Concert review
International Arena, Cardiff, Wales - 14 February 2001
from Western Mail & Echo Ltd by Jenny Johnson
Great Concert And Better Than The Bottle
IN keeping with her Valentine’s Night date with a packed Cardiff International Arena, Texas frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri was in flirty mood as she belted out the band’s greatest hits.
Semisonic having received a warmer welcome than that normally reserved for support acts - notably for the hit Closing Time - the Scottish siren emerged, flanked by two video screens and a distinctive retro chic backdrop, to the strains of In Demand, followed by Black Eyed Boy and Halo.
Relaxed, self-assured and bantering with the crowd as she tuned her guitar in between songs, it was all a far cry from that late 80s summer concert at the Arms Park, supporting Simple Minds, when the band got bottled off the stage.
This time, Spiteri was sufficiently at ease to ask two more-than-eager male members of the audience on-stage to perform with her. Valentine’s night had never been so memorable for Lee and Dawson (“as in Dawson’s Creek?”), who gyrated happily with the raunchy singer for a rendition of Grace Jones’ Pull Up to the Bumper.
Any Greatest Hits tour is guaranteed to consist of innumerable sing-along highlights, but stand-out numbers included Once in a Lifetime, I Don’t Want a Lover, Insane and an acoustic Put Your Arms Around Me.
The appreciative, if strangely subdued, crowd finally ignited for the encores, a coquettish Spiteri shedding her unusually frumpy jeans and shirt for black leather biker-girl gear, scraped-back hair and dark glasses to end a great concert with Elvis’ Suspicious Minds, Inner Smile and their comeback hit, Say What You Want.
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