash would have been a mistake. Lou saw me taking the photos and gave me a grin, so I s'pose he didn't mind too much!
.
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Doctor Bob
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Hi Folks, am back from Liverpool and here's the low-down
The set list was the same as the NYC one except they didn't play 'Change' or 'Halloween Parade'.
The acoustics were hit and miss, especially in songs like 'The Proposition' and 'The Blue Mask' you couldn't make out what Lou was singing.
I liked the fact that Lou took a number of extended improvised discordant and distorted guitar solos in several songs throughout the gig, reminiscent of his playing on 'Mr Rain' from the Redux album you could say
In some songs like 'Ecstasy' and 'Charley's Girl' he stopped playing guitar at times and just went into spoken word lyrics. ("if I ever fuckin see Sharon again, tell her I'm gonna punch her motherfuckin' face in!")
The personnel were the same as listed by others: Fernando, Mike, Jane and Tony. Tony generated a lot of intensity at times but didn't shine as brightly as he has done in other tours because most of the set was slower numbers ('Slip Away', 'Talking Book', 'My House', 'Mad', etc). Fernando was his usual reliable solid self and played some lead guitar as well on 'Guilty' where Lou played bass! Jane had one phenomenal solo, I'm not kidding she was on fire during this 5 minute crazy cello solo that was even more intense than the one on 'Venus in Furs' in the last tour. Other than that she didn't contribute all that much to the overall sound this time apart from in a few songs. Similarly Mike just seems to be used for playing the Z-tar keyboard and a few chords on the guitar nowadays, not like the old days where he used to be contributing a lot more elegant guitar playing to the songs (think of the 'New York' and 'Magic and Loss' tours).
Lou seemed a tiny bit under the weather although he was still playing very well (I hear he's got a sore throat or something). He didn't seem to take to the Liverpool crowd very much and ignored the audience for the most part, not that I blame him as the crowd wasn't great. I don't know whether that was just that night or whether he's consistently avoiding audience interaction at the moment. He does tend to go thru phases ('Ecstasy' tour he barely used to say a word during the whole show, whereas 'Animal Serenade' tour he was full of jokes and banter, sometimes to the detriment of the actual songs which were interrupted to tell us exactly how Michael is getting a piano sound from his guitar etc.)
'Blue Mask' was the low point for me, they started it with just Fernando playing bass and Lou singing over it, it got a lot better when the rest of the band came in about half way thru, but before that it was barely recognisable.
'Perfect Day' as an encore for all the shows seems quite uninspired and perfunctory, I guess he does it to keep the large part of the audience happy.
Overall Lou played very well and the band were good but the set didn't have enough flat-out rockers, the acooustics weren't what they could have been, and I'm not convinced that Lou was enjoying himself enough on stage as I've seen him do on other occasions in the past. It seems very likely that the rest of this tour will feature no VU songs guys so if you've got tickets, better dust off your copies of 'Set the Twilight Reeling' and 'The Raven' and get into them before the gig!
The set list was the same as the NYC one except they didn't play 'Change' or 'Halloween Parade'.
The acoustics were hit and miss, especially in songs like 'The Proposition' and 'The Blue Mask' you couldn't make out what Lou was singing.
I liked the fact that Lou took a number of extended improvised discordant and distorted guitar solos in several songs throughout the gig, reminiscent of his playing on 'Mr Rain' from the Redux album you could say
In some songs like 'Ecstasy' and 'Charley's Girl' he stopped playing guitar at times and just went into spoken word lyrics. ("if I ever fuckin see Sharon again, tell her I'm gonna punch her motherfuckin' face in!")
The personnel were the same as listed by others: Fernando, Mike, Jane and Tony. Tony generated a lot of intensity at times but didn't shine as brightly as he has done in other tours because most of the set was slower numbers ('Slip Away', 'Talking Book', 'My House', 'Mad', etc). Fernando was his usual reliable solid self and played some lead guitar as well on 'Guilty' where Lou played bass! Jane had one phenomenal solo, I'm not kidding she was on fire during this 5 minute crazy cello solo that was even more intense than the one on 'Venus in Furs' in the last tour. Other than that she didn't contribute all that much to the overall sound this time apart from in a few songs. Similarly Mike just seems to be used for playing the Z-tar keyboard and a few chords on the guitar nowadays, not like the old days where he used to be contributing a lot more elegant guitar playing to the songs (think of the 'New York' and 'Magic and Loss' tours).
Lou seemed a tiny bit under the weather although he was still playing very well (I hear he's got a sore throat or something). He didn't seem to take to the Liverpool crowd very much and ignored the audience for the most part, not that I blame him as the crowd wasn't great. I don't know whether that was just that night or whether he's consistently avoiding audience interaction at the moment. He does tend to go thru phases ('Ecstasy' tour he barely used to say a word during the whole show, whereas 'Animal Serenade' tour he was full of jokes and banter, sometimes to the detriment of the actual songs which were interrupted to tell us exactly how Michael is getting a piano sound from his guitar etc.)
'Blue Mask' was the low point for me, they started it with just Fernando playing bass and Lou singing over it, it got a lot better when the rest of the band came in about half way thru, but before that it was barely recognisable.
'Perfect Day' as an encore for all the shows seems quite uninspired and perfunctory, I guess he does it to keep the large part of the audience happy.
Overall Lou played very well and the band were good but the set didn't have enough flat-out rockers, the acooustics weren't what they could have been, and I'm not convinced that Lou was enjoying himself enough on stage as I've seen him do on other occasions in the past. It seems very likely that the rest of this tour will feature no VU songs guys so if you've got tickets, better dust off your copies of 'Set the Twilight Reeling' and 'The Raven' and get into them before the gig!
A+ review!
BTW, which part of the audience was Perfect Day meant to "keep happy?" hehehe
BTW, which part of the audience was Perfect Day meant to "keep happy?" hehehe
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Pig Related
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lurid_uk
here's a counterpoint to the previous review:
"Lou Takes The Piss In Liverpool"
The L'pool show was probably teh worst Lou show I've ever seen (only just beating last year's London "funeral". No sound check, so Lou's "vocal" was almost inaudible for teh 1st 2 songs. Every song lengthened by a guitar solo (sadly, practically the same solo in each song!) Lou playing (mostly) his silver Telecaster and wearing beige slacks (!!!!) and what looked like "moon boots". Apparently he had a cold, but that's no excuse for just mumbling through the songs. "Ecstasy" was ok. "Guilty" has been rearranged and now sounds like Fernando Saunders trying to be James Brown (and failing miserably). Someone should tell Fernando to stick to the bass - that's what he's good at. "Talking Book" - is a good song, but Lou cant even sing this any more. "Slip Away" - taken at a walking pace. "Charley's Girl" - the highlight for me, but only because it's one of my faves and it hardly ever gets played. (But Lou's vocals still barely there) "Burning Embers" had a long long "faux Cale"solo from Jane Scarp. It only made me miss Cale even more. "Vanishing Act" - this i s a good song for a musical, but has no place in a rock'n'roll show. On that topic, what happened to the rock'n'roll, Lou?
I think the reality is that Lou's voice is now so shot that he cannot sing the songs any more. That leaves him with few options - he can rearrange them so he can "talk" his way through them (a la recent versions of "Venus"), or he can concentrate on the more recent songs, which no-one really wants to hear.
In retrospect, my tape of teh show sounds better than the show itself did at the time, but maybe that's because I'm used to listening to dubious quality live tapes without the accompanying visuals. Lou never had much of a stage presence, but even what he had seems to have gone down the drain with his voice.
I go to see Lou primarily because I love the songs he (used to) write, and I love his (old) vocal style. Now, his voice is gone and he doesn't even play the old songs (or talks his way through 1 or 2 as a "sop" to oldies like me). Why is he doing this tour? Who knows! I've seen him many many times over the years (even flying to NY on 2 occasions) but I'll have to think seriously about travelling any distance to see him again. Already my tickets to the Culzean Castle "Rabbie Burns" gig are looking like a waste of ?20........since he is apparently only going to play 4 songs. (This is the ideal situation for him to do a proper recital, like he used to do in years gone past, but I doubt he'll see it that way.) I've persuaded a bunch of my friends from the Culzean area to buy tickets - how am I going to justify that if he just "croaks" his way through a few unidentifiable songs at a funereal pace?
"Lou Takes The Piss In Liverpool"
The L'pool show was probably teh worst Lou show I've ever seen (only just beating last year's London "funeral". No sound check, so Lou's "vocal" was almost inaudible for teh 1st 2 songs. Every song lengthened by a guitar solo (sadly, practically the same solo in each song!) Lou playing (mostly) his silver Telecaster and wearing beige slacks (!!!!) and what looked like "moon boots". Apparently he had a cold, but that's no excuse for just mumbling through the songs. "Ecstasy" was ok. "Guilty" has been rearranged and now sounds like Fernando Saunders trying to be James Brown (and failing miserably). Someone should tell Fernando to stick to the bass - that's what he's good at. "Talking Book" - is a good song, but Lou cant even sing this any more. "Slip Away" - taken at a walking pace. "Charley's Girl" - the highlight for me, but only because it's one of my faves and it hardly ever gets played. (But Lou's vocals still barely there) "Burning Embers" had a long long "faux Cale"solo from Jane Scarp. It only made me miss Cale even more. "Vanishing Act" - this i s a good song for a musical, but has no place in a rock'n'roll show. On that topic, what happened to the rock'n'roll, Lou?
I think the reality is that Lou's voice is now so shot that he cannot sing the songs any more. That leaves him with few options - he can rearrange them so he can "talk" his way through them (a la recent versions of "Venus"), or he can concentrate on the more recent songs, which no-one really wants to hear.
In retrospect, my tape of teh show sounds better than the show itself did at the time, but maybe that's because I'm used to listening to dubious quality live tapes without the accompanying visuals. Lou never had much of a stage presence, but even what he had seems to have gone down the drain with his voice.
I go to see Lou primarily because I love the songs he (used to) write, and I love his (old) vocal style. Now, his voice is gone and he doesn't even play the old songs (or talks his way through 1 or 2 as a "sop" to oldies like me). Why is he doing this tour? Who knows! I've seen him many many times over the years (even flying to NY on 2 occasions) but I'll have to think seriously about travelling any distance to see him again. Already my tickets to the Culzean Castle "Rabbie Burns" gig are looking like a waste of ?20........since he is apparently only going to play 4 songs. (This is the ideal situation for him to do a proper recital, like he used to do in years gone past, but I doubt he'll see it that way.) I've persuaded a bunch of my friends from the Culzean area to buy tickets - how am I going to justify that if he just "croaks" his way through a few unidentifiable songs at a funereal pace?
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Homme Fatale
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