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Issue 39, January 1998

As the lights go down

Houston, Texas, December 2nd 1997 (review by Melissa Wilson)

The beginning strains of Medazzaland could be heard and lights shot through a black curtain with multiple holes. The beams shone through those holes briefly like searchlights, and the curtain fell to reveal Nick at his keyboards while smoke lifted from the stage. The audience went absolutely crazy! The music itself sounded identical to the CD, but at times it was hard to hear Nick. He was as calm as ever, wielding that aloof sexuality that is his claim to hormonal fame, and I swooned often! Once the song had faded and the beginning of Big Bang Generation erupted, the lights flooded the theatre and right before the lyrics kicked in, Simon came strutting out to centre stage. Again the crowd went wild!

With illumination, we could see how the band was dressed. Warren wore a black velvet suit with a purple shirt and gold tie. Simon wore a metallic blue lamé-like shirt, un-tucked over a pair of metallic grey-ish black trousers. Where I sat, I was close enough to see the "outline" in Simon's pants. Very eclectic indeed! And our precious Nick was heart stopping in his red velvet suit, black silk shirt and hot pink tie ensemble. The visual performance between Nick, Simon and Warren was right in tune with the stage set-up.

Simon was at his '80s best during Hungry…, which kept true to the original recording. At this point you could tell who the fans were that had been Duranies in the '80s from the die hard into the '90s fans, because the decibel level doubled.

After Who Do You Think You Are, the curtain closed and the lights were brought back up for Electric Barbarella. Simon was flirting with the crowd and Nick smirked often.

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