Savage Garden Concert Reviews
July 29, 1998: Tampa, Florida: Tampa Bay Performing
Arts Center
Fan Review err... rather a peek into Mary's
obsessive psyche
By the one and only Mary Boiter, hormonal groupie
extraordinaire
Okay, if you don't know me (I know 20 people are
going to slap this on their websites man) (Uh yeah I did Mary,
and? What are you gonna do about it? heehee), my name is Mary Boiter.
I am obsessed with Savage Garden and I think Darren Hayes is the REAL God
of all gods. This is my personal concert
experience from July 29th 1998 at the Tampa Bay Performing
Arts Center. The people and happenings in
this story are real, and the names haven’t been changed
to protect the innocent, so bear with me on this
one. Anyway, here's the juicy stuff...
Well, before I went to the show we ate at Checkers...whoopee!
Who cares? Anyway, we drove into the
almighty parking garage and hauled ass to the doors...the
fist thing I saw was a sign that said "no cameras
or recorded devices allowed"...bwahahahaha. You didn't
think I would let them do that to me did
you? All I had to do was hide the damn thing in my
purse under the Burdine's receipt (anyway, I never
did take any pictures...what was my problem?!).
I walked in (duh) and practically knocked down the
security guards making way to the merchandise
table! Yeah! Then I gave up a nice $25 to get the
dark blue shirt with my Dazzy on the front, and the dates on the back.
After that we hauled ass into the concert hall. "Nice place" I thought,
making sure to glance back and be amazed at how good it can be sitting
in row 14.Then we sat and waited and discussed how we might prevent ourselves
from going deaf...then later I decided..."Screw it man, SG can run me over
with their damn tour bus if they want, what should hearing loss matter?"
FINALLY, it got dark...nice lights zooming all over
the place...and ta-da! Billie Myers!! Ta-da!! Another 45 farking minutes
to wait for Savage Garden to come on. Billie Myers did two slightly enjoyable
numbers and the rest were blahblahblah. And personally, I really couldn't
stand the strange pants she was wearing. When she left the lights came
back on and Ta-da!! Another 15 minutes of waiting. What does a girl have
to do to see her obsessions for crying out loud!?
Okay...after what seems like ten thousand years in
an Arabian lamp, the lights went out and there was some funky music to
rev it up and we stood there doing nothing for like 3 minutes looking at
these colored lights until Ta-da!! It's about time people!! Darren was
standing on a pedestal bursting into "Tears of Pearls". I thought "This
sounds weird, this sounds different, this is really loud, and I'm loving
every minute of it". I sat holding back the excitement, quietly mesmerized
in my seat, staring right into Darren's eyes for what seemed liked the
first half of the show. I was quite impressed when Darren stood atop his
pedestal flexing his biceps. "Not bad" I thought. Who I am kidding, my
adolescent hormones have never been so excited!! When he was doing "Tears
of Pearls" he merged it into "Love Can Move You". Also quite refreshing!
Anyways, after that was "To the Moon and Back". One
of Mom's favorites!! I had to wake her up for it!! (I'm serious, she was
falling asleep. When she's tired....SHE'S TIRED")It rocked as usual. Off
to a duet, "I can't make you love me" starring Darren and...crap I never
remember which backup is which...I'll assume it was Anna and get on with
it. Sorry man, but this was blah. NEXT SONG!!
Promises...Ooh...this one was cute, halfway through
Darren started singing "sugarpie honeybunch, sugarpie honeybunch" by some
old band...I'm to tired to remember...all I can think of is the Temptations.
I don't even remember the song name. Anyway, what else could one do at
that point but erupt with laughter. I laughed.
Next up was Santa Monica, which our buddy Daniel
introduced. I was happy that Darren performed this song and made it sound
like it did on the album (hey man, I need one to sound familiar).
Anyway, After Santa Monica was "Carry on Dancing".
It took me awhile to figure out which song this was because the audience
was a bit, shall we say "LOUD" once it started. This one rocked!! It had
to be one of the best I saw live that night. VERY COOL LIGHTING might I
add. There was a particular lighting effect that I loved near the end,
but I couldn't begin to explain it.
Next up! "Mine" My fave man!! Awesome! So anyway,
they did this cool thing with the lights so it was dark blue and Darren
was sort of highlighted red. This guy wants attention obviously. ANYWAY,
the song turned out a success as usual.
Okay next up! "Break Me Shake Me". This was my other
favorite performed that night. This song is too kool when performed live
and it shows. The noise makes you deaf and the lighting leaves you in epileptic
shock. Awesome. Like Billie Myers did once in her
opening act, Darren temporarily burst into a Dazzy version of Nirvana's
"Smells Like Teen Spirit". Very cute man. I particularly enjoyed watching
Ben and Daniel in a showdown of the guitar at the end, jumping around like
typical rock and roll maniacs finally taking their chance to dominate the
stage. After this was a short 3-minute break for costume change...
You guessed it baybee. "All Around Me"...This was
awesome! Good costumes, good performance, good disco balls, it all tied
in with the song man. I loved how the girls were all over him (this is
a rare occurrence man...in reality I'd be VERY jealous), he looked so "All
that" during the whole song, grabbing his crotch and enjoying it a bit
too much for my comfort....and of course shaking his ass was a typical
occurrence during that song. And to make it funnier...Darren burst into
"Spice Up Your Life" quite a few times! I had to stand for this one cuz
man, oh man...Everyone loved it...hahahah. Great stuff you got there on
stage.
Next was "I'll Bet He Was Cool" in which Darren ranted
on about how cool he thinks Jesus would be. My response to this song "What
Would Jesus Do"? haha, I really liked how Daz pranced around with his little
chair the whole time. Such a simple thing can make an interesting prop.
Who knew?
Last but certainly not least was "I Want You". It
started out with Daz screaming "chica cherry cola" and of course rang a
bell with the audience immeadiately. What can I say about this song? I
say "Darren is
way into this cherry cola bit". He had the audience
saying it for him, and he said it about 8thousand times too many. Does
anyone think he likes cherry cola? They finished up and bowed.
YOU DIDNT THINK IT WOULD END LIKE THAT DID YOU? You
know they purposely left the lights out while everyone screamed for an
encore? Daz and friends came back out and sang...Yipe..."This Side of Me"....Yay!!
I love that song. He didn't think I'd let him leave Tampa without singing
it to me did he?
Well, you know how they planned it...of course they
said they were going to leave, but not without singing a certain song first!
That's right! "Truly Madly Deeply" man!! When it ended, Daz thanked us
and said goodnight...and the lights popped on immeadiately. (Guess they
didnt plan a second encore).
Well, that was my night people. Hope you're satisfied
with that. My head is still throbbing and my ears are still ringing and
I figured concert reviews should be written soon after experienced...even
though I stayed up until 5am writing this. My one complaint is that they
did not perform "Violet" or "A Thousand Words". The answer "next year".
One word to sum up the whole concert? "Bitchin". Peace to all, rock on
my Savage friends!! Can't wait till the next concert!! Love Always~ Mary
Boiter (aka-Batfink OR Riven)
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