I’m trying my best not to be contrary to all I’m seeing when it comes to Simple Minds on their current tour of North America. All appears to be going well. Although I still feel that a lot of “smoke and mirrors” is happening when it comes to the “packed houses” portrayal of the arenas on the band’s social media platforms. I’ve seen very few images that truly reflect this scene. The photo from Austin seems an exception from the ones I’ve viewed – which have been predominantly of the band on stage, or of fans in the front rows. Even with this Austin image, is it all as it seems? I checked the capacity of the Moody Center and it suggests the capacity for a concert would be 15,000 but basketball matches are 10,000. There appears to be upper level seating that isn’t filled and has shutters or blinds brought down over this area? Or is that not what I’m seeing in the image?
Much like how the Ziggo Dome was an exception to last year’s European leg of the tour in that it was sold out, the arena at maximum capacity holds 20,000. Making the venue fully seated reduces that capacity – and I think that’s what happened for the SM gig. They made it an all-seated show. Yes, it is true that a few other shows sold out, but they were at lower capacity than the Ziggo Dome. For example, the Hydro holds only 13,000 and only sold out on the first night. I was there both nights and it wasn’t as full as the first night. It was empty by any means, but it wasn’t as full as night one.
Still, why should I want to doubt them? If they want to give the illusion that the tour is going even better than it appears to be, good for them. There have been positive reviews and the fans are lapping it up, seemingly very enthusiastic about getting “diddy songs.” Incredible considering the penchant of the North American fanbase – so much for them all just wanting a 12-minute karaoke singalong of DYFAM. Some have seemingly come to experience a proper mix of the back catalogue, content to hear truncated versions of pre Once Upon a Time era Simple Minds.
As overwhelmed as I was hearing ‘Sons and Fascination’ being performed last year, the fact that it remains the latest victim of the “No third verse” reduction of a song is still a massive bugbear for me. These are the things that still piss me off. If you’re going to go to the bother of performing a song such as ‘Sons and Fascination’ – truly DO IT JUSTICE. It happened with ‘Celebrate’ as well. It hasn’t had its third verse for YEARS. And now SAF is being subjected to the same treatment. And even more than ‘Celebrate,’ its third verse is a pivotal part of the song – Kerr sings its title in the third verse FFS!! Does that not state how crucial the verse is? I despair at how much I still care and how invested I still am – although thankfully nowhere near as invested as I used to be. Not that it felt a bad thing at the time, but I think for my overall mental health some true objectivity was desperately needed.
Anyway, I wanted to share this full recording of the show in Phoenix, Arizona. I haven’t watched it all yet. I may never. I watched the first three songs, I think. Well, I know I got as far as ‘Speed Your Love To Me.’ Yet another track that has been truncated – but on this occasion, I’ll concede that not much has been lost from its edit as the final verse is just a repeat of the first so there is a more valid reason for dropping it (unlike ‘Celebrate’ and, even more so, unlike ‘Sons and Fascination’).
They are now just about mid-way through the tour and have 14 shows left which include a miserly two dates for Canada – a country that took the band to their hearts very early on and are getting rewarded for their loyalty with one show in Montreal and one show in Toronto. If you live in Vancouver or anywhere in between – sod ya! You’ll have to travel south of the border to see them. What more do you want, Canada?! With a very similar land mass as their neighbour, how do you justify only offering them TWO DATES?
Bellahouston Park (the beginning of another European leg of a “global” tour) is now just under four weeks away.