{"id":288,"date":"2008-08-07T10:40:36","date_gmt":"2008-08-07T14:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/?p=288"},"modified":"2008-08-13T13:57:45","modified_gmt":"2008-08-13T17:57:45","slug":"george-michael-generous-joy-guest-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/2008\/george-michael-generous-joy-guest-post\/","title":{"rendered":"George (Michael) + Generous = Joy (guest post)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s guest blogger and guest photographer <\/a>is the lovely and talented Cheryl Nichols. <\/em><\/p>\n

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Review , George Michael, Verizon Center, 7\/29\/08, by Cheryl Nichols<\/strong><\/div>\n
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I saw George Michael on Tuesday night at the Verizon Center in Washington DC.\u00a0 He had as much, if not more, energy that night as he did when I saw him 20 years ago!\u00a0 I saw GM my freshman year of college at the Tacoma Dome in the 2nd row on the side of the stage.\u00a0 For fun I pulled out my scrapbook\u00a0to dig out my ticket stub.\u00a0 I saw GM on 9\/23\/1988 in the 2nd row for $20!!!!!\u00a0 This time the Ticketmaster “Unservice” charges were more than my ticket 20 years ago.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The show was fantastic.\u00a0 I bought a single ticket (couldn’t convince Dave to join me) on craigslist at face value and couldn’t have been happier with my seat.\u00a0 I was EYE LEVEL with George! <\/span><\/p>\n<\/address>\n
\""I<\/a>

Hi Cheryl of the 2nd row, Tacoma Dome, 1988!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"\"\"I could have been on the floor, but am very happy with my decision with the 5th row on the side of the stage.\u00a0 GM was constantly coming over to my side of the stage.\u00a0 He was about 25 ft away from me at times.\u00a0 Incredible. <\/span><\/p>\n

He looked fabulous and sounded great.\u00a0 GM’s voice was definitely in good form, although he eschewed the high notes, letting the eager audience (attempt to) hit them instead. <\/span><\/p>\n

And he can still SHAKE THOSE HIPS!\u00a0 He was a dancing machine!\u00a0 He didn’t stop moving on the fast songs and sat down in a chair on a couple of the slow songs. <\/span><\/p>\n

The stage and lights were incredible and\u00a0it was like we were in a dance club.\u00a0By the end of the night, I felt like I had been to aerobics.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Everyone was dancing and had a great time.<\/span><\/p>\n

George started to sing a largely unrecognizable and slow “I’m Your Man \u201896” which was a little disappointing because I<\/span> love that song.\u00a0 And just as some of the crowd was ready to sit down, GM uttered “I’m not that cruel” before a proper rendition was delivered finding an audience who embraced it with near hysteria (including me!).<\/span><\/p>\n

GM did a few cover songs.\u00a0 Roberta Flack’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” replaced “A Different Corner” in the normal set list which was a bummer for me because I love “A Different Corner”.\u00a0 Then he did a sensational, sultry cover of\u00a0“Feeling Good” done Nina Simone’s way.\u00a0 It was AWESEOME. <\/span><\/p>\n

GM had slinky, sexy footage of burlesque dancers on the video screen and after the song he said, “I bet only 10% of you were watching me at the end of that song.”\u00a0 He also added that he put up those pictures for the straight boys who were dragged to the show which got big laughs. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 And then he went right into a cover of the Police’s “Roxanne (from his 1999 album “Songs from the Last Century”) in a setting it in a semi-jazz arrangement.\u00a0 He showed his video that he shot in the red light district too (same one released several years ago).<\/span><\/p>\n

The stage design was both visually impressive and nicely unobtrusive, providing just enough effects to keep things interesting but never distracting our attention away from the star. There were three video screens, including one that sloped from ceiling to the floor under GM’s feet, and the nine-piece band was located on a three-tier set-up at the back of the stage.\u00a0 The six back-up singers were amazing and you could tell that they were having a ball.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a special night for GM too.\u00a0 He announced that the DC show was his 100th show of the tour!\u00a0 The tour started 2 years ago and ended\u00a0yesterd<\/span>ay (8\/3) in Florida.\u00a0 His childhood babysitter “Auntie Josephine” was in the audience so he took a minute to spotlight her and showed a picture of a young GM, his sister and Aunt Josephine, who was sporting a beehive hairdo.\u00a0 GM said, “Just when you thought Amy Winehouse was an original!”\u00a0 George also offered a sincere thank you to “those of you who have stood behind me for 25 years.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Right before the\u00a020 minute intermission, GM explained that they were going to take a break and\u00a0that\u00a0said with a grin, “There\u00a0is much to come and it would be well worth the wait.\u00a0 That’s not the first time I\u00a0have said that.” <\/span><\/p>\n

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They even put a countdown up on the big-screen, so people knew how much time they had to get back in their seats.\u00a0 That was a nice thing; however,\u00a0there was NO LINE\u00a0for the women’s bathroom during the intermission!\u00a0 That never happens.\u00a0 The audience might have been 65<\/span>\/35 men to women ratio which is very different from when I saw him 20 years ago when it was mostly young women in their teens and twenties. <\/span><\/p>\n

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During the last couple of minutes of the twenty-minute intermission,\u00a0they showed a video of “John and Elvis Are Dead” from his 2004 album Patience.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The second half got started with “Faith” and after a bit of a slow down, it revved back up and didn’t stop. “Outside”\u00a0brought the second set to a close where a good humored GM went so far as to slip into a police uniform for the song that addressed his long-ago arrest for an outdoor sexual peccadillo. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Overall, by George, it was a fan-effing-tastic show.\u00a0 He did most of his solo and Wham! hits, except for “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” “Monkey”, “I Want Your Sex” and \u201cPraying for Time\u201d (which he did for some shows). <\/span>I would have LOVED to hear more from \u201cListen Without Prejudice like \u201cCowboys and Angels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here are my pictures – <\/span>More of Cheryl’s Amazing Photos!!<\/a> — <\/span>I was able to smuggle my camera inside.\u00a0 I couldn’t use a flash so some of the pictures are blurry because the man did not stop moving!\u00a0 I kept some of the blurry ones so you could see how close he was to me!!!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42
\n
\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Washington Post’s Review<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

SET LIST – Verizon Center, 07\/29\/2008:<\/span><\/p>\n

First Half
\nWaiting (Reprise)
\nFast Love\/I\u2019m Your Man
\nFather Figure
\nHard Day
\nEverything She Wants
\nOne More Try
\nFirst Time Ever I Saw Your Face
\nEasier Affair
\nToo Funky
\nStar People<\/p>\n

Interval
\nJohn & Elvis video<\/span><\/p>\n

Second Half
\nFaith
\nSpinning The Wheel
\nFeeling Good
\nRoxanne
\nKissing A Fool
\nAmazing
\nFlawless
\nOutside <\/span><\/p>\n

Encore 1
\nCareless Whisper <\/span><\/p>\n

Encore 2
\nFreedom 90
\nFreedom Reprise <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s guest blogger and guest photographer is the lovely and talented Cheryl Nichols. Review , George Michael, Verizon Center, 7\/29\/08, by Cheryl Nichols I saw George Michael on Tuesday night at the Verizon Center in Washington DC.\u00a0 He had as much, if not more, energy that night as he did when I saw him 20 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[766],"tags":[834,838,837,831,836,839,233,239,830,381,643,833,832,44,43,835],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wash","tag-80s","tag-80s-pop","tag-careless-whisper","tag-concert","tag-dc-concert","tag-everything-she-wants","tag-flashback","tag-freedom","tag-george-michael","tag-music","tag-poetry-writing","tag-pop","tag-verizon-center","tag-washington-dc","tag-washington","tag-wham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293,"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washwords.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}