Tag Archives: concert review

Music, Pop Culture

Must See Concert: George Michael’s 25 Live Tour!

10 Comments

George!
Photos Courtesy of April. Thanks April!

I do a good job of keeping this on the downlow, but I am actually completely gay for singer George Michael. So, it was a thrill for me to be able to attend George’s show last night at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where Geoffrey and I found ourselves about six feet from the stage. Insanely gay!

George 2

George’s current tour features an out-of-control light and stage show, the star of which is the award winning, state-of-the art LED Video Screen designed and developed specifically for George Michael’s 25 Live tour. I am not fronting when I say that George’s show was so mind-blowingly psychedelic that, by comparison, it made Pink Floyd’s laser light spectacular look like Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree before the Holiday Spirit brought it to life.

George 3

The stage is also unique in that George’s fifteen-piece band performs behind him on a three-tier grid stage that looks a lot like the set of The Hollywood Squares. I’ve never seen anything like it. George played for three hours, with a 20 minute intermission at the one hour mark, so you can absolutely say that the tickets are worth whatever you have to pay for them, or whatever sexual favors you must provide in trade.

After the show, Geoffrey and I took our excited little asses backstage, where Geoffrey turned into a little girl and completely lost his mind after talking to George for five seconds. It was really quite adorable. I was also able to hang out with George’s drummer, Carlos Hercules, who had gotten us the sweet list action – thanks, Carlos!

Carlos and Gail
Carlos and Gail

And we both had our photos snapped with actor Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, How I Met Your Mother), who seems like a very sweet and hilarious person (and really cute). All in all, an excellent night out in the city!

Gail and Neal P Harris
Gail and Neil Patrick Harris

Oh, one more thing: one of George’s longtime back-up singers, Shirley Lewis, is married to this guy!

Madison Square Garden

July 21st, 2008 SET LIST:

First Half
Waiting (Reprise)
Fast Love/I’m Your Man
Father Figure
Hard Day
Everything She Wants
One More Try
Different Corner
Easier Affair
Too Funky
Star People

Interval
John & Elvis video

Second Half
Faith
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Spinning The Wheel

Feeling Good
Roxanne
Kissing A Fool
Amazing
Flawless
Outside
Different Corner
Careless Whisper

Freedom 90
Freedom Reprise

Music, Pop Culture

Alexa Ray Joel: An Unexpected Blowing of the Mind

Alexa Ray Joel 2007
Image Source

A friend of mine, Marc “The Slut” Slutksky, is a pretty darn good drummer. He played drums on Pink’s most recent record and, you know, the kid stays busy. Marc’s current gig involves playing drums in the backing band of singer Alexa Ray Joel. And unless you’ve been living your entire life under a pile of rocks, in a cave, beneath the ocean you know that Alexa is the daughter of Billy Joel and Christy Brinkley.
Continue reading Alexa Ray Joel: An Unexpected Blowing of the Mind →

Music, Pop Culture

Louder Than Love: Chris Cornell at Irving Plaza!

Chris Cornell 2007
I’ve Been Deaf Now I Want Noise

It’s fairly old news at this juncture that singer-slash-rock god, Chris Cornell left Audioslave a few months back to do the solo thing again. I can’t say that I’m terribly heartbroken about the move. Rage Against the Machine was always one of my least favorite angry pinko bands on the planet, and being as Audioslave was 3/4’s of Rage, they didn’t really know what to do with the more subtle textures of Chris’s voice anyway. Good riddance.

Chris has a new CD coming out in June and I’m trying to snag an advance copy of that as I type. But he played a show last night at NYC’s Irving Plaza and thanks to my friend Jason Sutter, who is also Chris’s new drummer, I was there. Thanks, Jason. You rule.

I knew I must be seriously starved for The Rock when I was able to get all wet and crazy over the opening song of the evening, “Spoon Man” — which, for me at least, is not one of Soundgarden’s best songs. From what I heard last night, Chris’s new disc sounds like it will be worth buying, but the jury is still out over whether it will even be able to touch his last solo album, Euphoria Morning, which is just insane.

I would like to now personally thank Chris and his band for doing “Outshined,” “Rusty Cage,” “Jesus Christ Pose,” and the shocker of the night, “Loud Love.” Wow. Chris Cornell is awesome.