Savage Garden Concert Reviews
June 29, 1998: Minneapolis, MN: Mall Of America
Fan Review
By Ginger Brown
I recently went to the Savage Garden concert
at the Mall of America. It was called Jam for Hunger for
the MN food bank. Cleopatra was the
first opening act. They were great; I love the song 'Cleopatra's
theme (comin' atcha)'. After them was
a group called The Blenders, they were a local group, and they
were really good too. They
reminded me of the Backstreet Boys. Then came the big one, Savage
Garden. It all started with the band
coming out along with the backing singers, Anna Maria Laspina and
Nicole McIntyre. Then Daniel came out,
at first it didn't look like him, but then a light got on him and
you could tell it was. Darren appeared on top
of a platform that had two sets of stairs leading down. He
first appeared as a shadow until the spotlight
shinned down on him. The concert wasn't as good as an
indoor concert as far as costumes, but it
was a very theatrical oriented show. They sang most of their
songs. The ones they didn't sing were
'A Thousand Words', the technicians started the music, but they
cut it off because that was where a costume
change was supposed to be and they didn't do it. 'Fire Inside The
Man' is the B-side they didn't sing, and that's a shame because it is a
great song. Among the songs they sang were 'Tears of Pearls', 'Violet',
Promises', 'Break Me Shake Me', 'Santa Monica', 'Moon and Back', 'Truly
Madly Deeply', 'I Want You', 'Carry On Dancing', 'All Around Me', 'This
Side of Me',
'Love Can Move You', and 'Mine'. They
also sang Joan Osborne's song 'One of Us', part of Nirvana's
song 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', the Bonnie
Raitt song called 'I Can't Make You Love Me' with backing
singer Anna Maria Laspina, and part of a song
that I think is called 'Sugar Pie Honey Bunch', it's an old
50's song. During Santa Monica Darren stopped
singing. When the band stopped playing, he spoke to the crowd telling
them how he had control over the beat of the song and when the band played.
When Daniel told Darren to "Sing already” Darren replied in a smart-ass
tone, "I think I would like to be reminded of what key I have to sing in."
Daniel played a key and Darren started singing finishing off the song.
During a drum solo Darren threw a fit saying, "Stop it, Stop it!
You can't do that, this is my show! I am the only one who gets to
do anything! Danny, Danny, stop him, stop him!" Then Darren
runs to the platform behind the drummer, plops down on the platform and
screams "STOP IT!!" The drummer stops and the crowd goes wild.
During the costume change for 'All Around Me' Daniel and the other guitar
players jammed a little. Then a cluster of disco balls lowered from
the ceiling and Darren and the two backing singers appear in Austin Powers
like costumes. Darren is in a white coat with sunglasses, I couldn't
see what color, and the girls were in fluffy pink and blue coats.
This was the best performance of the whole show. Darren walked to
the front of the stage and grabbed his crotch, then he acted surprised
with an "Oops, did I just do that" kind of embarrassed look on his face.
The backing girls
walked up to him and gave him a scolding look and
pushed him out of the way. Anna started dancing and
then Nicole pushed her out of the way and
she started dancing. Darren was standing back watching the
whole thing, then he walked up to the stage
pushed them both out of the way and started throwing the
tantrum that it was his show and they couldn't
do that. During his tantrum he kicked Anna Maria in the
butt after he pushed her
away. He then continued to wiggle his butt and grab himself.
It was a
high-energy performance and by the end I was
exhausted from screaming, yelling, jumping and singing,
just from that song. The show ended with
an encore, they did 'This Side of Me', a great B-side. Darren
was supposed to pick a girl from the
crowd but instead he just walked down off the stage and walked
around the first section of seats. He
also sang 'Truly Madly Deeply' for an encore. After that they said
their good-byes everyone started leaving.
My friend and I tried getting autographs, but we couldn't get
back stage and the DJ's from the station that
put the concert on wouldn't go back and get a picture signed
for us. After that we left and I am still
buzzing from the concert. I can't wait for the next one. If
you get a chance, check them out! You will never forgive yourself
for missing it. It is a night of entertainment and music you will
never forget. A word of wisdom, take plenty of film, trust me from
personal experience, one role is not enough. My friend would also
like to give a word of wisdom. "Never sit next to Ginger Brown, she
has a slight, shall we say, OBSESSIVE MADNESS towards Darren."
By Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Jon Bream
In only its second U.S. concert, Savage Garden came across as chameleonic
popsters, capable of dreamy romantic pop, dance pop, Europop and karaoke
pop (covers of 'One of Us,' 'I Can't Make You Love Me' and 'I Can't Help
Myself'.... Lead singer Darren Hayes, 26, seemed alternately pseudo suave,
pseudo campy or charmingly lost.... He didn't seem quite sure how to relate
to his partner, guitarist-keyboardist Daniel Jones, who was largely in
the background. Unwisely saving both hits for last, Savage Garden made
its 85-minute set seem overlong. There were winning moments, including
an Austin Powers-meets-Spice Girls treatment of 'All Around Me,' 'I Want
You' (with its staccato disco-beat verses and peppy pop-choruses) and the
dreamy sing-along 'Truly Madly Deeply.'
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