This was my third Erasure concert experience. The first almost twenty years ago and by far the most theatrical, this century the venues and staging have become more intimate. This show was set at the Seattle Moore Theatre and virtually sold out. Staging was pretty basic, with some industrial objects and a couple of gargoyles, none of which had much to do with their costuming. Lucky me, all seats were general admission and I was perched in the nose-bleed section of the balcony with a 35+ crowd of moms, dads, girlfriends and boyfriends.
Winding up their last show of the North American tour, Andy Bell (lead vocalist) was in usual form, doing his little robot shuffle, drinking tea between songs,and having fun on stage with their two back-up singers. No surprises really with a song book of hits dating back to the early ‘80s. Vince Clarke (writer/producer/keyboards-synths/mastermind), is genius in my opinion. On occasion Vince stepped away from his keyboard and picked-up a guitar, adding a more personal dynamic to his performance.
The show included the expected classics along with some of their new material; “Blue Savannah,” “Breathe,” “Drama,” “Love To Hate You,” “Chains Of Love,” “Victim Of Love,” and the current single “When I Start To Break It All Down” now playing on DMX Dance! Okay, so you’ve heard most of these a million times before. Admit it, you still love them all, and who doesn’t enjoy a little sing-a-long? Winding up the show was a brief encore that included “A Little Respect” and “Oh L’Amour”…..sweet! Afterward I couldn’t help but reflect on how many of these adults in the audience were once teenagers at one of my clubs, dancing-up a storm to these songs… Good times.
– Submitted by Randy Schlager, Music Design