Roxy Music Live - S/D

Yeah wow, what a production. And the everyone-take-a-solo section was spot on, down to Eno's synth squawks.

damn they sound awesome.. I'm going to see them in London btw if anyone wants to FAP!

I watched the performance of "More Than This" last night - they've dropped the key nearly an octave from G♭ to A♭, and Ferry could still barely get the notes out. Almost as sad as Gordon Lightfoot.

Yah MTT sounds rough as hell... also they have two drummers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcD-UAMlSB0

I wondered that, but I assume the other guy is mostly a percussionist who spends a lot of time propping up the more muscular parts of Paul Thompson's playing. Like when Pink Floyd reunited and Gary Wallis was supporting Nick Mason.

Just a heads up: Paul Thompson said on a Facebook comment that the setlist will change nightly.

Intriguing!

1. I'm psyched for 9/12, despite a.) I saw BF in 2018 at the Beacon Theatre (a venue like MSG that I would rather never have to go into for the rest of my life) and his voice is blown the fuck out and so it does bug me that for this reason the songs are often in keys that don't sound good to me and b.) if the band plays "Oh yeah" Monday, as he did at the Beacon in 2018, instead of almost any song from Country Life, Stranded or Siren, that will be disappointing, as it is the shittiest hit song they ever had, second only without any qualification to "Cry Cry Cry."

2. Someone at Livenation has mistaken this band for Eric Clapton or Springsteem, in that at no time, not even in 1982, could this band put a reasonable amount of asses in seats at MSG, and thus this individual should be fearing for their job. I got my ticket weds for $103, which is BAD NEWS for Livenation, and my friend in Toronto said that it was less than half full by his reckoning. But Ferry's management has no excuse for not understanding the touring market, as he tours the US every year: apparently, there was a belief that the S/T 50th anniversary and the Avalon 40th were a sufficient pretext for the band doing well at MSG or any other arena in major metropolitan areas in the U.S. Which is fucking insane.

yeah, there were a lot of empty seats on Weds night, I would say 2/3rds at most but I'm prob being generous

Decided to buy tickets yesterday for the DC tonight. Lots of mid-tier seats available for $50 each or so.

Mid-tier tix here still seem kind of pricy. Anything in the 200-level or above is at least $125, plus fees (so, like, more like $200?). Even the nosebleeds are hovering at $85 through Ticketmaster.

I saw Steely Dan once at the United Center here many years back, and it seemed half-full. But then I did the math and couldn't figure out a practical solution. "Half-full" at the United Center is close to 11,000, so to seat that many people would probably require multiple nights at a smaller venue (the places Ferry typically plays, say), which is not really practical for most big touring acts/productions. Of course, a smaller venue could have justified the ticket prices, but I also wonder how much ego is involved here. Then again, for sure Roxy Music is getting/has already gotten paid, so you're right, it's likely Live Nation that's losing out.

Something I am factoring in is that it seems unlikely Ferry will sound *better* several nights into the tour, but I guess you never know.

I checked out of curiosity and by contrast the cheapest seats at MSG are currently $273+ each, with lots of availability.

I'd pay $100 or so if it included fees, but no way would I pay $200 for shitty seats to this. Of course, I can currently get nosebleeds on the secondary market for $50, and I suspect a lot of those seats are just the venue/artist "reselling" tickets themselves.

Nosebleed isn't available for MSG on Ticketmaster; the $273 seats are some of the good seats but that's still an exorbitant amount for most peoples' budgets for the 2022 version of Roxy.

StubHub has nosebleeds in Chicago for $32. Main floor and first section are still around $200, but we're also 10 days out.

Yeah, I think the $32 is before fees (which even secondary market has). So it comes out closer to $50, iirc.

FWIW, it's been reported that they're closing the nosebleeds at some shows and upgrading ticketholders in those sections to lower tiers like the 100 section. So there's a chance that a nosebleed ticket will actually get bumped to a much better seat the day of the show.

Also, I saw Bryan Ferry in 2019 and I thought he was great. He did do "More Than This," but I honestly couldn't remember if he changed the key. I imagine he must have, so I checked - key was actually higher, but what made it work then was that he turned the high parts into a two-part harmony between him and a female vocalist, so Ferry was able to sing lower while the more familiar higher notes were sung by someone else. He still has the back-up singers on this tour so curious as to why he didn't keep that arrangement.

Upgrading at some Roxy shows specifically?

I guess it depends, but in Toronto they closed the 300s and two different ticketholders who bought tickets in that section confirmed they were upgraded to the 100s.

Maybe someone who's more familiar with venue logistics will know for sure, but I imagine they'd rather close down floors and have less to deal with than spreading the audience thinly across a venue.

The first time I saw Roxy Music, on the first reunion tour, they had actually curtained off about a third of the arena. I've seen other shows like that, where they sort of carve out a smaller space.

ugh i don't begrudge others getting their ticket upgraded but i actually paid full price for a 100-level ticket

I know what you mean. I paid full price for a 200-level ticket. So basically someone who sprung for a 300 could end up with a much better seat. But I've benefitted from similar lack of ticket sales too, so I'm fine with it.

I'm not sure how formal a thing it is. I know Springsteen's reunion tour, there were lots of accounts of "men in black" going to people in the nosebleeds and upgrading them to great seats. Heck, I used to do that myself when I was covering a lot of shows. The label or whomever would give me great seats, but if I wasn't into it or was just there for fun, I would often walk to the back, find a chill couple in the really cheap seats, and then just let them have my top tier tickets.

You might say that Ferry, absorbing the curtained-off seats, said, "More than this, no, there's nothing..."

Saw them in DC tonight. They closed off the top nose bleed seats in the arena. St. Vincent opened. Nice enough night. Ferry's voice was soothing to me after a tough day. Manzanera's guitar pyrotechnics sometimes worked and other times were too arena bombastic. Andy Mackay still sounded good on sax

I had a fun time. Ferry's voice is indeed shot, which made More Than This kinda feel like the Bill Murray karaoke version from Lost in Translation. But most of the time it all worked. Manzanera and Mackay sounded great. It's also a big production, with intentionally (I assume) disjointed imagery. It was wild to hear something like "In Every Dreamhome a Heartache" in the same building where the Washington Capitals play.

For what it's worth, afaict the setlists of Toronto and DC were identical, though a couple of songs were played in a different order.

I'm looking forward to this with tempered expectations. I mean I saw McCartney this year and his voice is really going down the tubes and it was still thrilling. People get old. As long as they seem like they care, there's still something to enjoy.

how was st. vincent? I didn't care for this latest album at all, but had heard her earlier tour was really great (as they usually are)

As long as they seem like they care, there's still something to enjoy.

What if their entire persona has been the cool appearance of disinterest?

Ferry has been giving off the cool appearance of disinterest since 1959.

Bryan Ferry as goalkeeper in the Washington Glebe, Newcastle, side 1959. #RoxyMusic pic.twitter.com/bfjfK8oSM9

— Danny Baker (@prodnose) September 9, 2022

Only to hide volcanic emotion

The emotion of a guy who just walked into a party and is already thinking about a better party he's leaving for in 5 minutes.

That is soul death.

As someone who thinks St Vincent is clearly talented but has a lot of issues with her albums and creative instincts, she was a good, energetic opener.

From 2019 - great tour IMHO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRXZFXxBniA

I saw Ferry in 2011 and he was still in fine whiskery voice. In 2017 the variety of his song selection ("Bete Noire"!) compensated for his diminished range.

He did "Virginia Plain" in Oakland in 2019 (but not at the tour's NY stop):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adbhXX-Vr-Y

love that fonzi thornton is still singing with him there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVnt5gNcb6o

Messed that up, try this.

Ferry’s voice may not be what it was, and he has assistance from 2 backup singers on this tour, but I’m ok with current status of it . I wouldn’t call it “shot” but to each there own

Haven't he and Roxy been enlisting backing vocalists for years? At least since "Avalon," but certainly some times before that.

Since the Country Life tour, I think.

so far the setlists seem pretty... set

The whole top level of MSG was empty tonight, but the rest of the place seemed full. I was never a St. Vincent fan, bordering on disliking her…but I was shocked at how much I dug her set. I dunno if her live presentation and arrangements are vastly different from her records (I’ve only heard a few stray songs, and saw her SNL appearance), but I can’t remember the last time an opening act impressed me this much. Roxy came charging out of the gate with ”Re-Make/Re-Model”, and there were surprises early on — I didn’t check out any setlists beforehand, but I never would’ve guessed they’d do ”The Bogus Man.” Ferry didn’t lean on the backing singers too much, but most of the songs were in a different key; sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn’t. For me, things really dragged as more post-hiatus songs dominated. And I was deeply disappointed that nothing at all from Stranded was played. Phil had a couple of outstanding moments, Andy seemed fatigued, but sounded ok, and Paul’s abilities have not diminished a whit. Considering his is arguably the most physically taxing role, that’s saying something. Ferry’s voice lacked power, and the contrast with Paul’s fire was instructive in terms of the importance of musicians taking care of themselves long-term (though Paul is also six years younger than Ferry).

was also at the garden and will second basically everything you said, tarfumes. mackay did seem tired but he had some excellent moments, particularly early in the show ladytron was a major mackay showcase and perhaps my favorite moment of the whole show.

i will say i wish they played a bit more from the early days, though i did like some of the avalon and flesh and blood deep cuts

https://i.ibb.co/C269kKM/PT.jpg

Thanks Paul.

I had a good time, but unlike the 2019 Ferry show, this did not exceed all expectations and simply met modest ones. The early stuff was great - after the first four numbers, I thought this would be a great show, but virtually all of the post-hiatus stuff was a cut below the early material. A shame because the same post-hiatus numbers knocked me out in 2019 - Ferry was clearly in better voice then and simply sung them all better (see above)

But I thought his smokey whisper was perfect on "Ladytron," and his church-organ-like keyboards sounded amazing on "Editions of You." Manzanera and Thompson were great and I agree that Thompson was a surprise. For some reason, I thought he'd be frail, but man did his pummel the shit out of his drums. Mackay was fine - I agree he sounded a bit spent at times, but I thought it was still wonderful to hear him.

Downside - I missed St. Vincent and I couldn't take full advantage of seat upgrades because a friend I went with wanted to be in the 100's, way off to the side. (The visuals were kind of ruined from our skewed perspective too.) They did offer floor seats, but no pairs next to each other - they had a pair that were in the same seats in adjacent rows, which I wish we took.