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10/04/09 – For You, For Me Tour – Kylie Minogue

1 Comment Posted by materialgirlmadonna on March 15, 2010

Kylie during "Like A Drug"

Entry III: Kylie Minogue
Date: 10/04/09
Location and Venue: Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
Supporting Album: Greatest Hits, X

Short Description: I couldn’t remember how excited I was when I found out one of my top two artists, Kylie Minogue, was coming to America. Fans who have been alive longer than me have been waiting for this moment since the mid-80’s, I felt just simply gifted to go to one of her concerts.

The Environment: First off, there was high plausibility that this concert wasn’t going to materialize. We were still in Connecticut by the time we first started planning, and we didn’t comprehend the ride from Gilbert, Arizona, to Los Angeles, California. After my parents found out it was over eight hours, they weren’t that thrilled. Right now, I have to say a great, big, thank you to my awesome grandmother for taking the time to drive me eight hours, stay over night, and escort me to the show when there was no adult, or near-adult to take me. I have to admit, I acted like a little bitch when they told me I was in danger of not attending. It wasn’t just any artist, it was Ms. Minogue herself. Knowing her history of aversions to her lowest selling country of all time (the lovely North America,) I doubt she would tour here anytime in the future.

Another factor was that she was only going traveling to six cities total, ten shows total. Two in Oakland, one in Las Vegas, one in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, and a three-night-stand in New York City for her last round of shows. I had to take the opportunity to see this woman, because there was no say when she was going to be back, if ever.

When the day finally came to leave for LA, we packed light since we were only staying one night. Our Best Western Hotel was conveniently located a short walk from the Bowl itself. It took over eight to nine hours to finally get there, but it didn’t bother us one bit. The ride was very fun, we were able to see much of the scenery, and it was just an adventure in itself. One of the surprises of the trip was the real image of LA. It’s quite funny how the media portrays the city, as glamorous and star-infested, when in reality, it’s not all peaches and cream. Though the Bowl was located in a rather safe spot, we had to drive through a rather poor part of the city to get there. It really took the breath out of me, since, as I mentioned, the telly paints an entirely different image. Old granny (not really since she’s in her early 50’s,) didn’t seem to mind it, since for three years of her life she happened to live in California.

This first surprise was just the prelude to what surprises and shocks I would encounter through the night.

The Show: Luckily we arrived just in time. Due to unnecessary traffic on the bare highway, we arrived a tad later than expected. After we unpacked at the Best Western, we made a power-walk to the Bowl down the road since we wanted to get there relatively early. It was about 5:45-6:00 pm, the doors opened at 7:00 pm. There where a few fans sitting outside of the gates, but it wasn’t until the gates actually opened that they started to pour in. After eating a tasteless chicken salad that costed us a fortune, we headed straight to the gift shop to buy a shirt and tour program. After gathering our purchases, we headed to our seats. Both of us where surprised, because even though we paid good money on ebay for close seats, we didn’t realize our seats where two rows from the pit right near the stage. The BOwl itself was smaller then I expected, it looked much larger on the 3D seating chart then it actually was in reality.

She was almost an hour late then she was supposed to come on. In the mean-time, it appeared that they where having technical difficulties with the drapes and green screen curtain (the curtain performers usually have to project images while they are inside it, it’s almost transparent). I was getting ancy, because they really didn’t have an opening act, besides a DJ (who I believe is the husband of Kylie’s personal assistant).

The crowd itself was relatively ancy too, everyone was very excited and clad in interpretations of Kylie’s past tour costumes, mainly from her 2005 Showgirl Homecoming Tour, which if you’re wondering, was her most vivacious era costume-wise. Before hand, I also had to give my gram a prep talk, since Kylie is extremely popular within the gay community, and that would probably be the majority of what made up the crowd. My revelations where indeed right. Though I knew there was going to be a large gay gathering, I had no idea it would be this large. The crowd mainly consisted of gay men and their chick friends. Though my grandmother wasn’t very bothered, she indeed was taken aback by the large crowd of it all. Mixed in the crowd we did happen to spot some people of interest. One was an actress from E.R., Paris Hilton also attended, and Ru-Paul happened to walk by us (I regret not asking any of them for a picture..except Paris).

The crowd did indeed know how to party. The crowd was standing on their feet by the time Kylie came down from her giant, metallic, and iconic skull singing Light Years. After singing Light Years, Speakerphone, and Come Into My World, she took a break and decided to chat for a little bit with the crowd before transitioning into In Your Eyes. Relating to her costume of her “Space Segment,” it was very reminiscent of her 2002 Fever Tour, except more elaborate and Showgirl Homecoming-esque. It’s very nice she decided to take a step back in time with us, especially since her last tour, X2008, her costumes where more simple and less extravagant then usual. During her chat, by the look on her face you could tell she was indeed taken aback. The reason so seeming that this being the lowest country in her sales repetoire, she didn’t expect such a crazy crowd. Though this crowd was energetic, it wasn’t as violent as the second-day Fall Frenzy crowd. It, in context, was a big love-fest, all her to see one woman: Kylie.

One thing I didn’t expect, was that she was a very funny woman. She kept making jokes about the chilly weather, and was very enthusiastic. Another thing I didn’t expect was that she actually chatted with us through a duration of the whole show, when usually at her concert tours she isn’t the most talkative lady, besides encouraging fans to sing along, the usual of course. After finishing In Your Eyes, and after a short In Your Eyes Reprise, the next segment began with a short fashion show by her dancers, until Kylie came out. The whole segment consisted of her and her dancers dressed in Grease-themed clothes, similar to her past tour with the exception that it was very “American,” in the sense that the flag colors where quite prevalent. This happened to be my favorite segment, because it was a huge medley of all her 80’s hits from her PWL era, it included over 15 songs. The crowd was singing along to every one of them. The main favorite was Spinning Around at the end of it all, which happens to be a enormous fan favorite.

We were all in for a treat when she happened to sing a new song, “Better Than Today,” a new song from her album, which is yet to be released in 2010. After introducing her dancers and fading into the next segment, the video screens showed the familiar images from her Like A Drug performance featured in KylieX2008. Everyone knew what was coming, and the crowd went bananas. Though this was an album track from X, it was relatively recent enough to the point where everyone was familiar with it. This time around she didn’t make an entrance with the skull, but everyone sang along and was satisfied none-the-less. Next up was Slow. I love this song to death, I was a little disappointed she didn’t include excerpts from her song Free, that she included in the hook during her last tour. That happened to be my favorite part of the altered version.

The main highlight of her Xtour-themed “Erotic Bellboy” segment happened to be 2Hearts, which everyone knew by heart. This is when she introduced her brass section. This was a very interesting addition, since how many pop artists do you know who feature a brass and string section, especially adding that they have a full band also? After a short instrumental interlude, she moved into her next segment, which was probably the most homo-erotic part of the concert. It started with the very familiar, Homecoming Tour-themed Red Blooded Woman performance including men scantily clad in speedos, pretending to shower, as Kylie did some oh-so-risque moves on a gymnastics horse. My grandma didn’t mind much, but it was a tell-tale sign most of the male attendants where definitely enjoying this. After an interlude featuring “Hey Mickey” (changed into “Hey Kylie,”) with Cheerleaders and all, Wow was brought into the show. Though I think of it as an album filler, I still sung along with every corny lyric in tow.

To me, this next segment was definitely the most elaborate. Every instrument was in place, from strings to brass, and her entrance was rather suddle. After a short interlude featuring lines and music from The Wizard Of Oz, Kylie came out on a couch singing a popular, but unreleased demo from the X Sessions, White Diamond. It was the ballad version of course. Kylie was dressed in a glamorous, sparkling, and celebrity/Hollywood-worthy dress. After finishing, the music then faded into the rock and string-heavy Confide In Me. During this number, I never really realized how strong this woman’s voice is. Though she definitely displayed it throughout the concert, this really brought out it’s full compaicity. This also happened to be my favorite performance, for it had excerpts of the elaborate and dramatic dance interlude between her and her dancers from her Greatest Hits tour four years earlier in about 2004. The most impressive moment was when she hit a very complicated, Mariah Carey-type of high note before ending the show. After Confide In Me, she went into I Believe In You, which was very anthem-esque, a great way to finish the segment. The only thing I thought was a bit quirky, was the couch sitting in the middle of the stage. I’m sure it was conventiently placed there simply so she could rest after her endless choreography segments earlier.

Her very cabaret/Vegas-esque segment happened to be her most sexual and risque. It was also the part of the show that happened to turn me on a bit due to her, and her scantily clad dancers. Before coming out on stage, there was a dancer/video interlude featuring Burning Up, and Madonna’s Vogue, to which she rapped the ending part of the Madonna song before moving into The Locomotion. I never knew she could make the ever-so-poppy and sugary 1983 hit she made in the 80s, so risque, orgasmic, and sexual. If you were listening to just the audio, to put it quite frankly, it sounds like she was having tantric sex with all the ad-libs and the way she was accentuating every syllable. The next two numbers were Kids, and In My Arms. Though Robbie Williams was not available to be featured in the tour for Kids, her backup singer willingly took his place, and I actually liked her voice better than the original Robbie’s. In My Arms was a rather cheesy track, though by then I was in a Kylie-trance and sang along, in reality, it’s another album filler that shouldn’t of became a single. It did it’s job by getting the crowd going none-the-less.

Lastly came three-song Encore section. It was a very emotional moment, from singing the anthem and ever-ignored popular single, Better The Devil You Know, to the huge surprise of the ballad-version of her very first hit, I Should Be So Lucky, the show ended with a load of confetti and “Love At First Sight.” The last song seemed like it was never-ending, and not the repetitive kind either. The length was similar to a party that never seemed to end.

Overall, though the whole show was really just a copy-and-pasting of her past tours, it was a good catchup to everything America missed all these years. It also made her name more recogniziable, for when if I asked someone who Kylie was before the tour was announced, no one would have a clue, compared to now, since I’m guessing her name has been circulating. Setlist wise, her show was very heavily populated with more recent hits, and album tracks from her 2008 piece, X, but none-the-less, it was very entertaining. I was hoping for more of her 80s hits, but you can’t get everything, right? I’m just happy she made it to America, and made this one of my most memorable concerts that I still remember through and through as I write this. This had to be one of her most intimate tours to-date.

Setlist:

1. Overture (contains elements from “Over The Rainbow”, “Somewhere”, and “The Sound Of Music”)
2. Light Years
3. Speakerphone
4. Come Into My World
5. In Your Eyes
6. Smiley Kylie/Everything Taboo Medley:
-1. Shocked
-2. Do You Dare
-3. Just Give Me A Little More Time
-4. Keep On Pumpin’ It
-5. What Kind Of Fool (Heard All That Before)
-6. What Do I Have To Do?
-7. Over Dreaming (Over You)
-8. Ride On Time
-9. Spinning Around
-10. Step Back In Time
-11. Finally
-12. Such A Good Feeling
-13. The Real Slim Shady
-14. Buffalo Girls

7. Better Than Today (Unreleased Song)
8. Like A Drug
9. Boombox/Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (contains elements of “Blue Monday.”)
10. Slow
11. 2 Hearts
12. Red Blooded Woman/Where The Wild Roses Grow
13. Heart Beat Rock [Dance Interlude] (Contains elements from Nu-Di-Ty, Slow, and contains excerpts from “Mickey.”)
14. Wow
15. White Diamond Theme [Video Interlude] (Contains quotes from Films such as The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, A Streetcar Named Desire, Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve, Beyond The Forest, and Mommie Dearest, as well as quotes from Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, and Jayne Mansfield)
16. White Diamond (Ballad Version)
17. Confide In Me
18. I Believe In You (Ballad Version)
19. Burning Up/Vogue [Video Interlude]
20. The Loco-Motion
21. Kids
22. In My Arms
23. Better The Devil You Know (contains elements of “So Now, Goodbye.)
24. I Should Be So Lucky (Intimate and Live Tour Ballad Version)
25. Love At First Sight

Highlights:
Confide In Me
Kids
Burning Up/Vogue
Better The Devil You Know
I Should Be So Lucky

Clips From Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p77FFrNClk – Speakerphone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyk08bGTMSM – Red Blooded Woman/Where The Wild Roses Grow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh59anscP8Y – Boombox/Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rueHNht6Ego – The Loco-Motion

Website: http://kylie.com/home

Chapter I: Revisitations 2009, american tour, chicago, concert, concerts, concerts in la 2009, dancing queen kylie minogue, darling, dazzling darling, for, for you for me tour, gay, gay clubs, gay culture, get out of my way kylie minogue, get outta my way, hammerstein ballroom, hollywood, hollywood bowl, i should be so lucky, i should be so lucky ballad, ibiza 2011 kylie, intimate, intimate and live, james taylor hollywood bowl, kylie, kylie 2010, kylie hurts wonderful life, kylie locomotion, Kylie Minogue, kylie minogue 2009, kylie minogue concert review, kylie radio 1, kylie x album, madonna vogue, me, minogue, music, new york city concerts, nyc, on a night like this tour, reviews, san francisco, x album, you

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