Flashback with Erasure

We went to an Erasure concert on Friday, June 3rd, and it was such a blast!…well, for me at least. Brian would write a totally different blog. (I did kinda drag him to the concert.)

On my way to Avalon, I ran into my Editorial teacher on his way to none other than NESOP’s graduation. I might have stopped by to look at the work at school, but my concern was getting on line. It had been a while since we’ve been to the club…not since the summer of 2003…I guess that it was overdue…but we were going to see a concert, not go clubbing. The music, though, is quite appropriate for dancing.

As opposed to the AAR show, the range of ages of the audience was much more diverse. I would have expected a little more dress-up with this one, but unfortunately, I only just saw one…a very feminine-looking man who wore all black with his hair up like a geisha’s and wore heavy eye makeup and lipstick. He did look very cool, even if it may sound a little strange.

Anyways, we got there pretty early, with at least an hour to wait for Erasure to perform. I was hoping that the dance floor would get more crowded since there was a lot of room still left. I didn't know how many fans there were in Boston, but I wanted a crowd that was totally into the performance.

It was already past 7:15pm when Elkland came out and performed only 3 songs since they started pretty late. I really enjoyed their performance…very reminiscent of the Cure, the Killers, and 80’s new wave.

Here's a sampling (minus the bass) of the 3 songs: "Apart", "Find Me" (my favorite), "Put Your Hand Over Mine"

After their performance, the club became fully packed as the stragglers cared more about seeing Erasure than Elkland.

Brian and I stayed put on our elevated position. As much fun as it would be to be on the dance floor, I cared more about the ability to see them. Besides, I made sure I had enough room around me to dance.

They had a FANTASTIC jam-packed set, including a majority of old favorites: (in no particular order)

New Music:
Breathe
No Doubt
I Broke It all in Two
All this Time Still Falling Out of Love
Here I go Impossible Again

Breath Of Life
Oh L'Amour
Victim Of Love
Hideaway
Ship of Fools
A Little Respect
Chains Of Love
Drama
Blue Savannah
Stop
Knocking on Your Door
Chorus
Love to Hate You
Always
Sometimes (encore, with another song I don't know the title of)

Covers:
Ave Maria
Rapture

At the end of "Drama" of which Brian recorded the end of the performance (see below), a bouncer came up to him and told him not to record, because I guess it was pretty obvious that he wasn't taking photos. Poor Brian, it was still early in the concert when this happened and just made his experience all that much worse.



It being my first concert seeing them, I was impressed by the set design and all the costume changes. Andy Bell (lead singer) told the audience how he had gone to a bar in Boston the previous night and had a conversation with one of the patrons (or was it the bartender?). Anyways, noticing the British accent, the patron mentioned that Erasure was going to be in concert the next night and something to the extent that he wasn't a big fan of the music (!). Well, Andy got a kick out of it.

Here are some photos during the show:


He had his wings on for most of his new material which he performed early in the set.



Love Vince Clarke's (background) outfit.





An Elvis suit for "Ave Maria"


Feathers and a speedo (look at the money being offered from the audience...)



The last song before the encore was "Always" (I can't remember if that's true), but the crowd went nuts screaming for more, not just the popular "increasing the speed of clapping" response, but also thunderous stomping. It was awesome...

Now, I just found out Depeche Mode is coming out with a new album in the fall...(Vince used to work with them)...can't wait!!