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Erasure Nightbird Tour
Erasure's 2005 tour, Nightbird, May 14th at Avalon in Los Angeles.
Thomas, Theresa (Teresa?), Kim, and I secured a nice spot on the balcony, right at the railing. Lots of good pictures. Maybe some video, too, if I can be bothered to post it...
The set was rather tame for Erasure-- no set changes, just a forest of inflatable trees mimicking the cover of the Nightbird album, and only a few costume changes for the group. Andy still does a wonderful job dancing around-- very good show! Something unexpected, too: the trees fell down! Completely unplanned and it only added to the enjoyment of the night.
Fun times. Evidently Avalon opens back up into a regular club after concerts are over, too, so we saw a huge line of people waiting to get in as we left. =P As a venue, Avalon isn't bad. It feels about the right size for Erasure in Los Angeles, which is around 1100 people, and the atmosphere is pretty decent-- a little bit of old-style Hollywood flair always seems to work well with Erasure. The upper level is where we spent most of our time, so it's hard to say what the floor was like-- given a Los Angeles crowd, I doubt the floor was very impressive compared to the San Francisco shows.
But that's okay. =)
Set list:
- No doubt - it's the opener to the new album, and it sounds even stronger live. "ohhhh ohhhh" warbling from the studio recording is good, hearing it resonate live is even better!
- Hideaway - Never thought I'd hear this one live, given the vast wealth of material Erasure has produced. Fun song.
- Knocking on your door - very fun song to hear live. Surprised to hear it live, too.
- Breathe - it's a good single with a rather odd music video that still fits together quite well. I wasn't quite as impressed with it live, probably because it's a little bit whimsical and that didn't come across so well live.
- Ship of fools - it's ridiculously good live, much better than the studio recordings.
- Drama! - enjoyable live, but doesn't strike a chord within me. I'd prefer to hear Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me or one of the other good songs they played tonight.
- All this time still falling out of love - good song, but I don't remember too much about it...
- Stop! - old school stuff. Still FUN! to hear.
- Rapture - tons of fun, since this is one of the only songs showcasing Vince. He can't rap like what we're used to hearing from Wu-Tang, but he's good enough to do it for this Blondie cover!
- Ave maria - I was surprised to hear this song live. Andy shows off the strength of his voice very well and it's pretty darned .
- Breath of life - this is a fun transition from the slower Ave Maria into a fun, dancy bit.
- A little respect - SWEET! Woah... good song, but the audience isn't into it like an SF audience. Oh well-- what can you do?
- I broke it all in two - transitioning back to the new stuff, this worked out pretty good. Not as strong as A Little Respect, but it didn't look too pale either.
- Chains of love - weeeeeeeeeheeeeeeeeeeeee fun!
- Chorus - I happen to love this song as well. It seemed a little weaker than before, probably because for The Other Tour the set was better for this song with the fish tanks. =)
- Love to hate you - I'm surprised they focused so much on the "old" stuff and the new album live. Hearing Chorus and Chains of Love and stuff live is great and all, but why was the stuff from I Say I Say I Say, Erasure, and Loveboat left out? Dancing up and down to Love To Hate You is good, but not as good as A Little Respect...
- Blue savannah - I don't know why I enjoy this song so much. So full of rhythym and happiness...
- Victim of love - another classic.
- Oh lŽamour - no paper hearts to wave this time, but I'm just nitpicking. Oh well. It's a classic song!
- I bet you're mad at me - first song of the encore. It verifies that the stuff off the new album definitely isn't bad... but it's not as good as so much of the old stuff that they insisted on playing.
- Sometimes - interesting way to end the set, I would have expected something more like Stop! or maybe something off of I Say I Say I Say.
Biggest surprise was the lack of material from I Say I Say I Say, Erasure, and Cowboy. Read: none. (although Rapture is on the US special edition...). For a Los Angeles crowd this was probably a safe approach, but it was disappointing for long-time fans such as Thomas and myself. Hearing Alien or In My Arms is always great, and I wouldn't have minded hearing Blues Away or Sono Luminus... ah well!
