Show & Venue Reviews, What's New, Pussycat?
Please share your Tom Jones shows with other fans. Setlist? Audience? Energy? What was it like being there? We’d love to hear from you.
And, while you’re telling us about the shows, please let us know what you think of the venues where Tom plays. Clubs, theaters, casinos — Tom Jones performs in all of them. Which venue do you think is the best? The worst?
So that other fans will know what’s in store when they buy their tickets, please tell us a little bit about the venues you know. If possible, try to use the format below so others can tell at a glance what you think. The best venue will merit ****. More than one review of a venue is welcome.
A Review From Buenos Aires En Español & A Rough Translation
Saturday, February 17th, 2007Sorry, but we couldn’t get this review from La Nacion in Agentina completely translated and we know this translation is a bit too literal, but we do not hablemos Español muy bueno, so this was the best we could do. We did see some errors (Green Green Grass was an Elvis hit? He did it but the hit was Jerry Lee’s and Tom’s age is wrong.) The photo is by Hernán Zenato and the caption used in the paper reflects this reviewer’s obsesion with Tom’s sweat.
The headline reads, “Tom Jones Was Faithful to His Myth.”
I
t goes on to say that the critic rated the show “bueno,” (good) and gave it three stars. Readers gave it four-and-one-half stars. In rough translation it says:
‘If Tom Jones were a footballer he would be applauded by his people each Sunday. In his long 65 years, the Welshman is a player of all the court who moves constantly in onstage, delivering each one of his classical movements and gestures and he perspires as few do.”
The writer then went on for 100 or so words about how Tom pespired and how he took off his jacket and still continued to perspire.
“Each song ended with a violent turn of arms, with the greeting of a world champion of boxing who knows that he has the public at his feet. From the working men’s bars in his native Wales to the shows in the hotels of the desert, this singer who conserves his voice in good form is still at the risk of falling into anachronisms. Through his long career, the man has worked in a good quantity of styles; even he wanted to change in the decade of the 90s. And the night before last he tried to show all his versatility, but if in the variety is the flavor, it also there inhabits the [flow of the show].
“Before a devout and adult public — that usually the producers do not keep in mind when they think about the Anglo-Saxon artists they bring here — Tom Jones knew about making an entrance. Scores of fans negotiated security personnel in the walkways of the orchestra and they approached edge of the fenced [area] taking [thousands of] photos. The darkness permitted some public figures to sing and to dance without embarrassment, as [did] the vice president Daniel Scioli and its wife, Karina Rabolini.
“We spoke of variety and that variety was responsible for some limp segments. Thus the things that Jones did that lit up (beginning with Raise Your Hand and, without pause, when he attacked Help Yourself) [meant he also] failed to touch with the standards, as Here’s That Rainy Day and Fly Me To The Moon. But the good thing is that Tom has as many classics as a magician has rabbits, [and he did them all.]
“Old and new classics”
“With mathematical precision, this [proponent of the big sound] delivered his most remembered interpretations and celebrated each of four songs, [producing the most sustained ovations of the night]. With Delilah [came the first undergarments of the] night and, immediately afterwards, in She s to Lady. Interior clothes? Yes, gentlemen. The same as our Sandro, Tom Jones lights up the women and they participate in the play, giving him their intimate tokens. As two ladies older than himself threw him their undergarments. On the other hand, a gentleman had another gift for the singer, a great flag of Wales.
“From End Of The Road and Howlin Wolf, to Treat Her Right [and Van Morrison] Jones reserved a place for the blues in the first section of the concert and for the ballads in the second part, as I ll Never Fall In Love Again and Green Green Grass Of Home, song immortalized by Elvis Presley.
“With a great band of eleven musicians [and backup singers], Jones only should be in charge of doing his show… and of trying not to fall in the puddle that his sweat produced. Of the scores of images that the show left with the public to comment on, there is an incredible one: Jones sang Here’s That Rainy Day, [and opened his arms and out of his sleeves came a lot of rain.]
“For the final segment, the singer chose to harvest his hits of the 21st century, like Sex Bomb, and his first commercial success, It’s Not Unusual, besides the themes that returned it to the 90s like the song of the Australian Body Rockers, I Like The Way (in electronic format, with the guitarist…And imitating all the tics of the DJ!) and their version of the Prince’s Kiss.*
The review does go on, but you get the idea. The crowd loved the show. That’s all that counts, inn’t it?
