Originally Posted by David
I loved hearing Stevie sing on her first three tours, her 1994 tour, and maybe a little of her 1998 tour. But only her first tour was really a stretch for her conceptually. For the first time ever, she and her band had to figure out a way to present her for a complete show, and they were creative and successful. They built a strong set featuring nearly all of her new album, some key Mac hits, a movie soundtrack song, a first-time-ever cover, and even an unreleased song. They created a sort of narrative arc, too—we take certain things for granted nowadays like the use of Edge of Seventeen as a set closer and Rhiannon as an encore, but that practice had to be imagined for the first time in 1981. The Mac songs were many of them inventively treated musically, like Angel and Rhiannon and Gold Dust Woman—the Mac versions were obviously not used as blueprints.
But the 1983 tour (which I loved for its amazing drugged-up passion and conviction and sense of liberation) was, structurally, a note-for-note repeat of the 1981 tour. It was at that point that Lindsey's criticism of the lounge act was made and it was accurate. Bad news after that, too: virtually every tour afterward was more or less a repeat of the 1981 creation—with a couple of new songs tossed in to indicate that, yes, we are promoting the newest album.
This last tour with Chrissie Hynde was remarkable for its differences from the old formula. Stevie went out on a limb again and tried to create a new show. Props to her (at least from me). Unfortunately, by that time, she had singing problems.
I can't think of many elements of all her tours that were really new or that really tried to present her from a different angle. Even her toying with the orchestra in Melbourne was unsurprising—lots of acts had done that by that time.
Those of you who have heard all the old audience recordings of old shows probably remember hearing Stevie make onstage jokes and comments about "just me and a piano." Imagine her ever actually having the guts to do that. Well, Lindsey did that, right? Not even a piano, just him and his guitar. There isn't a chance in hell Stevie would ever be that bold and shake up her formula to that degree. From Lindsey's guitar army, with its intricately planned orchestrations and precision, to his solo guitar tour, Lindsey is no lounge act. She has been one for a long time, a very successful, beloved lounge act. That's what makes you a lounge act: the habit of repeating your old successes in the old frames of reference year after year—never trying to recreate yourself or the impressions you're making on the audience.
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