It was a dark and stormy night when Elton John came to
town.
For one night only, in between a concert in Sydney and
another in Hong Kong, the legend that is Elton John came to Wellington to
perform at the legendary Cake Tin, bringing with him a whole swag bag of
hits. Its just a shame he didn’t bring
some warm weather with him.
To give the weather gods credit, it wasn’t raining. But it was fairly cold, a snapping breeze
biting me every so often, probably made worse by the fact we had a good (if
distant) view of the stage from the upper rows in the stands.
We missed most of the opening act, finding Solo Mio a
jovial group of young Polynesian lads with strong voices and a determination to
sing “I see fire” just as they headed off the stage. Then a young Australian with an incredible
gift for the piano and a fairly weak voice came on for about half an hour
before Elton John took the stage, his jacket twinkling with black sparkles and
his fingers ready for some key thumping action.
‘
‘There were some songs from his new album which were
jaunty enough, but Elton got into the classics fairly quickly, with a rendition
of “Candle in the Wind” that had everyone reaching for their cell phones to
drain their batteries for a candle-like vigil.
Slow and fast songs came along, some easily recognisable, some less
so. My favourite song was “The one”,
which he performed basically unaccompanied and completely engrossingly. As most artists feel the need to do these
days, he dedicated a song to Jonah Lomu and the All Blacks, his choice being
“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”, which once again had most people reaching
for their cell phones and draining he battery away by switching on their
torches. Hit followed hit, recognisable songs
interspersed with the odd song that meant more to John than to the audience,
but he finished off with a rousing and invigorating edition of “Crocodile
Rock”, not hanging around for an encore and instead dashing off to his jet off
to bring joy to Asian masses.
Verdict: Elton John
is an amazing performer and put on a solid and entertaining performance. I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by the
concert, but I enjoyed it immensely. Not
sure if I would go back again, but I am glad I have been to see him at least
once. 8 piano men out of 10.
The next day, I was up to Auckland for the second
Fleetwood Mac concert, their 120th and final on this particular
tour. The concert the night before had
suffered from rain and, in the end, a lightning storm, but while the evening
was not incredibly warm, the skies were mostly clear and the air pleasant, and
there was not too much of a breeze to blow the cold air around, though it did a
fair job of dispersing the pot smoke around the venue.
I was in the cheap standing “seats” of Mt Smart stadium
for this concert, at almost the exact same spot I had seen Bruce Springsteen a
year or so before. The crowd this time
looked a lot less corporate in disguise, though still on the more mature side
of the age spectrum. Some looked already
a bit intoxicated, or high on life, or some banned substance anyway, but
everyone was in a good mood, even as they brought out punnets of chips, plastic
bottles of wine, kebab wrappers and other assorted detritus to leave on the
ground for everyone to try and navigate around and not end up breaking a limb.
We managed to miss any pre-show and arrived in the 20
minute break before Fleetwood Mac took to the stage. And once they did, the magic began. The whole team was about this time around,
Stevie Nicks well rugged up, and Christine McVie earning mega plaudits for
rejoining the band and bringing her own songs to the Mac mix. Everyone seemed to have a great time,
probably relieved that this was the last show.
The mix was mostly hits, the odd “meaningful” song once more not always capturing
the audience’s attention. Nicks
dedicated “Landslide” to Lomu and the All Blacks (a few who were in attendance,
apparently, though I am sure they did not have to pay for their ticket), and
Lindsey Buckingham kicked butt as he usually did with his incredible guitar
playing, spoiling the mood only slightly when his song introductions went
beyond being amusing or interesting anecdotes and instead plunged headfirst
into long, not particularly interesting speeches that had the people near us –
and us ourselves – rustling a little and checking out Facebook if the amount of
traffic flowing through the signal towers allowed it.
As per the programme, the band played for around two and
a half hours and came back for two scheduled encores. Christine McVie really made herself felt with
“You Make Loving Fun” and “Little Lies”, which had the entire audience singing
along, and in the encores, her contribution to her own song “Don’t Stop” made
the crowd go wild. After a bit of good
natured ranting and some incredible drumming from Mick Fleetwood, McVie
finished off the night with “Songbird”, which is not one of my favourite songs
but seemed an appropriate way to end the night.
Verdict: Fleetwood
Mac were amazing. Again of course. Go back?
Definitely 10 Songbirds out of 10.
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