Toms Toms & Furs

Dr Desert Flower and our friends Tory & Alan went to see The Tom Tom Club and the Psychedelic Furs on September 16th at Talking Stick Resort (aka Terrible Smoke Remorse, TSR).  $50 seats, about 50 feet from the stage, the venue held all of 300 people maybe.  There was no-smoking in the ballroom (which was a relief!) and attentive table service for ordering drinks.  We got to our seats just as the Tom Tom Club began to play. 

After 30 years of playing together, Tom Tom Club is looking a little bit weathered, I have to say in all honesty.  Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz are both in their 60s.  They sounded fine - though their percussion/keyboardist was over-mic'ed, and their wiki-wiki "turn table-ist" I thought was completely unnecessary / superfluous (but it's a good way to keep track of your son, I guess).  The biggest applause lines and inspired audience enthusiasm was when they played Talking Heads songs:  Life During Wartime, and Psycho Killers and Al green's Take Me To The River - so that had a bit of ironic sadness to it.  Chris Frantz is a solid, basic drummer, keeping a beat on his set with nothing flashy. Both Tina and their female lead singer lady (whose name is not listed on their website) are in great shape - especially for being in their 60s.  I was designated driver, so my recollection is completely lucid =)

Our seats were adjacent to a pair of couples who were about our age but who were native Phoenicians.  The blond woman among them had ALOT to drink, and was asking DDF and I during intermission "What High School did you go to?" and "did we hang out at the same bars in the 80s?"  When DDF told her I was from Chicago, drunk blond lady said "I'm done talking to you!", turned up her nose, and left us alone - LOL!  Later, when DDF needed to squeeze by the aisle for a bathroom break, drunk blond Phoenician woman would not stop dancing with my wife, most hilariously.

When the Psychedelic Furs came on stage, they rocked the ballroom.  Richard Butler is the consummate showman.  His voice is impressively the same as it was in 1977. He's incredibly animated on-stage and audience interactive.  Mars Wilson's saxophone work was wicked, superb, dynamic, inspiring.  Mars DOES eerily look like the villain in Fargo, Peter Stormare (though with more hair!).  Bass player Tim Butler resembled Vincent D'Onofrio's "Edgar the bug" in M.I.B. (unfortunately for him).  But these distracting appearances did not diminish the excellent performance.  The Furs played a great concert, very enjoyable - sadly only one encore, but it was after 11pm.

On a strange note, one of the native Phoenicians in the foursome near us was one of those concert goers who ONLY like the B-side songs, and ANYTHING popular he sat down, arms crossed, pouting in his Bryan Ferry T-shirt.  His disdain for anything that was easily recognizable juxtaposed with his Exuberant Thrashing Enthusiasm for the more eclectic less known songs began to become comical the longer the concert went on.  Yeah man, no one is as hard core of a fan as anti-popular-man!  LOL!  Good times!