Morale and the Big Steppers,” than American audiences seemed to. The Paris crowd responded much more powerfully to the songs from Lamar’s challenging latest album, “Mr. People had been saying all day before Kendrick Lamar’s second sold-out show at Paris’ Accor Arena that the crowd’s reaction on the first night made his summer concerts in Brooklyn, Las Vegas and even the four-night, North American tour-closing stand in his hometown of Los Angeles seem tame. Kendrick Lamar at Paris’ Accor Arena (10/22/22).So how do we get him to turn this into a months-long residency that most fans who want to could see? Because every day he should write this book. If prompters were involved, it sure seemed like Bono was mostly doing without them as he mixed and matched verbatim passages from the book - with a very few additional asides, such as: “Like everyone who arrives in Hollywood, I have a screenplay I’d like you to look at… based on my book that I wrote me-self.” (“My book that I wrote me-self” was a recurring refrain, lest anyone imagine there was a ghostwriter in his machine.) There was music, too, from a trio of musicians that would help out with a snippet of “With or Without You” or “I Will Follow” or two full-length renderings of “City of Blinding Lights.” Mostly, though, there was glorious talk - from the seeds of creation in U2’s origin story to the recurrences of death in the passings of a mother and father and (nearly, in the recounted heart operation that is the show’s opening monologue) Bono himself. As physical as he is during a U2 tour, that’s how physical he was in this extended “reading,” from leaping onto a table for dramatic effect to moving back and forth between chairs as he reenacted testy and moving conversations with his father in a pub. Perhaps he’d stand at a podium and crack open his new memoir, “Surrender,” taking a few audience questions for an encore? It was far from anything like that - this was “Bruce Springsteen on Broadway” meets an acrobat’s act, figuratively and almost literally. We thought we’d signed up for a “book tour,” those of us who were fortunate to get tickets to the U2 frontman’s short run of shows in mid-size theaters. All that and glitz, too… however were we so lucky? (Read Variety‘s review of Elton’s opening night here and coverage of the finale here.) - Willman But no one coming the previous two nights felt cheated - of star power, still-vital vocals, or magic fingers that still split the difference between classical training and boogie-woogie like no other player in history. On the globally webcast night 3, Brandi Carlile, Dua Lipa and Kiki Dee joined him for delectable guest turns. Each time you see him, meanwhile, there’s the shock of rediscovering what a rollicking rock ‘n’ roll pianist he is. This was a slightly misty, mostly joyful wave bye-bye to one of the great bands of the 20th and 21st centuries, along with one of the greatest singular entertainers. A touring loss that we maybe hadn’t considered as much is how we’ll miss his touring ensemble, with longtime mainstays like guitarist/MD Davey Johnston, percussionist Ray Cooper and drummer Nigel Olsson being stars in their own right. This was John in top vigorous form, sounding and feeling like he’s ready for the next 50-some years - leaving the touring scene still at the top of his performing game, exiting because he wants to, not because he has to. That encore look inevitably made him look like someone who might be ready to retire for the night, but there was nothing about the almost two-and-a-half hour performance that suggested a fellow about to actually retire, apart from the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” lettering atop the massive proscenium. In the end, he skipped anything like actual field wear in favor of something more befitting a knight than a ballplayer: a very fancy Dodgers robe. tour - not for what he would play, since his set lists have been pretty locked in place, but for what he would be wearing at the finale, since everyone assumed he would come up with a variation on the Dodger uniform he famously wore there back in 1975. There was some suspense going into the opening night of Elton John’s three-night stand at Dodger Stadium, the capping engagement to what was billed as his final U.S.
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