D2K Reviews Through Mid-America

Cher's Farewell Tour was the first tour where fans could actually access concert reviews from other cities online. As fans would post links to reviews in their cities on the old Yahoo Cher freaks list, I tried to copy out as many as I could but soon got overwhelmed. I have a box of concert reviews from that tour somewhere unread in my garage.

I'm trying to keep up this time. I think there's something to be gleaned from the change in the tone of Cher concert reviews over the years. It seems Cher has finally worn reviewers down into appreciating her big circus shows. Since this tour began, I've yet to read one fully bad review, zero snarky Cher comments and only a few critical comments can be found at all. This seems different than the Farewell Tour if my memory serves me.

Let's step through the early accolades and notable news since she left Texas.

Of the Little Rock, Arkansas, show, Jennifer Christman said: "Speaking of her mother, Cher mentioned the Arkansas roots of her mother Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch) who is a cousin to Arkansas First Lady Ginger Beebe. Cher also noted her great aunt was the first patient in Little Rock to undergo electric shock therapy."

Christman went on to say, "She might sing 'If I Could Turn Back Time' (and did, while strutting in a skimpy bodysuit nearly identical to the one in the 1989 video), but her figure reveals she already has found a way."

[It really irks me when they mistake the "Turn Back Time" concert outfit with the "Turn Back Time" video outfit. Am I the only one who is OCD over this?]

For the Tulsa, Oklahoma, show, Jerry Wofford said it was a "a wild, ornate and carefree show" and that she opened with a gasp: "…the curtain fell and on a pedestal, bathed in gold light with an enormous Vegas-style headdress was Cher, looking like the Goddess of Pop she is."

He said, "Cher’s humor between songs was incredible. She went from ripping on Dr Pepper to talking about her idea for a Perrier water commercial to the troubles of nail polish and toilet paper. She was carefree and irreverent and hilarious. He quoted her saying, 'I kind of make it up as I go along because that’s how Sonny and I used to do it.'"

About the song "Dressed to Kill" he said, "performed live, it was done incredibly well."

His only criticism: "There still were a few awkward issues to work out. Syncopation was off on a few songs."

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rachel Weaver said, "Perhaps the most endearing moment was when she sang alongside a video version of her late ex-husband Sonny Bono to 'I've Got You Babe,' a part of the show she admitted it took her some time to be able to do."

In Boston, Massachusetts, Chris Sosa (of the best-written review so far from The Huffington Post) said, "It's hard to really define a Cher show in the way one does a traditional pop concert. Sure, there's singing. Spectacle abounds. A great live band is present to bring decades of hits to life. But everything one sees is in tribute to something greater than the sum of these parts: Cher."

He continued, "Despite the intense effort that has to go into such involved showmanship, Cher keeps an amusing distance from the whole affair. It's the sort of devil-may-care persona only an entertainment legend can pull off without seeming glib."

Describing part of the show he said, "Then there was Cher, fending off a strapping 20-something while singing the tour's title track. Yes, she could be his grandmother, and he's probably gay. But damn it if Cher didn't infuse the situation with every ounce of sexual tension the number demanded."

He made a good defence of the Geffen-era hits: "During the megahits "I Found Someone" and "Heart of Stone," the multi-generational crowd seemed dangerously near spontaneous combustion from joy."

And concluded with, "Perhaps the absolute best use of such archival footage was her duet with Sonny Bono. She explained that after initially rejecting the idea, closing out her final (wink) tour with Sonny was an opportunity she couldn't pass up. In a visual effect that's been alternately described as disturbing and endearing, he stared right at Cher and sang 'I Got You Babe.' She sang it back with the sincerest expression of the evening. It was the first point of the evening where Cher the human emerged, a welcome guest given Pat Benatar had been blowing the roof off with husband Neil Giraldo just prior…watching a talented musical storyteller just emote from a place of sincerity is even more enjoyable."

[Amen]

James Reed, of The Boston Globe, said "She is in exceptional form, as a singer, entertainer, and tour guide through her 50 years in show business" and called the duet with Sonny, "sweet and not at all morbid."

In Toronto, Canada, Brad Wheeler said, "She razzled, she dazzled, she costumed-changed like a pro (which is what she is). She defied gravity, and convention. She was an audacious Helen of Troy one minute; a chatty Cherilyn Sarkisian of El Centro, Calif., the next. She twirled on a chandelier, as one does. She head-dressed. Sequins happened. She believed in life after love. She said that this really was a farewell, and was lovingly booed for the suggestion, though she winked and nodded when she said it. Not unflatteringly, she wore sheer costumes that would frighten women half her age. She sang 'If I Could Turn Back Time,' and basically pulled off that trick."

He described her early 1970s hits thusly: "'Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves,' followed by 'Dark Lady' and 'Half-Breed' – the “great swarthy trilogy,” in the words of rock critic Robert Christgau."

[Interesting. Will have to look that up. The great swarthy trilogy.]

Wheeler didn't like the angelic flyover, however. He thought it was "far too much symbolism."

Kyle Gustafson of The Washington Post said, "Cher appeared to be physically in pain at a few points in the show" and that she had a "hard time freeing herself from the safety mechanisms as she tried to exit the flying contraption. That made saying goodbye to her fans hard, logistically and emotionally."

For the Mohegan Sun review, Donnie Moorhouse liked the Cher singing on a stool part of the show: "It was Cher without all the pomp-and-circumstance, the true “concert” part of the performance. While it may not have been what her audience came to see, it was a reminder of the talent that lies underneath the bells and whistles (and wigs)." He said she didn't fly over in her saint-mobile for this show.

Links to full reviews:

• Little Rock press review
• Tulsa press review
• Nashville fan review
• Nashville fan review
• Pittsburgh press review
• Pittsburgh press review
• Washington, D.C. press review
• Mohegan Sun press review
• Toronto press review
• Toronto press review
• Boston press review
• Boston press review