Dance Away in Toronto - Mon 16th Jul
Dance Away in Toronto
16 July 2001
Thank you goes to Rob for sending this review from Toronto Canada.
Toronto July 16
WOW - What an excellent show.
Great visuals. There was a huge screen behind the stage where cool old photos or high-contrast video images were projected. The songs were exceptionally well done at an amazingly high energy level.
I went with my wife and 2 daughters (12 & 10). I'd gone over the play list with them, and they were pretty excited. The song order started out the same as the European shows, but has been Americanized with the addition of Avalon and Dance Away at the expense of In Every Dream Home a Heartache and Mother of Pearl (my 10 year old was in tears when they didn't play it).
After hearing the hard rocking versions of the older material, the singles from Manifesto, Flesh & Blood and Avalon just didn't cut it.
Here's the complete list:
1. Remake - Remodel
2. Street Life
3. Ladytron (great solo, Phil)
4. While My Heart is Still Beating (Yawn)
5. Out of the Blue (That's better)
6. A Song for Europe
7. My Only Love (a couple from the audience started slow-dancing in front
of the stage - very touching - now let's get back to the good stuff)
8. Oh Yeah (oh no)
9. Both Ends Burning (loud and fast - just excellent)
10.Tara (Andy, the piano player, and the violinist. Nice and slow)
11.Avalon (We were expecting In Every Dream Home - huge letdown)
12.Dance Away (It's nice to hear something from Manifesto, but this
wouldn't have been my choice)
13.Jealous Guy (We were ripped off - I realized that we'd just heard 2 Top
40 singles instead of Roxy's 2 best songs)
14.Editions of You (While the crowd loved Jealous Guy and gave it a
standing ovation, they stayed on their feet for this one)
15.Virginia Plain (great ending to the main show - the audience yells out
the last 2 words to end the show)
Then the encore:
16.Love is the Drug (good fun)
17.Do the Strand (man these guys rock hard)
18.For Your Pleasure (with the band members leaving one-by-one during the
closing Tara's)
Even though I'm bitter about losing a couple of the better older songs, during My Only Love, Chris Spedding did a great solo, then was joined by just the backup vocalist for a cool jazzy duet.
The dancers were fun - 4 girls - first in hot pants doing aerobics, then in full feather Moulon Rouge outfits for The Strand. Great choreography and timing.