Some thought's about last night's Sheena Easton concert, because she did it exactly right

[christopher575]

This post also appears on Whispers Lounge, my '80s blog. If you like the '80s, please check it out!




- She's got hits, but not enough for a full set, and chooses to do a few covers rather than her album tracks most people won't know. The opening track was Lisa Stansfield's "All Around the World" which was perfect for her. A few songs later was "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette. I think she should be Roxette's new singer and tour as a Roxette/Sheena Easton double bill. Learning there's already a new lead singer for Roxette that people don't seem to like reinforces this wish for me.

- I'm so grateful that the Historic Everett Theater has seating for everyone. If you were performing in the '80s, your aging fanbase mostly wants to sit! She smartly invited people up front to dance during her biggest bangers, but then sent everyone back to their seats after each one because the people in the front rows deserve a good view.

- The door opened at 6:30 and the show was at 7:30. In my dreams it'd be 6:00/7:00 but I understand people need time to get their dinner. And it didn't really matter much because there was no opening act. Once again, if you were active in the '80s, you don't need an opening act. A double bill with an act from your era is ok, too. "But someone needs to warm up the crowd!" Please, we aren't gonna get all that hot.

- No meet and greet was offered and that's great because that's how we got the show started so quickly. She signed autographs while performing, which was hilarious. And she prevents autograph hounds from selling them by saying she'll only sign stuff that people write their own name on first. When she ran out of time for signing, she said people could leave stuff on the edge of the stage and it would all be brought back to her and she'd sign it immediately and send it back out.

- Her backing band was great and included a saxophone player because she truly understands the decade that made her a star. Everyone in the band did backing vocals and she also had a singer for duets, which she did as medleys which is a great way to handle the reality that someone shouldn't be expected to sing a whole Prince song. She also had wonderful stories about Prince and was quite funny.

- At the end she explained that she really only had one more hit to share, and it was time to do it rather than pretend the show was over and make us yell for an encore. Again, she understands we're tired and for that I'll always be grateful.

Comments

[cardinalfang]

Wow, she's so considerate! I guess her voice is still great too. It's interesting to see who all from those times took care of their voices because a lot of people ruined them, and not necessarily by overdoing it on smoking and drinking. Geddy Lee couldn't hit the high notes by the late 80s. But when Jason and I went to see Aerosmith with Steve Tyler, Styx with Dennis DeYoung, and Pat Benatar in the mid-90s, all of them could still knock them out and sounded great. I will never forget going to see this guy Bhimsen Joshi when he was 80, and his voice was amazing; not quite as bright as when he was younger (from recordings) but he still had it. Hopefully Sheena Easton can keep it going that long!

"she prevents autograph hounds from selling them by saying she'll only sign stuff that people write their own name on first"

that's really clever.

[christopher575]

I might not have even caught on that she was preventing autograph hounds from reselling, but when Information Society was recently here, they posted the next day about someone who aggressively tried to get them to sign a whole bunch of stuff.