I'm not crazy about Madame X but I will give her credit for continuing to emphasize her most recent material in concert, even if it means she's not able to play the larger venues. I just wish she would adopt the Iron Maiden touring strategy and alternate tours focusing on the latest album with hits shows. And please, give "La Isla Bonita" a long vacation! Not a song that needs to be featured in consecutive tours...
I do find it funny how entitled her fans are on social media whining about how they're not able to have memories about the show because of the no-phone policy. Are we that addicted to smart-phones to forget we have memory banks in our heads? They seem so entitled and forget that we went to concerts for decades before smartphones were invented. Why can't we put the phone away for 2 hours and give our undivided attention to the artist we paid money to see? One thing I actually have enjoyed when I've gone to concerts of older-skewing artists (like Rod Stewart or Paul McCartney) is how small a percentage of the crowd actually gets their phones out and realizes they paid to see a performer and listen to music, instead of this "I'm going to take crappy footage to show to people at work tomorrow that will sound and look terrible".
So they are playing new material? that's good... I assumed it would be one of those cases where they'll drop a new album, but the tour emphasizes only the classics with maybe two new songs at best. I don't mind the "oldies friendly" sets in festivals and the sort. Last month I went to a three day festival and it did include older acts like ZZ Top and Hall And Oates. Both artists essentially stop their sets around 1983-1984 (H&O's set stops with Big Bam Boom and ZZ Top's stops at Eliminator except for one Recycler track from 1990) but again, it was a festival and they're being allotted a one hour set for a massive crowd who want to hear hits, hits and more hits. Which is a different beast than if one bought a ticket to see them as a headliner so one expects a deeper look into their catalog.
I think she could sell stadiums if she did a greatest hits set, but she doesn’t want to. I don’t think the cell phone thing or the prices is the big issue. The big issue is that more casual fans want to hear hits they know, and it’s pretty common knowledge from her last couple of tours that she does a lot of new material and only a select number of hits, and that doesn’t interest them. But as she says in the show, I’d rather be free than popular.
But I don’t think she will ever do a greatest hits tour, although her next tour will probably have more hits than this one. Let’s face it, most older artists do hit sets because they need the money. Madonna doesn’t. So if she did it, it would be just for the ego trip of playing in larger venues. How many of these artists who do hits sets actually enjoy it? They do it out of obligation because that’s what people want, not because they have some burning desire to play their older material. There’s a begrudging feel to a lot of greatest hits acts I’ve seen.
That might be true. If she publicized a show focused on material from her peak period, fans might come back. Not sure she could pull off that show - she’s not 24 yo any more
Wow - I thought you were exaggerating, but you're not! Massive blocks of tickets remaining! Looks like they sold the balcony area pretty well, but the orchestra has obs and gobs of open seats. They're gonna have to knock down prices pretty severely to move those!
That's exactly what she did with "Re-Invention". It wasn't explicitly sold as a hits show, but it came close - there was a definite indication that it'd be a casual fan-friendly setlist. Not really to make sure fans "came back", since "Drowned World" was such a success, but more to keep them, since so many were displeased by the near-absence of pre-1994 songs...
I am not sure I totally agree. Whilst that may be true of some artists, people like Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones and Elton John don't need the money either but they perform hits shows. I think they do it because they like the audience to be completely engaged, to sing along with almost every song and for everyone to leave the show on a high. Madonna approaches her show differently. She has said in the past that she treats her show as if it's an art installation so I don't think she feels she needs to give the audience everything they want.
saw the thursday show and LOVED IT. so i'm going a third time, tonight, closing night, got a row A balcony seat so i dont have to stand for the whole thing like the last two times i went, standing on a pitched floor for 2+ hours gets really old at my age, and i can even take a cat nap if my peepers get heavy, show is really well conceived and I saw so many things i missed the first time, it is rather multi media and the films etc. really add to a great show, musically is really solid IMO and her band is terrific and clearly they are all having a really good time performing together.
I checked out the Elton John farewell tour set lists when I was considering going, and I was amazed how heavily it emphasized the seventies stuff. I think three early 80s hits and one 90s hit and that was it. I was disappointed because I grew up with his late eighties and nineties hits, and really loved a couple of his 2000s albums. I fear a Madonna greatest hits tour might encourage the same approach, and emphasize the Immaculate Collection era hits. That was my only issue with the Rebel Heart tour, which was amazing, but I enjoyed the current album songs the most. I didn’t get crazy excited for the old stuff because it was mostly from her first three albums. Crowds went CRAZY though. I’d love a hits tour that took a balanced approach and featured the later hits, but I worry it will just be Music and maybe Ray of Light to represent the post-Vogue days. Heck, Hung Up is her biggest global hit of all time, and it hasn’t appeared on the last two tours.
This is one of the things that I think is great about each of Madonna's tours compared to someone like Elton - they are always different because she is interested in putting on a 'show' in every sense of the word so each tour is different to the previous one. I have seen Elton a few times and specifically went to shows where I knew that he would be performing in a different way (ie with band, with orchestra, with gospel choir, solo). However his actual setlist was more or less the same each time.
At the show I was at, people did sit for some of the slower songs. I thought the arrangements on this tour were great. They got rid of the rock reinventions they had on previous tours. I think her voice doesn’t work well with electric guitars. Glad there is none of that on this tour. She did play acoustic guitar on a few songs, but no electric. I really liked the new version of Future where she played the piano. Her musical director Kevin Atunes is of Cape Verdian descent so this tour was right up his alley and home territory for him.
I've seen Elton a fair amount over the last 15 years and he's changed up things more than a little. Even thought I saw him a year after "Peachtree Road" hit, he still did 6 songs from the album, and I think shows earlier in the tour focused on the album even more heavily. The 2011 show included 8 songs from "The Union". The 60th birthday show in 2007 was oldies but he pulled out some real rarities. Elton seems to have been in a hits-heavy mode for the last few tours, though. I saw him in support of "Wonderful Crazy Night" in 2016 and he did only 3 songs from that album. Of course, he's gonna go hits-happy for the farewell shows, but they're not an extreme departure from other shows of recent vintage. For a good period of time, he'd alternate the hits shows with those that emphasized new albums, but he bailed on that a while back...
Many of the balcony seats appear to have been bought by scalpers. Well, one nice thing is that scalpers will get burned on this show.
there was some quick audio clips on youtube that i caught that got pulled VERY fast , there may have been some video ? I know Madonna addressed it on facebook that she was upset that people would do that & sneak in a 2nd phone & not abide by her wishes which led to a bunch of people calling her out for doing the same thing at shows That's all good but what if i get an emergency text , i have no idea i even got it as my phone is locked in a pouch or they have it locked in a pouch ............. I'll give an even better Example , a good friend that goes to a lot of shows with me , he owns 4 Medical based Offices , he is on call 24/7 no matter what , he HAS to answer Emergency texts ............... Like i've said before i'm 100% for no pics/videos , but i'm 100% against locking peoples phones up ..... doesn't make me right or wrong , it's just how i feel ................ if something goes down & everyone has to leave the venue in an emergency situation it's not great that all phones are locked in pouches .
boston has 3 shows , a saturday , sunday & monday ...the Monday is the one not doing so well , maybe half sold & the venue holds about 4,000 each night
To be honest I am surprised it is even allowed, look what happened at the Manchester concert in the UK. Imagine if all those kids had never had their phones to phone home etc...
This isn’t a Madonna specific thing. It’s standard at many theater shows now. She’s utilizing a system that already exists. Stand up shows are using it now as well. I don’t think it could scale up to an arena.
As far as doctors who are on call, I think if they know they are at an event where they aren’t available by phone, they would arrange for someone else to be available who isn’t at the concert, and have someone else to cover for them. Usually when it is a life or death emergency, people call 911. The whole EMS is not at the Madonna concert. No one is that indispensable that they have to be reached and can’t arrange for someone else to cover for them. We survived for many years without cell phones and being available 24/7. I think the whole no phones thing is being blown out of proportion.
That tour was fascinating, in that he did it specifically so he could retire his hits and not have to perform them again. He didn’t completely hold to this, but he did emphasize newer or more obscure material in the rest of his tours. Madonna has always emphasized the most recent album in her tours, even on the Re-Invention Tour, which still included six songs and an interlude from American Life. I’d be fascinated to see how she’d handle a true greatest hits tour. Maybe in 2022, for the fortieth anniversary of her first single?
