6.16.13 Pittsburgh Pride, Thats a Wrap

A verklempt shiksa ‏@aleksandrakv 1m
‏I say because of Melvin:) RT @glamlawyer
Wow... RT @sroczka79 HOW SO PRETTY ?? /even with mevin/ :{ ) bit.ly/1bJYepL

Adam Lambert ‏@adamlambert 
Happy Fathers Day @milestougeaux !!

saweetmaryc : Pittsburgh Pride playlist. pic.twitter.com/Zpm631Csk3

Just a quick thought based on what I learned following U2. These concerts that Adam is doing in the US are basically one offs. They are not tour dates. There is a world of difference between "tour" performances and "one offs". Most hardcore U2 fans have very low expectations of U2 one off performances. There is a lot of similarity in how Adam and U2 approach "tour" performances. Tours are fairly structured with a three act template if you will and little in the way of set changes and are designed to take you on an emotional journey in the process. During tours they really get in to the set and really live within the songs. But "one offs" especially during times when the band is working on new material often suffer because U2 has trouble switching gears between the creative mindset and the touring mindset. Some artist can switch back and forth with ease but others can't. Adam seems to be the type that doesn't switch back and forth easily. He has talked about how he needed time at the end of GNT to get back to "normal" so that he could start writing, and from the end of WAG we can see that he has been doing a lot of that, just hanging out with friends and living what is as close as he can get to a "normal" life but he still has to throw these performances in now and again. I think that is why they don't seem as cohesive as a regular tour performance. He is sort of half in half out of performance mode so things get a little disjointed.

This can be difficult for us hardcore fans who watch everything but I think we need to just focus on the fact that the twitter comments from the less hardcore fans are still very positive and people are still blown away by what we may see as not Adam's best level of performance. For me personally, I would never try to compare a "one off" concert to a regular tour concert because they are really different things. From what I saw on twitter the only ones slightly disappointed were those comparing to tour level performances whose expectations were at that level.

Another point, I see a people all the time comparing one artist to another in terms of how many songs they sing or how long they sing. I don't think this is really fair to any artist because they all present themselves differently. U2 has rarely ever done longer than a two and 1/2 hour set even though they've got plenty of material to draw from. People will complain that Springsteen plays for three hours plus so why can't they. But Springsteen's approach to a concert is more like a jukebox than a journey. It rarely seems to have anything to do with how the songs relate to one another. It's a musical jam that shuffles through his catalog. I've never seen anything in interviews that indicated any kind of structure to how he chooses what songs to play. U2 however does specifically design their tour setlist with definite three act style and designed to take you on an emotional journey. They talk about this in interviews all the time. Bono specifically states that his intention for a concert is that is a healing process. His goal it that is a cathartic journey and you leave feeling better than when you came in. Adam's shows are also designed in a similar way. U2 even specifically picks the songs that are played over the PA in the last 30 minutes before they hit the stage with the last song before stage always being the same. That setlist is also designed to prepare the audience. GNT's pre show dance party was similar in that Adam had someone specifically DJing the break to turn it in to a dance party leading in to his show and they kept tailoring it to enhance that feel during tour as they saw the audiences really getting in to it. I got the feeling that they were proud of that because most of Adam's crew and sometimes even Adam would watch the audience from the wings.

I think sometimes we have such high expectations that we can end up feeling disappointed by Adam just because the bar is set SO high. Expectations can be a real bitch like that so I decided a long time ago that I have a lot more fun when I set my expectations low and let myself be blown away rather than setting high expectations and maybe being disappointed. My expectations are exactly that, mine and how can I expect someone who doesn't even know me to live up to my expectations. Now it's a different thing when you hold someone to what they have said their expectation. I think this kind of feeds in to why Adam is trying not to say much about the album. I think that last time along the way fans developed expectations that may not have been in line with where Adam was going and then were disappointed and I think he is trying to minimize the level of expectation so that people can be more open to the experience rather than coming with an idea of what they expect.


Sorry for the long ramble. LOL