Hello you wunderbar people! I haven't been doing my job for months - but it's finally time to get back to work!
It's been really crazy with life, work, and anything else that happens to come up!
I've been getting more and more concerts ready for sharing (so many fucking tape transfers - hundreds of these things) and I think it is time to start getting back to uploading shows on a (hopefully) regular basis! It's been over a year since my last concert upload - it's time to restart the fun! For this upload, I'd like to upload this very special show for everybody. I consider this show to be special because this is my very first
Elton John show I've attended and it's my first personal recording I've made of Elton John (
Ironic - considering this channel's intention)!
This recording has excellent quality overall (the
Grand Andel Arena has great acoustics and I was seated in front of speakers - perfect for a recording) and is almost
100% complete. I was running slightly late due to extra security measures (the recent events that happened in
Brussels led to longer wait times to get into the arena - metal detectors and pat-downs were used) which caused me to miss the first few minutes of "
Funeral For A Friend." Other than that - everything is captured on this recording!
The band members are in overall amazing form at this final show of the
North American leg of the
Wonderful Crazy Night Tour.
Everybody is captured well on audio (especially
Nigel,
Davey, John, and
Elton's voice and piano). Elton himself is in great voice overall (in addition, he gets stronger as the set progresses). He caught a brutal flu a week before - which he acknowledged on previous shows (I was worried he would cancel shows or sound really bad). Thankfully, he seems to have got it under control as his tone doesn't sound too rough overall and he doesn't mention it at this show. Now… onto the performance paragraphs!
"
Love Lies Bleeding" is a solid performance with everybody sounding strong, "
Bennie And
The Jets" features Elton belting the hell out the song and doing strong embellished phrasing in the third chorus, "
Candle In The Wind" features great harmonies by everybody and Elton sounds really good overall, "
All The Girls Love Alice" has some great mid-to-high singing by Elton, but his falsetto attempt in the first chorus isn't as strong as earlier performances (and he does some conservative phrasing in the second chorus where there's no falsetto at all), "
Levon" is a musical highlight of show with amazing playing by everybody (I love that fucking jam they do) and Elton sounds strong vocally (although he opts out of the falsettos on "he shall be Levon" at the ends of the choruses), "
Tiny Dancer" has Elton's voice getting progressively stronger and he goes for some gutsy phrasing in spots, "
Looking Up" sounds excellent and beats the
album version overall, "
A Good Heart" is an amazing version as the vocals slay the album version overall, "
Philadelphia Freedom" is a fun version featuring Elton doing his usual embellishments throughout the song, "
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is a solid version overall, "
Rocket Man" features an amazing piano improvisation before and the song performance itself is excellent, and "I
Guess That's Why They
Call It
The Blues" is one of my favorite performances of the night as Elton goes all-out on the vocals (singing it like a hybrid of versions from
The Big Picture tour and the
2001 tours).
"
Have Mercy On
The Criminal" is probably my favorite performance on the entire show. The song is a welcome addition to the setlist - and Elton really sings it well. It's possibly the best version of the song in the
21st century and it sounds better than nearly all the versions from 1986-1989. The band also sounds amazing on the performance. "
Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters" sounds great overall, "
Your Song" is a great performance with Elton displaying great tone throughout, "
Burn Down The Mission" is a great performance overall with the outro jam sounding excellent, "
Sad Songs (Say So Much)" is a fun version with Elton embellishing throughout, "
Blue Wonderful" sounds wonderful overall (no pun intended), "
Don't Let
The Sun Go Down On Me" sounds great, "
The Bitch Is Back" contains a hilarious moment where Davey completely flubs the opening guitar riff, but the performance is excellent overall, "
I'm Still Standing" sounds great with Elton hitting solid Ab4s in the choruses, "
Your Sister Can't
Twist (But She Can
Rock And Roll)" is a solid performance, "
Saturday Night's Alright For
Fighting" features funny phrasing and birded moments that wouldn't sound out of place during the late 80s/early 90s eras (
The Royal Gala says hello), and "
Crocodile Rock" is a hilarious performance where Elton makes up random lyrics throughout and there's an off-key audience member on the recording that's featured during the falsetto parts (especially during the first chorus)!
ENJOY!!!
- published: 26 Mar 2016
- views: 3