Dallas last night Tina was HOT!!!!!!!!!! The sold out crowd was on their feet the whole concert, it was AWESOME. Tina was in PRIME form. She came out, give it to me mmaawwhh, mmaawwhh, mmaawwhh. She played and interacted with the crowd off and on the whole show. Tina was so happy and you could tell that she was having the time of her life and enjoying every minute of it.
She was and is just undescribable, just unbelievable. Her voice is so strong and powerful. She "ROCKED" the house with Addicted To Love, Simple The Best, Proud Mary. Help and Let's Stay Together was off the chain. During Nutbush she said "everybody over here, everybody up there and everybody DOWN HERE, say it, say Nutbush say it one mo time". I am still on a" Tina "high from this show. I don't know how she does it but she just gets better and better. She is "Simply The Best" THE QUEEN OF ROCK'N ROLL.
Great to see all the other fans there.
All The Best
Karen


Dallas was off the chain. The packed house never set down...The whole concert was a standing ovation. People were just AMAZED at Tina. She has never rocked the house like this. I am just blown away again. It was fun to see her play with the audience on What's Love again. And stood in the middle of that 'arm' and joked with the audience, while everyone was gasping. Guy's I am telling you her voice was beyond fabulous. She danced like nobody was watching. At one point during Typical Male she tossed that lion mane head of hers around in a whirl of circles while shaking that body and the crowd flipped out. Man, Help was better than I had ever heard it in 20 years, really. I can't imagine this tour not ending up on DVD, it is just to amazing. Long live the Queen.

Michael Anthamatten

LOS ANGELES CONCERT 10/13/2008

Pete’s (from Columbus) review is very accurate. I had floor seats for the first of 2 LA shows and have seen her many, many times. For me and all the fans, every Tina performance is INCREDIBLE and TRULY an AMAZING EXPERIENCE. This concert is no exception. Highlights for me were “Goldeneye” (the set piece is awesome!), the blues set that opens the 2nd act…my favorite rendition of “I Can’t Stand the Rain”, “Proud Mary” of course and “Nutbush”—No one knows how to reach out to the fans like Tina!!!!

Having said all that, I do have to agree with Pete on a lot of the points he raised. Keep in mind as you read this that I VERY MUCH REALIZE that this was only the 7th performance and that it does take time to find a rhythm and work out the kinks. First off, I would have to say that I’m not really sure what to make of the Ninjas except for the fact that they offer a distraction while she changes costumes. However, in past shows she has never had to use this particular distraction and I would hope that the Ninjas play better and translate better in the larger European arenas than in the small U.S. venues. But, to be fair, I think Tina’s team wants to stay current and keep up with the trends on the road and using acrobatic/dance crew troupes has become something of the norm in a lot of the large-scale productions/tours.

Secondly, having a technical production background in live events myself, there is one rule: You only get to make the mistake once. I am certain that the curtain not closing will never happen again. I was surprised that there was no Plan B (stage managers and production managers are trained to always plan for the worst.) There could have been an “emergency black drop” that flew in or a set of escape stairs off of the back of the platform so that she could have at least gotten down without doing it in front of the entire crowd with the house lights up. Although she is a PRO and did it with grace, I am sure it was a little embarrassing.

Both Los Angeles reviews and Pete’s review touched on the “Thunder Dome” wig. It really is odd looking and I would be VERY surprised if this wig is not cut from subsequent shows. In fact, I hope it is. I would imagine if you were really far away…say in a large Arena, it might play OK but if you are close, it looks strange and unnecessary.

To end on an up note, Tina is 68 going on 45!!!!! She looks amazing!!!!!! Her energy was right where it should be. Her powerful and raw vocals are at 100%. Although Ann Powers from the LA Times said that she went off-key a few times in one song (I believe it was “What’s Love…”)…..my response to Ann will be: “Did it ever occur to you that sound mixing problems can cause a performer to not hear what they need to in order to be on pitch? There is A LOT happening on stage at a rock concert….having pitch problems in one song is hardly something to be noted. You might want to pay more attention to the technical mishaps instead of blaming a performer.”

Sorry, but Los Angeles critics bug me especially when they don’t list all the facts.

Turns out I was lucky enough to get tickets to tonight’s last Los Angeles show. I think I am even more excited the second time around!!!! And this time, I’m going to try and get my camera in.

Tina is awe-inspiring and is THE QUEEN OF ROCK AND ROLL and A TRUE ICONIC LEGEND now and always!!!!!!

Have fun everyone and keep rockin’ on!!!!! I look forward to reading everyone’s blogs about the tour!

Sheree – Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles
First off - some highlights. It was wonderful to finally meet Lars, Sid, and Marco who were all sitting together and also Donovan. There was another lady there who was in the fan club but not on our list that was VERY GROUCHY. She was livid that she was on row 10 instead of row 2. I felt bad for her because she was so angry I thought there was a good chance she wasn't going to enjoy the show (if you can even imagine that.....)
I also saw Toni Basil. She walked right past me as I was on the aisle in Floor 3. You can tell it's her because she looks similar to the pics in the program but she'll also be wearing some kind of crazy hat.
Now about the show: First off..........let me say that while I loved it and sang aloud to all the songs you should know this is not the 24/7 tour. That tour truly was a retrospective of an entire career that had ascended into the heavens. This is alot more like "The best of Tina live." She does her hits but nothing extra and the show has a different feel to it. First off there are many songs that the dancers aren't really around Tina very much but just doing their own thing. There are no extended versions of songs (Be Good To Me and Private Dancer are basically the album version) and Tina seems to run through them fairly quickly without a lot of visiting with the crowd etc.
NOT THAT I'M COMPLAINING, though........The highlights: Steamy Windows was fantastic although the sound was lousy during part of the show. Tina looks absolutely beautiful in all of her costumes.
Typical Male and WYGIWYS were fun and I had forgotten how much I liked them until she sang them live. Acid Queen was great and she wore a stunning long red cover up that looked like its own dress until she took it off and had that sexy little glittery red number on underneath it. Now let's talk about We Don't Need Another Hero: First off - the costume. The people that were a little critical of the wig are right. It looks ridiculous. The dress is fantastic and looks just like the movie. When people were talking about the wig I assumed that she ducked back stage, took off her regular wig and put the Mad Max one on. Nope - this is actually a wig ON TOP OF a wig. And it is very obvious. It's also platinum blond and sort of looks like a Halloween costume from the drug store. Nevertheless, however, she sang the hell out of that song and everyone loved it. Now the ending that you've heard about..........

The band was wrapping up the song and Tina was up on a high lift with the Mad Max guy. All of the sudden you see the curtains start to circle closed and then stop. You could tell there were people on the inside of the curtains pulling and yanking for all they were worth trying to get those things to close! It was hilarious. The band ended the song. The stage went dark and all the lights in the arena went up! And there was Tina just standing there with the Mad Max guy waiting to see what would happen. They finally just lowered her down in front of everyone (the crowd was going wild) and when she finally got down (since everyone was watching anyway) - she did a little bow and people cheered. Then she walked off the stage. I wonder if someone in the back heard about it!
For Goldeneye they pulled out the old "Golden Eye" from the WD tour. It was weird to see it up close. Everyone seemed to really enjoy I can't stand the rain.Probably the highlight for me was the Rolling Stones Medley of Jumpin' Jack Flash and It's Only Rock N Roll. Oh my god she just sang the hell out of those songs and the lights were going crazy, the dancers were jumping around and the crowd just erupted! There were videos of her singing with Mick at Live Aid and of course the whole ripping off the dress thing.
I tell you - I didn't want it to end. I was singing at the top of my lungs. She wrapped the show up with the usual: The Best, Addicted To Love, Proud Mary, and Nutbush with Be Tended as the finale. I think she's finally starting to slow down just a tiny bit (So she's now acting like she's about 45!) She kind of ran through these songs pretty quickly without talking to the audience and it's the regular choreography. People started leaving early which I totally couldn't believe. One couple that was sitting directly in front of me on the floor left AFTER INTERMISSION! And they seemed to be having a good time, too. I can't imagine that. There was an older lady next to them that could tell how much I was loving the show and a few times she offered me her binoculars.
Other tidbits: CAMERAS - they were totally allowed at the Staples Center.
My brother and I both brought our digital cameras and as we were walking in there were signs about what types of cameras WEREN'T allowed (lenses more than 3", tripod, etc.) As we walked through the metal detector I took my cellphone out and put it in the box and walked through. Of course the thing went off and they weren't paying a lick of attention. My brother put his digital camera in the plastic container and walked through and they gave it back to him without a problem. During the show the ushers were pacing back and forth from the stage to the back of the floor and then back again. It was really annoying and distracting but they never said a word about pictures.
My feeling is that if you had a small video camera that sort of looked like a regular camera and you weren't right there on the edge you could have brought it in no problem! Donovan was on the screen for about 3-4 seconds all by himself during the first part. I didn't see any celebs there that night but I did hear that opening night Oprah, Whoopi Goldberg and Michelle Obama all showed up.Programs are $30 and shirts are $35-40. There are a limited number of "commemorative posters" that are wrapped in light plastic with a cardboard backing that are $75. I agreed with some of the others that they were a total rip off.
However - people were buying them and very pleased with their purchase. She did the singalong to What's Love although it was brief. My feeling is that probably as the tour continues and she gets more comfortable with it that she'll maybe talk a little more and extend it a little bit.The Ninjas were just a little bit violent. I wasn't in any way offended or anything like that but it was kind of strange and awkward. She introduced the dancers as her "flowers" and Claire is now called "Dance Captain." Ivona wasn't there but there are two new dancers along with Claire and Solange.
Tina does alot less dancing this tour than in past tours.I kind of doubt there will be a DVD of this show. It really just does feel like "An evening with Tina Turner" where she just pulled together the best pieces of her previous tours as a gift to the fans.Finally: There is absolutely nothing that comes close to TINA LIVE. I know there were a few slightly negative things in here but let me reiterate - I had a wonderful time and Tina's voice is absolutely at 100% and she looks amazing in those beautiful costumes. I think the costumes are probably better than any other tour (with the possible exception of that sexy thing she opened the 24/7 tour in before she changed the top to a higher cut one!) I absolutely cannot wait until Detroit. I'm curious to hear other people's thoughts that were there........
Pete in Columbus, Ohio

I am new to this site and now I am going thru the 200+ messages.I was at the Chicago show on the 3rd.I was in Row 14 on the floor center stage. It was my first concert ever to see Tina and sadly my last. It was a night that I will never forget. I live in Ohio so the drive to Chicago was only 5hrs not too bad. I was almost late getting to the venue because my stupid GPS thing in my car went crazy when we were near the L train tracks.
I honestly have no idea how I found the venue but we made it.It was awesome seeing Tom Cruise, Oprah and Stedman. My niece saw Jesse Jackson and she got a picture but it is really dark and now it is grainy when I cleaned it up. My anticipation for this concert was incredible.When the show started I had goosebumps so bad. I have some amazing photos and once I figure out how to post them I will.
The arena was definitely rocking throughout the whole show. I still get chills thinking about it. Tina looked amazing and her dancers and band are awesome. Both of her backup singers blew the roof off when they got to take over singing for Tina. I did buy a program and Tina looks her best ever. When she came out and sang Nutbush City Limits and was on the lift and it came out over the audience. I was flipping out. When the lift swiveled over the center she was RIGHT ABOVE ME!! It was freaking awesome.
When she came back to the center she was above us again. I think I blew a vocal cord because I was screaming so loud.I haven't hit that note in years, lol. One point Tina looked over the rail of the lift and looked down and she made eye contact and just smiled. I have an awesome picture of it. When they were taking the lift back to the stage she was standing on the right side of it and we were all pointing and yelling and she pointed back and smiled. Needless to say I didn't get a picture of it but it was an awesome moment. It was truly a night I will never ever forget. I wish I could go to more but Chicago was an expensive trip but the memories will last forever...Jennifer