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December 7, 2008
Tina Turner at the XL Center
There have been many comeback tours in recent years, but few have been as welcome as Tina Turner’s return to the stage. The woman is an icon and it is on stage where she is at her best.
Connecticut got its chance to see Turner Saturday night at the XL Center in Hartford and the sellout crowd of more than 16,000 got its money’s worth with two and a half hours of vintage tunes.
Turner laid out the night’s theme near the start of the concert, promising “a recap of my work from the past. I hope you’re going to like it.”
There wasn’t much not to like, even for the casual fans. Most of the classic songs were included, Turner’s band and backup singers were solid and there were a few elaborate dance numbers meant to amuse while Turner went off for a costume change.
Having just turned 69, Turner showed she still has the pipes and, amazingly enough, still has the energy to rock out. She often joined in with her quartet of young dancers, showing brief glimpses of the manic movements of her past stage shows.
And, yes, she still has the legs. How many 69-year-old women do you know that can get away with wearing miniskirts?
The concert was divided into two sets, separated by a 30-minute intermission. The crowd was screaming from the moment Turner took the stage, but it reached a fever pitch with “Better Be Good to Me,” which ended with explosions and fireworks, as the band segued into The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
This just killed time as Turner left the stage to change into a red mini dress and cape for her take on “Acid Queen,” which she did in the film version of The Who’s “Tommy.”
Turner led the crowd in a sing-along during “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” pitting the women against the outnumbered men. She seemed to be having some fun with the competition, chiding the men by saying, “We’ll give you a second chance . . . again.”
The opening set closed with “We Don’t Need Another Hero” from “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” complete with Turner in her full Auntie Entity get-up and a mini-Thunderdome for the dancers to play around in.
After intermission, the crowd was shown a short video of Turner’s career, with pictures of a young Anna Mae Bullock, clips of Ike & Tina Turner performances and several of her enduring video images.
On stage, Turner led her band through a four-song acoustic set, starting with The Beatles’ “Help,” which she took from a clever pop song to a mournful plea. Her take on “Let’s Stay Together” was a highlight.
Let’s see: Turner performed songs by The Who and The Beatles, did she forget something? Oh, yeah, Then Rolling Stones.
When the band went back to electric guitars, she did a medley featuring The Stones’ “Jumping Jack Flash” and “It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll,” with images of Turner with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and company filling the big screen behind her.
The one misfire was on “GoldenEye,” Turner’s theme song from that 1995 James Bond flick. There was a dance number leading up to the song, but the song itself isn’t that remarkable. She probably has a dozen songs that she omitted that would have been a better fit.
The same can be said for her cover of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love.” It was fine, but ultimately unnecessary.
The concert closed with “Proud Mary,” a standard in Turner’s repertoire, which received the loudest ovation of the evening.
The encore started off with the same energy with the high-energy “Nutbush City Limits,” before Turner ended her show with the power ballad “Be Tender With Me, Baby.”
The set list
First set: Steamy Windows/Typical Male/River Deep, Mountain High/What You Get Is What You See/Better Be Good to Me/Acid Queen/What’s Love Got to Do With It/Private Dancer/We Don’t Need Another Hero
Second set: Help/Undercover Agent for the Blues/Let’s Stay Together/I Can’t Stand the Rain/Jumping Jack Flash/It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll/GoldenEye/Addicted to Love/The Best/Proud Mary
Encore: Nutbush City Limits/Be Tender With Me, Baby
Posted by Sean on December 7, 2008 3:00 PM
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