Last Night: Erasure at The Moore

Erasure

July 24, 2007

The Moore

Better Than: Valentine’s Day, Gay Pride Weekend, and real diamonds.

Gay Pride weekend in Seattle concluded exactly a month ago to the day, but the air in The Moore last night still reeked of its fabulousness and extravagance. Everyone was definitely fabulous, not to mention good-looking, as Dan Keyes, the lead singer of opening act Young Love, observed, causing a scattered few to cheer wildly. Of course, those who slowly filtered into the room during Young Love’s set were there for the night’s main attraction: Erasure, the beloved and legendary synth-pop duo, whose flamboyant vocalist Andy Bell was one of pop music’s first openly gay performers. Even today, more than twenty years after Erasure penned their first of many commercial hits, homosexuals are still facing an uphill battle for equality, and the gushingly sweet Erasure songs provide a spiritual ray of light and hope. Their shows are a celebration of redemption and love - something everyone can emotionally relate to and want to experience.

After the curtain dropped, the multicolor-hued stage, decked out with glittering stairs and riser platform, seven flat panel televisions, and large silver, spiraling gems (diamonds) hanging from above, was unveiled, along with Bell, who stood atop the riser, faced against the crowd, three lovely black female back-up singers, and Bell’s longtime partner in crime Vince Clarke manning the laptop/synth podium. All of them wore matching silver camouflage fatigues; pants and jacket for Bell and Clarke, and dresses for the back-up singers (along with little cute black veils). The band launched into “Sunday Girl,” the opening track from their latest release, Light at the End of the World, before giving the crowd what it undoubtedly wanted – the hits – and “Blue Savannah,” was the first of many to come.

 

Erasure knows their audience well. Before making a round through “Drama!,” a song that would engage the audience into singing along (“We are guilty! GUILTY!”), Bell was already profusely sweating, brought on by the flood of bright lights, and his energetic, yet goofy tip-toe dancing and flailing arms. Behind him, the flat panels screened vibrant visual imagery, from space, CGI diamonds and hearts, to re-editted Erasure videos, and footage of couples kissing. They brought an equal balance of old and new throughout the set with new songs like “I Could Fall in Love With You” and “Breathe,” and classics “Chains of Love,” “Breath of Life” and “Love To Hate You” throughout the night.

The sweat on Bell became too much, so the band took a short set-break, that was just about the most entertaining set-break I’ve ever experienced. With some “moody music” playing from the vacant stage, the flat panel televisions displayed witty and funny banter (“We’re all backstage, having a smoke,” and “You could pretend you ingested some illegal mind-altering substance” to mention a few), before the duo returned wearing neon paint splattered white suits (so Graham Norton!) and neon pink, orange, and green dresses for the ladies. The night’s entertainment set sail with the “Ship of Fools,” and moved into a sea of the most popular hits: “Sometimes,” “Respect” and “Oh l’Amour”, closing with the recent “Glass Angel,” and concluding the sole encore, quite fittingly, with “Stop!”

Throughout the entirety of their ninety minute-long set, and as far as eye could see, all three levels in the Moore were on their feet, dancing, clapping, and smiling. The place was packed, and there wasn’t a single person who looked like they didn’t want to be there. The sheer excitement in the night was feverish from beginning to end. In the year that I’ve been in Seattle, at most shows I’ve been to, small or large, the crowds have always been subdued or hesitant show a good time! It’s finally nice to see there are some people in this city who can. I was beginning to worry.

 

Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: Last year’s Union Street Acoustic Tour was one of my favorite shows of 2006.
Random Detail: The night before, Erasure hit up Capitol Hill’s gay hotspot, Purr, and met a couple fellows, who Andy, embarrassingly enough, couldn’t remember their names of. They were standing next to us at the front of the crowd and one of them wouldn’t stop staring at me all night as he danced. Maybe I shouldn’t have worn a plaid collared shirt with pink all over.

By the way: Congratulations to showgoers Jeff and Teri, who got engaged the day before. Oh l’Amour, indeed!