Last night Blondie took to the stage at a sold out Royal Concert Hall for what may prove to be their last extensive UK tour. The lights dimmed and Debbie harry, the woman herself, at the ripe age of 72, took to the stage wearing a white cape with the words ‘Stop f*cking the Planet’ sprawled across the back. The crowd reaction was strong and when they opened with ‘One way or another’ it only intensified, everyone in the building belting out the lyrics to one of Blondie’s timeless classics.
They went on to play some songs off their latest 2017 album ’Pollinator’, there first new album in 6 years, while it became evident that despite her age Debbie Harry certainly hadn’t lost her stage presence, performing tracks with ease and flair. The atmosphere tailed off slightly as they played a few relatively unknown tracks until they performed the hit ‘Call me’ which Harry sang powerfully, a real crowd pleaser. The visual set progressed throughout the gig with some interesting visuals for some of Blondie’s slower tracks including their famous 3 blue eyes which looked fantastic in Nottingham’s spectacular Royal Concert Hall. The lighting and visuals aided Blondie’s performance and helped Debbie Harry to really deliver powerfully on some of the more upbeat songs with the single spotlight working to great affect and really enhancing her aura. Despite this the crowd went missing for the middle section of the gig as Blondie’s set seemed to jump from slow to fast fairly ineffectively with a handful of relatively unknown tracks from both ‘Pollinator’ and ‘Panic of Girls.’
Harry took some time to interact with the crowd, shouts of ‘we love you Debbie’ must be all to familiar for a woman performing all over the world for the last 40 years. Just as the concert seemed to be teetering out Harry performed a flawless rendition of ‘Heart of Glass’ the outstanding highlight in what otherwise seemed a rather patchy and unstructured set.
Although there were some definite high points in this Blondie gig it was difficult not to expect more from such a world renowned act. With this being said the most impressive feature of this gig was the fact that Debbie Harry most certainly has not lost any stage presence and her voice seems to be standing the test of time as vocally she was exemplary. Overall this gig seemed to give off the impression of a victory lap however the reality didn’t quite reach these heights! To put things bluntly, expected more!
Comentarios