Show & Venue Reviews, What's New, Pussycat?
Please share your Tom Jones shows with other fans. Setlist? Audience? Energy? What was it like being there? We’d love to hear from you.
And, while you’re telling us about the shows, please let us know what you think of the venues where Tom plays. Clubs, theaters, casinos — Tom Jones performs in all of them. Which venue do you think is the best? The worst?
So that other fans will know what’s in store when they buy their tickets, please tell us a little bit about the venues you know. If possible, try to use the format below so others can tell at a glance what you think. The best venue will merit ****. More than one review of a venue is welcome.
Tom Jones In Albany: Newspaper Review: “…But One Thing’s For Sure. He’s Alive.”
Friday, February 27th, 2009What’s really nicest about this is the mention of Bill Churchville and Sharon Hendrix. Tom does give his backup people room to shine and it’s really nice when they get noticed. Don’t agree with his final assessment of singer and band, but, in all, as reviews are subjective, it’s a fair one. And I, for one, am so happy he’s singing Never now. If you were there, let us know what you thought.
Tom Jones comes alive
By MICHAEL ECK, Special to the Times Union/Last updated: 12:29 a.m., Friday, February 27, 2009
ALBANY — “I’m alive!” he cried. And indeed, Tom Jones is alive and doing quite well.
The 68-year old Welshman returned to the Capital Region Thursday night on the heels of a new album, 24 Hours, and a well-received Tuesday night concert at New York’s Terminal 5.
If Jones’ Palace Theatre performance wasn’t quite as dazzling as his explosive, sold-out show there in 2006, it was still plenty of fun.
Jones and his 11-piece band opened the evening with I’m Alive, just one of many tracks culled from the new disc, which is the first to feature the singer as writer as well as performer.
As a tunesmith no one would mistake him for a member of The Beatles, but Seasons, Give A Little Love, If Ever He Should Leave You and the aggressively hypnotic Never all worked well on stage.
Jones built his reputation in the 60s as a big, sexy showstopper — Elvis Presley with an accent. But he’s maintained his long career by diversifying, and Thursday’s show was nothing if not diverse.
Jones covered the bases of blues (200 Lbs. of Joy), pop (Kiss), country (Green, Green Grass of Home), polka (Help Yourself) and the crooner’s catalog (Fly Me To The Moon).
But he’s always been most at home on the soulful side of the tracks, and 24 Hours certainly leans towards the contemporary end of British soul, and not only because its hip production team, Future Cut, has also run the mixing board for Lily Allen, Estelle and Kelis.
The aforementioned If Ever He Should Leave You,I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:49 am
ECK!!! Doesn’t sound like he went to the same concert everyone else did…other reviews rave. I can’t believe he even shot down the band.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I attended both concerts so I’ll try to put some perspective on what he’s talking about. That’s a hard task because I LOVE Tom and enjoyed both concerts equally. Another staff writer for the Times Union (Greg Haymes) wrote the review in 2006, but I’ve got to believe Michael Eck was also there. Greg called it a “flat-out, blockbuster performance” and the glowing review just went up from there. I don’t know if even Tom could have topped that review. Both shows were great and if my memory serves me correctly, there were long standing ovations after each. I believe deep-down that Tom letting his hair go natural (grey) had some sort of subconscious effect on the writer’s review. Eck makes a remark about Tom getting a “little long in the tooth” that I took that as a reference to the hair. We all know Tom’s age, and he was 65 when he delivered that blockbuster performance in 2006, so what was the difference? The hair. None of the other reviews I’ve read (NYC, etc.) seem to have been affected by it, but that is the only explanation I can come up with. It was not a bad review, but it certainly wasn’t on par with the 2006 review.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:50 am
Donna: Tom’s natural hair seems to be a prime example of “seeing is believing.” One ardent, long-time and very loyal fan I know told me, “It’s one thing to know Tom’s age. It has not been a secret since the 1960s, but to see him go gray means I can’t forget his age and that bothers me. I can’t pretend he’s the guy he was.”
Seems to me that is not Tom’s problem so, in the end, there’s nothing he can do about it.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Your “seeing is believing” comment is so right on, and I agree whole-heartedly with the loyal fan you refer to. I’m so glad I saw him on a few clips from early February on BBC, etc., before going to the show or it would have been a shock to me. You see, I had just seen him a few weeks prior in Atlantic City (November 29) with dark hair. The reviewer should have been commenting on how much energy Tom put into the performance and the fact that if it weren’t for the hair color you would never believe he were really 68!
I know Eck is not biased against Tom as I remember him giving Tom a great review in March 2000 or 2001 at Proctor’s in Schenectady. He referred to Tom as the best thing to happen to R&B . . .It was a wonderful review. He clearly favors Tom singing R&B. It’s my personal favorite, too, but I also like the fact that Tom is so talented he can sing anything.
March 8th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Ellen,
I found another review of the show in Albany, NY in the weekly publication “Metroland” that came out this Thursday, March 5. Here’s the link: http://www.metroland.net/live.html
I love the caption under Tom’s photo!