Sparkly Fabulous! Cher (with Cyndi Lauper) in Boston, July 2002
Aug 21 '02
The Bottom Line Do you believe in life after Cher? I think she'll be back. See her next time around!
My friend Ethan's parents gave Cher tickets for his birthday and he invited me to go with him!! Woo-hoo! Cheers, Ethan and Ethan's parents! We saw Cher on Monday July 8, 2002, the first of Cher's two night stay at Boston's Fleet Center.
I knew that it would be quite an experience to see the Plastic-Fantastic One live (that's my name for her, not an official sobriquet) and I was not disappointed. Cher claims that this is her "farewell" performance, and she pulled out all the stops with a lavish, circus-like show. The tour is called "Living Proof" , the name of her new album, and I certainly felt alive as we laughed, screamed, and sang along. It was beautiful, wonderful, and above all fabulous .
Before the concert
One of the Boston radio stations (Star 93.7) set up a tent outside the Fleet Center with temporary tattoos, stickers, raffles, and a stage. Fans could win tickets or ticket upgrades, Cher CDs, and t-shirts. On stage were "The Fabulous Hat Sisters," hired by the radio station to wear fabulous feathered hats with Barbie dolls on top and strut around in high-healed shoes and sparkly outfits. They were men, of course! They also had "Cher-aoke," but it wasn't proper karaoke because the vocals hadn't been removed from the songs-- they just played the songs and people sang along. They also had a Cher look-a-like contest and a shortest man and tallest woman contest in which the contestants danced to "I've got you, Babe." The tent was filled with so much energy and excitement from all the Cher fans inside.
Opening Act, Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi has matured a lot since the '80s when she had a squeeky voice and bright orange hair. Now, Cyndi has blond, spikey hair and more of a rock style. She danced around stage energetically and even went into the crowd. Cyndi's voice is a lot stronger than it was in the '80s and on her acoustic version of "Time After Time," it was beautiful. Cyndi mixed a couple of new songs, including "Madonna Wh*re" into her set-list, and smartly left crowd favorites "Money Changes Everything" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" for the end when more of the crowd had arrived. The only song that the crowd really got into was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," the final song. On "True Colors," Cyndi brought out a sparkly gay pride flag and made a cute political statement about how she went to Catholic school but believes that "God loves all his flowers, even the ones that grow on the side of the hill." Talk about preaching to the choir! I mean, this was a Cher concert, afterall! :-)
Cyndi Lauper's setlist:
"Shine"
"Change Of Heart"
"Sisters Of Avalon"
"Madonna Wh*re"
"Still With Me"
"True Colors"
"All Through the Night"
"It's Hard to be Me"
"Money Changes Everything"
ENCORE:
"Time After Time"
"Girls Just Want To Have Fun"
Cyndi was great, but she should have played SheBop, the cutest, most cheerful song about masturbation of all time.
The Main Event
N.B. If you are planning to see Cher on the Living Proof Tour, you should probably not read the rest of this review. After the concert, I read reviews of her shows in other cities and it seems as if she does the same show every night. If you don't want to ruin the suspense, stop reading now.
Cher, perched upon a giant chandelier, was lowered down onto the stage in a sparkly silver dress and an elaborate headdress, singing, of all things, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." She performed this U2 cover with a disco beat, of course. It was a shocking way to start this concert extravaganza. The next two songs were the first two singles from her new album.
A highlight of the show was Cher's rendition of "Bang Bang," an old Sonny and Cher tune that was re-vamped for her Greatest Hits album. She can really belt it out with her powerful voice and the band played the strong Def Leppard-esque beat very well. Cher's voice really shone, as well, on "Just Like Jesse James," a fan favorite that Cher admitted that she didn't really like very much.
Cher saved the biggest crowd-pleaser ( "If I Could Turn Back Time" for right before the encore. You could tell that certain fans follow her around to every city, since before she started the song, several people threw sailor hats (in reference to the racy video) on stage. She strutted around on stage in a similar outfit to the video, although her backside was a bit less exposed, this time.
However, before you go thinking that Cher has gotten modest since her last tour... Cher made several remarks that indicated that she still has a healthy ego. Since this is her farewell tour, Cher waxed nostalgic at times. Between songs, there were many opportunities for well-made video montages that chronicled her career. One was about her film career, which featured her Oscar acceptance speech for Moonstruck. When discussing her film career, Cher made a couple of Boston-specific references and seemed sincere. She filmed Mermaids and The Witches of Eastwick in Massachusetts, and joked that she knows the menu to the Legal Seafood restaurant chain by heart.
Unlike other artists who play too many songs from their current album, Cher knows that the crowd loves to hear songs they are familiar with. She also (fortunately) did not use the robot-esqe voice that was all over the Believe album. Cher reached back into the '70s with her medley of "Half Breed," "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves," and "Dark Lady." During this segment, the giant screens played the classic, campy videos for these three songs, which was quite a laugh.
The Living Proof Tour is more like theater than a concert. Cher features many talented dancers who twist and contort on ribbons and swings above the stage and at least 8 costume changes. Cher wore gaudy bell-bottoms, a Native American ensemble featuring a giant red and black Mohawk wig, and a red costume that involved whips. But the best was a Moulin Rouge-esque emsemble that featured a giant animatronic elephant on stage and brightly colored costumes galore. Cher showed her sense of humor when discussing her hairstyles (she wears wigs). "This show will feature many natural hair colors," she joked. But the best line of the night was her message to the younger generation, saying that she was leaving them something to aspire to.
She addressed Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez to the roaring approval of the crowd,"Follow this show if you can, you b!tches!"
Yes, no one can top Cher.
Setlist:
1. Still Havent Found What Im Looking For
2. Song For The Lonely
3. Different Kind of Love Song
4. All or Nothing
5. We All Sleep Alone
6. I Found Someone
7. Bang Bang
8. All I Really Want To Do
9. Half Breed
10. Gypies Tramps and Theives
11. Dark Lady
12. Take Me Home
13. The Way Of Love
14. After All
15. Just like Jessie James
16. Heart of Stone
17. It's In His Kiss (Shoop Shoop)
18. Strong Enough
19. If I Could Turn Back Time
20. Believe (Encore)
The Fleet Center
The one complaint I have about this show is that the Fleet Center does not have a very good sound system. It was built to be a basketball and hockey arena, and its use as a concert venue seems to be an afterthought. During Cyndi Lauper's performance, it was difficult to hear the vocals. Despite Cyndi's instructions to the sound crew, they could never get it quite right. The audio was better for Cher, but it wasn't as good as it would have been at an outdoor venue. Parking is around $20, so I took the "T" (the subway.) I got a kick out of seeing groups of men wearing sparkly wigs on the train, as opposed to the usual crowd of sweaty, frat boys who usually occupy the carriages after the Fleet Center lets out.
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Member: Becky
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