Savage Garden Concert Reviews
July 14, 1998: Salt Lake City, Utah: The E Center
From: `Disco Night at the E Center' Makes Savage
Garden Fun
By Lori Buttars, The Salt Lake Tribune
Colored lights and new band members cannot compensate
for what Savage Garden is -- a synth-pop band, touring on two catchy but
overplayed, radio hits. But then, the Australian duo was not trying to
hide anything Tuesday at the E Center. That was some wild disco party they
threw, replete with drum machines and mirror balls, the likes of which
have not been seen or heard around this area in a long while.
The strutting Darren Hayes is a perfect frontman
for such an audacious musical endeavor. The small crowd -- an odd mix of
tank-topped teens and hand-holding couples -- will be able to talk for
years about how they witnessed his debut. With his bulging muscles and
winsome vocals, Hayes had the fans squealing from the moment he took the
stage, no matter what direction he turned.
Of course, the story behind Savage Garden is not
anything we haven't heard before. A songwriter (Daniel Jones), with a knack
for creating syncopated rhythms on the keyboard, runs an ad in the newspaper
that gets answered by a flamboyant singer (Hayes). It's the essence of
Erasure, the second coming of Wham! and, after a decade of doom and distortion,
their sound is remarkably fresh.
Their MO is simple: Hayes strikes a pose, Jones sets
the sequencer and the audience can't help but follow the contagious beats.
Joining them onstage Tuesday were a drummer, two guitarists and two female
dancers/backup singers.
The group led off with the dance-inducing ``Tears
of Pearls'' and went right into its current U.S. radio release ``To the
Moon and Back.'' Because Savage Garden has been popular in Europe for some
time, its set list is longer and more varied than expected.
Some of the more clever moments were the beat-laden
takes on Joan Osbourne's ``One of Us'' and the snippet of Nirvana's grunge
anthem ``Smells Like Teen Spirit'' that the band inserted into its own
``Shake Me, Break Me.'' Best of all, they resisted the temptation to turn
``I Want You,'' their ``chica-cherry-cola'' tongue-twister hit, into a
20-minute finale. The five-minute piece was just enough to keep the crowd
interested in an encore of their other big hit ``Truly, Madly, Deeply.''
No, it wasn't the most original evening of entertainment,
but it was fun. The opening act, piano-playing Chantal Kreviazuk, came
off as a Tori Amos wannabe, but with a welcome sense of humor. Her music
is known to fans of teen television drama ``Dawson's Creek.'' She recently
did a rendition of ``Leaving on a Jet Plane'' for the ``Armageddon'' soundtrack,
which she turned into a crowd sing-along at the end of her set.
Click here to return to Crystal
Minds and Magenta Feelings