It was worth the waiting!The Hooters live? It hard to believe it since a couple of Hooters tours have been anounced in the last 3 or 4 years which simply did not happen. Let's remember: the last studio album came out in 1993, a live album in 1994 followed by the last tour in 1995. What happened to the boys since then? Well, one could not blame Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman of being lazy: there was Rob's project named "Largo", Eric released 2 solo albums and last but not least the 2 have worked a lot with different artists writing and producing songs such as "One of us" (Joan Osborne), "Ugly" (Jon Bon Jovi), "Hope I die before I get old" (Robbie Williams), "Private Emotion" (Ricky Martin) and, and, and...But this time the tour is for real: celebrating their 20th anniversary of releasing "Amore" and their 25th anniversary as a band the guys from Philadelphia decide to make an anniversary tour. Hard to believe for the American fans: only one short concert in their hometown followed by a tour with approx. 20 shows in Germany only. For one of the first shows the Hooters stopped in Bonn, the city where a great part of the live album has been recorded in 1994. Approximetely 4000-5000 (?) people joined the open air concert demonstrating that the Hooters still are known for being an excellent live band. But before the 5 entered the stage, one had to listen to "Yada", a band which looked like a mixture of guys coming from Heavy Metal and show bands with music you don't want to listen to. Forunately the second supporting artist, a female singer / song writer from New York City was much better before the Hooters entered the stage a couple of minutes after 8:00 pm. They started with "Blood from a stone" and "Hanging on a Heartbeat" from the debut album followed by "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" with Fran singing the lead vocals! Eric looked a little bit uninterested in the show for the first 30 minutes. Normally he is the one chatting with the audience but this time Rob was the one to communicate with the audience. Also Erics guitar solos were a little bit uninpsired. But after the crowd was dancing and singing right from the start as the last concert was 8 days ago instead of 8 years you could see his mood change and expressing it by telling the people that for him, Bonn is still the capital of Germany. And then everything was as it used to be 8 years ago: songs like "Johnny B" with the intro and the crowd singing along as you can hear it on the live album, "Deliver me" turning into "Private Emotion" and "Heimliche Sehnsucht" (the German version of "Private Emotion") and a very good version of "Day by Day" started a kind of "greatest hits" section of the show. After this a sort of "Grammy" section followed: songs written by the Hooters but which have been succesfully recorded by different artists and which have been nominated for Grammys: "Time after time" in a wonderful version with Rob, Fran and Eric sharing the lead vocals and with Eric's guitar as the only instrument followed by "One of us" whit Rob on the drums! Another highlight: "25 hours a day" which gave Eric the opportunity to play an extended solo with well known guitar riffs from the rock history leading the song into "Won't get fooled again" from the Who and back to "25 hours a day". Live performances like this are definitely the strength of the Hooters: a "normal" song will be converted into something new. And what about new songs? Rob mentioned the possibility of a forthcoming new Hooters album during the show and Eric told me after the show that there will be a new Hooters album, because "the chemistry is back". But keep in mind that the Hooters introduced "One of us" during the 1995 tour as a song from the next Hooters album which never has been released (see also the concert review from the Stuttgart show in 1995). And one of the 2 new songs was basically "Until you dare" from Eric's "The Optimist" album... Anyway, with Cat Stevens "Peace Train" the Hooters ended the show leaving happy Hooters fans thinking: "Hey, 8 years since the last tour? It was worth the waiting" Some interesting links: Hooters Homepage: www.thehooters.net Rob's Homepage: www.robhyman.com Eric's Homepage: www.ericbazilian.com  ©
06/2003 by Hans-Georg Krumm |