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2004 - CYNDI LAUPER - ARTS CENTRE Melbourne
Friday July 2nd, 2004 |
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| Money Changes Everything - clip live | ||||||||||
| On Friday 2nd July 2004 I saw the brilliant, talented and gifted singer, songwriter and artist Cyndi Lauper. It was a dream of mine to see Cyndi live for a long time and she did not disappoint! From the word go before entering the Art Centre the vibe was really fantastic! It felt like it was 1984! There were so many fabulous and individual looking people that looked brilliant! There were smiles everywhere and the energy was just so positive.
Cyndi hit the stage at 9.00 PM sharp and opened the show with the title track “At Last” from her latest album At Last, the covers album. Her voice touched everyone instantly and she received a great reaction indeed. She then in classic Cyndi style broke out into “Shine”, I was absolutely thrilled that she performed this song as it’s one of my top musical moments of Cyndi’s career. During “Shine” Cyndi walked out into the audience and rocked out climbing upon chairs and grabbing peoples hands. None of the audience went back to their seats for the rest of the night! “Change Of Heart” from the 1986 release True Colors was followed, this track also being one of my favourite Cyndi moments and as a live track it’s even better, and it had a great instrumental section from the very talented band that shined all night! Other highlights for me was another track taken from the Shine album “Eventually”, I really couldn’t believe she performed this in the show. The beautiful keyboards and trip hop drum beat is amazing in this song and it was produced by the wonderful Ryuichi Sakamoto known for his work with Yellow Magic Orchestra, David Sylvian, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop and more. Cyndi of course sang “Eventually” beautifully and I was extremely touched by this performance. Cyndi’s version of “Don’t Let Me Be Understood” was also equally extraordinary and her voice was like a dream come true during this performance and never ever off note or weak. She is a perfectionist! The control in her voice is always simply amazing, but on this track she was astounding! She Bop was next in the sophisticated French style version and was rather interesting and quite funny! She couldn’t stop laughing. Also featured was the great and energetic “Sisters Of Avalon” and the stunning “I Drove All Night” from my favourite ever Cyndi Lauper album “A Night To Remember”, and the only track performed from that album. Cyndi sang "I Drove All Night" with such conviction like always and danced in typical Cyndi style which was great. The touching “True Colors” was next and Cyndi introduced it by talking about Gay Rights and being true to yourself whether with Sexuality or Individuality. She talked about her sister coming out and how she was Cyndi’s hero while growing up. I was so excited by the performance of the next number being “All Through The Night” as I have always adored this song from when I first heard it in 1984, this song never ages and is always 100% beautiful. Cyndi sang it with her heart and soul and the audience equally loved it. I was also extremely thrilled again as Cyndi performed another song from the Shine album and my favourite to, which is “It’s Hard To Be Me”. I just adore this track and it was the real rock moment of the show with Cyndi screaming and strutting on stage for a moment to then go crazy off stage as she walked out into the audience. This was followed by the very well suited “Money Changes Everything” which blew everyone away! Cyndi's high notes and extreme raw energy on “It’s Hard To Be Me” and “Money Changes Everything” were simply in describable. The amount of energy, sweat and tears that comes out of Cyndi is very admirable, especially the fact that Cyndi is now 51 years old and being able to rock out the way she does is so inspiring. Cyndi also performed an acapella of the first verse and chorus only of “The Goonies R Good Enough” which won the crowd over as Cyndi rarely performs it, she said “I haven’t done this song in a very long time”. Cyndi followed this by Unchained Melody, which I always couldn’t stand as a song, but Cyndi’s live version was simply mind blowing. It sent shivers up my spine. Cyndi she showed again in this song the control in her voice is just legendary, WOW! It was positively beautiful! Her version struck me in a big way! Cyndi then ended the show with the 2 classics from She’s So Unusual, “Time After Time” and “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”. “Time After Time” like always was gorgeous and all so touching. She performed a new acoustic type version of “Time After Time” which was lovely. And of course all warmly welcomed “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” and she went crazy during this performance! raising her hands in the air and expecting the audience to do the same. It was an unforgettable show at it’s best! 2004 - CYNDI LAUPER - ARTS CENTRE Melbourne On Saturday 3rd July 2004 I again saw Cyndi Lauper. One show just wasn’t enough for me! From when entering the Art Centre I could feel that the vibe was different. It was a much older and conservative crowd and the energy just wasn’t there like the previous night. From half an hour before Cyndi even got on stage I had an argument with an older couple, as they wanted me to flatten my hair! And later on the same couple had arguments with other people in my area who I didn’t even know so that was a hideous start to the night!!! Cyndi again hit the stage at 9.00 PM sharp and opened the show with the title track “At Last” from her latest album At Last, the covers album. Her voice of course was just as touching as the night before. She performed well but the audience really didn’t get the point of standing up or participating. I think they were expecting a full jazz standard show and didn’t realize that Cyndi is still a rock chick at heart that likes positive reaction to feed from while performing. On the second song “Shine” I was very lucky to get to hold her hand for a good 15 to 20 seconds. I was thrilled as “Shine” means so much to me in so many different ways so that was great indeed. Cyndi very quickly realized that the audience were very much in different form compared to the night before as when she stepped out into the crowd many faces looked shocked and couldn’t believe what she was doing! There were even security guards present as the night before there wasn’t and they hated the fact that Cyndi was walking into the audience and standing on seats as well! By the next number “Change Of Heart” the crowd were pretty much all sitting down and for those that wanted to stand up, they were either getting abused by the much older crowd or feeling uncomfortable while standing up! As all of this was going on it was very hard to really enjoy myself unfortunately. Cyndi kept commenting saying “You guys can get up and dance if you like” but they wouldn’t so she kept saying “Oh, here’s another slow song, this should be great for you as you guys don’t really want to get up tonight”, so it was weird and I was dying to get out of there to be honest. The great thing though was the fact that she slightly changed the set list and added the fabulous “Madonna Whore” from the fantastic album “Shine” which she performed fabulously and had a brilliant introduction to go with it! Cyndi said "This next song is called Madonna Whore and I love doing this song so that I can freak people out”! I am certain she added this song as she said she likes to freaking people out, as she wanted to get under this particular crowd’s skin! This was fantastic and very clever. She also added at some point “This is no old fogeye show, it’s a rock concert”. The few people in there like me who wanted to express themselves cheered at this comment. The other added gem she performed on the night that was not present the night before was “Fearless” which was stunning! She also took out “Unchained Melody” which was disappointing as I enjoyed it so much live but the added 2 songs for the night made up for it. During “It’s Hard To Be Me’ she pretty much demanded everybody got up so that was great and she sang it to an at least 70 year old woman holding her hand trying to get her up of her chair but she wouldn’t budge! She also did a much shorter version of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” as well compared to the night before. I very much felt that the crowd controlled Cyndi in giving her all on stage compared to the night before night before and I think she thought why should I give all of myself if the crowd are not giving as much! So that made her rather moody and less giving in the end. Overall it was a great night but the energy in the room most definitely ruined the show to a large degree. But thanks Cyndi for being a tremendous performer and artist MELBOURNE : 02/07/04 |
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