Sunday, December 15, 2019

@adamlambert @foxwoods #foxstar

I went to hear Adam Lambert at the grand theater at Foxwoods. This was the set list.


Stranger you are
Super power
No trespassing
Another one bites the dust
Evil in the night
Ready to run
Comin’ in hot
New eyes
Overglow
After hours

(They brought out a stool so that he could sit while performing three songs)
Feel something
Closer to you
Believe

(Then he got back on his feet)

What do you want from me
For your entertainment
If I had you
Lover boy
Lay me down in darkness
Ghost Town

Encore
Please come home for Christmas

This was a very peppy and professional concert. The piece was brisk, and all other performers seem to get flawless performance. There was a four piece band and to back up singers in addition to Adam. Unlike some of his earlier tours, there were no back up dancers. I sort of missed that.

I’m not sure if he sang all the verses to some of the songs. They seemed to go by very quickly. The whole concert was an hour and 15 minutes, which is fairly short. 

What a contrast with the Dimash concert that I heard earlier. Bad concert was three hours, and Dimash didn’t want to leave the stage.

One of the fans talked to me about the difference between a concert and a show. The Dimash concert was clearly a show. There was music, but there were also lots of images and lights and fireworks and steam jets, three groups of dancers, two guest soloists, and an island out in the arena where they played the dombra.

What Adam did tonight was more of a concert. There were lights flashing around and bit of something on the back screen, but basically it was a music concert.

I sort of expected the concert to be loud. And it was pretty loud. I did wear earplugs a lot of the time.

What I’m really grateful for is that, though they did shine lights at the audience, these lights did not hurt my eyes unlike in most of the concerts I’ve seen recently. If you read back through this blog you’ll see that a lot of artists have been hurting my eyes recently: Josh Groban, Chris Isaak, Home Free, Dimash, even to some extent Greyson Chance. The only two concerts I’ve been to recently where they shown lights on the audience, but chose dimmer lights that wouldn’t hurt our eyes, were Queen and this solo one with Adam Lambert. Thank you, Adam!

It was interesting that some of the songs were quieter, particularly the songs from the velvet album seem to be quieter. I was surprised that Ghost Town was quieter. I hadn’t realized that was a quiet song

Also surprising was that it appeared, from the audience reaction, that the favorite song of the concert was “Believe.” This is surprising, because Adam has billed himself as a loud rock performer, and presumably his fans like that, and yet “Believe” is not a rock song the way he sings it. It might arguably have been rock or pop the way Cher sang it, but the way Adam sings    it is basically adult contemporary. The applause for that song went on for a long time.

Also surprising was that he ended the concert with “Please Come Home for Christmas.“ He’s Jewish. He put out a Christmas song that seems to be directed to Javi, who recently left. 

Adam came across very much of a sort of performer who would be performing in a casino, which this was. He showed tremendous poise and professional publish. The music went very smoothly. I didn’t hear any errors or anything. There weren’t any awkward silences.

Yet, recently, I downloaded the videos for “Glam Nation,” A DVD from Adam’s first tour. The performance on that DVD, is characterized by a kind of gleeful exuberance that just wasn’t there tonight. He certainly performed songs with energy and often with a smile, but there just weren’t any giggles or sense of excitement that he showed back at the beginning.

Frankly, I’m a bit worried about him.

 I’m also jealous that the people next to me got their tickets for $20 on stub hub, while I paid $80. I was up in the nosebleed seats.

***


Addendum: Just a few words about the venue, Foxwoods, because I've never been there.  

First, I was confused, because I've been to Mohegan Sun before and this was so nearby, but it turns out they are different places.  So I found this helpful Quora post on this topic What-is-are-the-differences-between-Foxwoods-and-Mohegan-Sun

Second, I want to commend this venue for having a huge parking garage that is free. A lot of venues squeeze customers for parking, and they certainly could, here, because it's not clear where else you would park, if you're from out of town. Yet, these people don't.  I'm grateful for that.

Third, it turns out that there is a food court there that isn't a total ripoff.  I brought my own food, which I ate in the car, because I wasn't sure what they would have, but that likely wasn't necessary.   Again, there are a lot of venues that really squeeze customers for food, but these people don't .  Next time I'll know, and I will try to eat at the venue, if I go there again.

Now I don't know if this was the venue or whether it was Adam's audio people, but there was an audio problem in one of the earlier songs.  The backing singers were too loud, and you couldn't hear Adam's melisma clearly.  I'm not sure which song that was.  However, the issue was corrected and it did not recur, which is really good. I've seen venues where the problems persist unless you go to an usher and make a big stink.  Again, I am really impressed that the issue was quickly corrected and did not recur.

Also, generally, the ushers were really friendly and  helpful.

Link to concert clip where background vocals were too loud

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6IQNyuhvFe/?igshid=ifobzzytr0o8


******

I'm interested, watching the concert videos from Worcester, Foxwoods, and NYC, that he wore suits in the first two venues, which were, for him, rather conservative. Then, when he got to NYC, he was a bit wilder.  Perhaps he does adjust based on what he thinks the audience is going to be.

I would have liked to go in NYC, because I live closer to there than to Foxwoods, but it was sold out on ticketmaster.  I gather there were tix going for $200 on stubhub -- probably illegal.  I'll have to look on stubhub next time.

Here he is in NYC



****

Well, this is interesting. He seems to have been much higher energy in NYC. 

Please come home for Christmas in Mashantucket


Please come home for Christmas in NYC


I note that his friend Terrence Spencer was in the audience in NYC.  Also the venue in NYC was sold out, which affects audience energy, while the Grand Theater at Foxwoods  had a lot of empty seats -- but of course the Grand Theater is *much* larger and quite hard to get to.  Or, maybe, his wilder outfit in NYC made him happier?
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