If you would like your review in this section, just e-mail it to me!
Okay, if you don't know me (I know 20 people are going to slap this on
their websites man), my name is Mary Boiter.I am obsessed with Savage
Garden, and I think Darren Hayes is the REAL God of all gods.This is my
personal concert experience from July 29th 1998 at the Tampa Bay
Performing Arts Center.The people and happenings in this story are real,
and the names havn't been changed to protect the innocent, so bear with
me on this one.Anyway, here's the juicy stuff...
Well, before I went to the show we ate at Checkers..whoopee! Who cares?
Anyway, we drove into the almighty parking garage and hauled ass to the
doors...the fist thing I saw was a sign that said "no cameras or
recorded devices allowed"......bwahahahaha.You didn't think I would let
them do that to me did you?.All I had to do was hide the damn thing in
my purse under the Burdine's receipt.(anyway, I never did take any
pictures...what was my problem?!)
I walked in (duh) and practically knocked down the sercurity gaurds
making way to the merchandise table!Yeah!Then I gave up a nice $25 to
get the dark blue shirt with my Dazzy on the front, and the dates on the
back.After that we hauled ass into the concert hall."nice place" I
thought, making sure to glance back and be amazed at how good it can be
sitting in row 14.Then we sat and waited and discussed how we might
prevent ourselves from going deaf....then later I decided.."screw it
man, SG can run me over with their damn tour bus if they want, what
should hearing loss matter?"
FINALLY, it got dark..nice lights zooming all over the place...and
ta-da! Billie Myers!! Ta-da!! Another 45 farking minutes to wait for
Savage Garden to come on.Billie Myers did two slightly enjoyable numbers
and the rest were blahblahblah.And personally, I really couldn't stand
the strange pants she was wearing.When she left the lights came back on
and Ta-da!! another 15 minutes of waiting.What does a girl have to do to
see her obsessions for crying out loud!?
Okay...after what seems like ten thousand years in an arabian lamp, the
lights went out and there was some funky music to rev it up and we stood
there doing nothing for like 3 minutes looking at these colored lights
until Ta-da!! It's about time people!! Darren was standing on a pedestal
bursting into "Tears of Pearls".I thought "This sounds wierd, this
sounds different, this is really loud, and I'm loving every minute of
it".I sat holding back the excitement, quietly mesmerized in my seat,
staring right into Darren's eyes for what seemed liked the first half of
the show.I was quite impressed when Darren stood atop his pedestal
flexing his biceps."not bad" I thought.Who I am kidding, my adolescent
hormones have never been so excited!! When he was doing "Tears of
Pearls" he merged it into "Love Can Move You".Also quite refreshing!
Anyways, after that was "To the Moon and Back".One of Mom's favorites!!
I had to wake her up for it!! (I'm serious, she was falling asleep.When
she's tired....SHE'S TIRED")It rocked as usual.Off to a duet, "I can't
make you love me" starring Darren and...crap I never remember which
backup is which...I'll assume it was Anna and get on with it.Sorry man,
but this was blah.NEXT SONG!!
Promises..Ooh..this one was cute, halfway through Darren started singing
"sugarpie honeybun, sugarpie honeybun" by some old band..I'm to tired to
remember...all I can think of is the Temptations.I don't even remember
the song name.Anyway, what else could one do at that point but erupt
with laughter.I laughed.
Next up was Santa Monica, which our buddy Daniel introduced.I was happy
that Darren performed this song and made it sound like it did on the
album (hey man, I need one to sound familiar).
Anyway, After Santa Monica was "Carry on Dancing".It took me awhile to
figure out which song this was because the audience was a bit, shall we
say "LOUD" once it started.This one rocked!! It had to be one of the
best I saw live that night.VERY COOL LIGHTING might I add.There was a
particular lighting effect that I loved near the end, but I couldn't
begin to explain it.
Next up! "Mine" My fave man!! Awesome! So anyway, they did this cool
thing with the lights so it was dark blue and Darren was sort of
highlighted red.This guy wants attention obviously.ANYWAY, the song
turned out a success as usual.
Okay next up!"Break Me Shake Me".This was my other favorite performed
that night.This song is too kool when performed live and it shows.The
noise makes you deaf and the lighting leaves you in epileptic
shock.Awesome.Like Billie Myers did once in her opening act, Darren
temporarily burst into a Dazzy version of Nirvana's "Smells like teen
spirit".Very cute man.I particulary enjoyed watching Ben and Daniel in a
showdown of the guitar at the end, jumping around like typical rock and
roll maniacs finally taking their chance to dominate the stage.After
this was a short 3 minute break for costume change...
You guessed it baybee."All Around Me"..This was awesome! Good costumes,
good performance, good disco balls, it all tied in with the song man.I
loved how the girls were all over him (this is a rare occurance man...in
reality I'd be VERY jealous), he looked so "All that" during the whole
song, grabbing his crotch and enjoying it a bit too much for my
comfort....and of course shaking his ass was a typical occurance during
that song.And to make it funnier..Darren burst into "spice up your life"
quite a few times!I had to stand for this one cuz man, oh man...Everyone
loved it...hahahah.Great stuff you got there on stage.
Next was "I'll Bet He Was Cool" in which Darren ranted on about how cool
he thinks Jesus would be.My response to this song "What Would Jesus Do"?
haha, I really liked how Daz pranced around with his little chair the
whole time.Such a simple thing can make an interesting prop.Who knew?
Last but certainly not least was "I Want You".It started out with Daz
screaming "chica cherry cola" and of course rang a bell with the
audience immeadiately.What can I say about this song?I say "Darren is
way into this cherry cola bit".He had the audience saying it for him,
and he said it about 8thousand times too many.Does anyone think he likes
cherry cola? They finished up and bowed.
YOU DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD END LIKE THAT DID YOU? You know they purposely
left the lights out while everyone screamed for an encore?
Daz and friends came back out and sang...Yipe..."This Side of
Me"....Yay!!I love that song.He didn't think I'd let him leave Tampa
without singing it to me did he?
Well, you know how they planned it...of course they said they were going
to leave, but not without singing a certain song first! That's right!
"Truly Madly Deeply" man!! When it ended, Daz thanked us and said good
night..and the lights popped on immeadiately.(guess they didn't plan a
second encore).
Well, that was my night people.Hope you're satisfied with that.My head
is still throbbing and my ears are still ringing and I figured concert
reviews should be written soon after experienced...even though I stayed
up until 5am writing this.My one complaint is that they did not perform
"Violet" or "A Thousand Words".The answer "next year".One word to sum up
the whole concert? "Bitchin".Peace to all, rock on my Savage
friends!!Can't wait till the next concert!!
Love Always~Mary Boiter (aka-Batfink OR Riven)
I went to the August 7th concert in Clarkston, MI. I thought that the concert
was awesome. Billy Meyers opened and she did an exceptional job. The stadium
was packed as soon as she began singing "Kiss the Rain". Savage Garden had one
of there back up singers do a few songs with Darren. She was absolutley
shocking. She sang an En Vogue song by herself and the crowd went wild! Savage
Garden and this MYSTERY WOMAN got rave reviews from all the news papers and
radio stations. I was slightly disappointed that Savage Garden didnt sing more
of there own songs. They sang a country song Joan Osborne's "What If God Was
One Of Us". I hated the song when she sang it and I plugged my ears when
Savage Garden sang it. Dan and Darren were awesome other than that though. The
band closed with "Truly Madly Deeply." They were well dressed, had a great
attitude and kept the crowd wanting more.
~SageHope, Michigan
I went to the Savage Garden concert at the Illinois State Fair, August 15,
1998.
I went, the concert was undescribable! I waited in line for about four hours.
Every fifteen minutes I looked at my watched. My best friend and I sang
every song out loud about twice! I mean every song even the b-side songs
(love can move you this side of me, fire inside the man, i'll bet he was cool,
memories are designed to fade, all around me, and mine). Okay they let us in,
we're front row! Billie Meyers performed for about a half an hour, then it
took them about forty-five minutes to clear the stage and set up for savage
garden. It's nine-thirty four, some very mystical music starts to play then
you see figures coming up on stage. It is still pitch black mind you. (first
ben, lee, karl, nichole, ana-maria, then darren and daniel). the music started
getting louder the quieter then louder and all of a sudden the lights go on
and there is darren at the top of the platform and you hear the guitar for
tears of pearls. Darren was so hot with all of his moves! Darren was wearing
silver pants with a black shirt under a jacket which he tore off at the end of
the song. He was wearing black frame and lens sunglasses. Daniel just had on
black pants and a black t-shirt, Karl had on a maroon tank top. Lee had a
shirt on in which the sleeves were cut off and it was all wild. Ben had on
pinkish pants to match his magenta hair. Nichole and ana maria were wearing
all black. Any way I forget in which order the middle songs are but this is a
pretty good estimation. After tears of pearls they went right into love can
move you. It was sooo cool because my friend and I were the only two, from
what I could see, who knew any of those songs (B-sides). We listened to the
musical beginning of each song and then scream out the title of it. I think
Darren might of heard us singing the b-sides because, I kid you not, he
looked directly at us and gave us the biggest smile I have ever seen on
Darren. We saw his teeth and all. After that was promises with an interlude
of sugar pie honey bunch. Then was to the moon and back in which he conclude
that song with baby-yay-e-yeah (the end of to the moon and back on Keenan
Ivory Wyans)! Then was I Can't Make You Love Me which was beautifully sung by
Miss Ana-Maria Laspina and Mr. Darren Hayes. The choreography in that song
was absolutely wonderful. Their facial expressions and everything, they
looked like they really meant what they were singing to each other. But like I
told my friend, it's just like the movies they really don't feel that way
towards each other it's just an act!(I hope) After that song was Carry On
Dancing followed by Mine! My friend and I went ballistic when we heard Mine
because it is not allowed to be released in the USA (religous reasons, go
figure) so we figured it wouldn't be performed, but He did perform it. that's
my bestest buds fave song! She screamed so loud I think the people in seats
heard her! Then came break me shake me( with an interlude of a nirvana song)!
I loved his costume for that song it was like a fish net jacket with rubber on
it to look like muscles. And he kept posing like a muscle man too! I think
this is where Santa Monica comes in, but it might have been after Carry on
Dancing. Next was, in my opinion, the best performed song all night, All
around me. Darren had on his White patent leather jacket and his black
glasses. And omigod, In the words of my mother, (sitting in the seats) "I
think darren is a wee bit horny!" He grabbed himself so many times. It was so
funny! My friend and I wnjoyed quite a bit. I was about to tell him I would,
ya know, kinda give him a hand but then he stopped. It was funny because
after he sang an interlude of spice up your life, he said "they made me sing
that!" And at the end of the song when nichole and Ana-maria started taking
over, darren pretened to get aggrivated and ripped off nichole's wig. Then
Ana was laughing at her, so nichole ripped off hers! Darren picked up the
wigs and started to whirl them in the air, then he flung them behind him. At
the end of the song Nichole kicked him in his butt and he pretended to fall on
his duff! In the dark when everyone was on their way back stage to change,
Darren was saying "Oh those dirty little Monica Lewinski's" (I think you might
have to live in the US to get this. She is the woman claiming to have had
sexual relations with the president , which was obviosly true I found out last
night! or something like that she is just being a real bad girl. I laughed my
ass off when he said that) Then he came out saying the words" Anytime I need
to see your face, I just close my eyes and I am taken to a place where your
crystal mind and magenta feelings take up shelter in the base of my spine
sweet like a chica-cherry cola!" Everyone went wild including ME! Then you
heard the music start and there went Darren, singing his little heart out.
During parts when he didn't sing, he was pretending to get it on in front of
the drums. Most people could tell this by his little groans, which weren't so
little at the end of that interesting part. Then he would grab is butt and
ask "Do you want some of this baby?" My best friend and I responded to that
with " OH, BEHAVE!" It's from Austin powers and if you go to the sony site
(www.savagegarden.com) you know that he likes that movie. I also think he
heard us answer him because he returned with a "Yeah Baby!" Maybe it was just
part of the show, but if it was that was way too freaky! He had us help with
the last verse of the song, we got to scream sweet like a chica- cherry cola!
It was so much fun! Then came his performance with the chair which really
seductive, provacitive, and cute all at the same time. This was during the
song I'll bet he was cool. He said thank you and they left the stage. I
would say about a tenth of the crowd left. My friend was screaming "They're
not done where are you going he is not finished", then she realised it mihgt
be a good thing so she told them to "leave yeah go get out of here, show's
over" She was really wack-o. He came out sing One of us, followed by my fave
song this side of me he changed into a blue long sleeve shirt and blue pants.
And he sang truly madly deeply, and did any of you other fans notice this but
did he signal for someone to come out on stage with him and the person didn't
so he went into this little tent and then all you heard were the girls
singing. Then he came back out. (If you did give me an e-mail, my friend said
he didn't and I say he did. I am trying to figure out if It was just my
imagingation. So give me an e-mail, here's my e-mail address (SGDHDJ@aol.com)
When he was supposed to sing Velvet sky, he replaced it with, "give me an
Illinois Sky". He had the crowd sing the last chorus in which he told us " Oh
you're beautiful" The show ended, but the funny thing was no one left so he
sang "Closing time, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here!" Then
everyone started to leave! Well that was my savage garden concert hope
enjoyed reading it. P.S. I just found out today, because I looked at the
updated pics on the sony site, that I was standing 3 feet away from the savage
garden tour bus. Ok, my friend and I were crossing the street and this big
red bus was starting to turn. I looked in the window and I screamed at the
top of my lungs, "Jenny there's a band in there!" There was Billie myres band
up front, so we chased the bus in a complete cirlce. then it stopped, So we
thought lets go knock on the door, but then my friend was like no I don't see
any band members from Savage Garden, so we just went to the stadium. Well, At
the sony site there was a picture of the big red tour bus! I was so mad when
I saw that picture, but I figured that we must not have been destined to meet
them at this specific concert! Now I am done. Hope you enjoyed reading my
concert review.
~Peace, Mindy -- SGDHDJ@aol.com
I was lucky enough to be able to see Savage Garden in concert in Hamburg, NY on
August 21. I even got to meet Darren! It started a few weeks before when I got
2 tix in row 30. But we needed another ticket so we exchanged the ones we had 4
three tix in the fourteenth row, dead center! It was great! Before the show
when me, my mom, and my best friend were waiting in line to get in DARREN came
in and walked by inches away from us! I couldn't breathe or speek so I just
started trembling! I felt dumb for not getting his autograph so my mom followed
him, but lost him. Then
I spotted Karl so my mom followed him up to a 21+ club where the band was eating
dinner. When Darren came out my mom got his autograph. He asked if it was for
her and she said no, it was for her daughter. Then she walked down the stairs
with him and his wife (who had fairly long, blond hair) My mom asked how
Darren's dog, Obi, was. Darren said he was just the sweetest thing. I was
waiting at the bottom and my friend said "Mr. Hayes can I have your autograph"
and he said "Oh you don't have to call me Mr. Hayes, that's so cute." Then he
said Hi to me and I got to shake his hand!!!!!!!! I even got to keep the pencil
that he used!!! Then came the concert that complely kicked!!!!
I was more focused on Darren because Daniel wasn't really doing or saying very
much. In the beginning Daz asked us how we were and said he hoped no flies
would fly into his mouth due to the spot lights. Then he started to sing TMD
and he pretended to hack on a fly. They started with TOP, Love Can Move You,and
I forget the order, but here are the songs that they played: TTM&B, Mine, This
Side of Me, All Around Me (which waz da bomb! Daz grabbed his certain bits about
5 times and pulled his jacket between his legs. they also did part of spice up
your life and when they were done Darren said "The dancers made me do this."
And he pushed them over at the end because they kept walking in front of him,
even though he kept saying that it was his show.) They also did:1 of Us by Joan
Osborne, I Can't make you love me by Bonnie Rait, BMSM, I Want U, I'll Bet He
Was Cool and they ended with Truly Madly Deeply. They preformed very well. My
only complant was they didn't play 1000 Words, Universe, Fire Inside the Man
*sob*. All around it was the best concert! It was soooooo great! Anyone who
hasn't *or has* should definitely go and see them preform.
~Melly
I went to both of the Sydney concerts on February 7th and March 1st. February 7th will be a day I WILL ALWAYS remember.That day I got to
meet Daniel and Darren at their soundcheck-thanks to their Roadshow
website. I had entered so many competitions I was starting to get deperate. I
had tickets to the concerts but more than anything I really wanted to meet them! I arrived at the Sydney Entertainment Centre at 6pm, all though we
were to attend the soundcheck at around 6:30pm. Even though it was only 6pm
the concert didn't start till 9pm and there were already heaps of people there. I bought a t-shirt (has the photo of Daniel and Darren on the Village/roadshow website when you first log on).When I was in the
foyer buying the t-shirt, I saw Karl and Ben (the guitarist and drummer). 6:30 came and all the people who were to attend the soundcheck had
their names marked off and passes checked.When they opened the doors
everyone started running in.Camera flashes clicking people screaming. I sat
front row to the left- in Front of Daniel :-).What a time for my cmaera to
stuff up.I could not take any photos during the entire soundcheck thanks to my
camera. Savage Garden were in the middle of playing "Break Me Shake Me" before playing parts of "Love Can move you", "Promises", "Push" by Matchbox 20
and "All Around me".During "All around me" a girl started dancing, Darren
pointed to her and said "look there's the Dancing queen". We were then told
to line in the centre isle.While we were waiting for our turn to meet Daniel and Darren,their tour manager told us we were not to jump on them.If
we wanted a hug, we could ask them. They were halfway through the line when we all had to move to a different room because they were going to let
people in.In the room there were phots and autographs of people who had performed at the entertainment centre.When it was finally my turn I
had a picture taken with Daniel and Darren (my camera actually worked!!)
and got my t-shirt and Cd cover signed.Then we went back outside to where all
the other people wer waiting to be seated. At 8pm it when dark and four people took to the stage.It was Fourplay,
the support band.I personally didn't enjoy it, but was on too much of a high
after just meeting Daniel and Darren.There was a half hour interval form
Four play before Savage Garden took to the stage.The audience screamed so loud.They played all the songs on their Album and B-sides except form
"Memories are Designed to Fade".During "This Side of Me" Darren pulled a girl from the crowd.
This is more a sound check review than concert review. I don't really remember much of the concert, was on a high, and I
spent much of the 2nd concert screaming everytime Daniel saw my "HI DANIEL"
sign/banner.
~Cheryl Lee
Here is a review from the "To the Moon and Back tour" that started in Cairns in Feb. 1998
Ok, the concert was pretty good. I can't remember who started it off, I think some local band did. Anyway, they did Tears of Pearls, and I want You and it was really good. (we all know that it would be)
Then about halfway through, all the lights went off. (A total blackout) Darren and Daniel stormed back stage and according to a friend (whom I didn't know then) who had backstage tickets, Darren was shouting the f-word at the top of his lungs (?!) We ended up leaving, and my friend didn't get to see Darren or Daz, because they were so pissed.
She went to the concert held in Cairns the next night (they did two here but I didn't go to the second) and she still didn't get to meet them, but they felt bad about it so they signed a whole pile of posters and her CD and tee-shirt (which are all proudly displayed in her room)
AFFIRMATION TOUR 2000
Ok, they came here on Friday April 28 to kickstart their tour here once again. Vanessa Amorossi was the first act of the evening, and boy was she good! We had really good seats high up on an angle, and we (if we leaned slightly) could see backstage! Vanessa looked really good.
Anyway, I almost got kicked out when Savage Garden came onstage, because I wanted to throw a two litre bottle of coke onstage. I had it confiscated by the security giuard, but luckily by then I'd drank most of it.
It went all dark, and the curtain lifted, and we saw two figures standing in front of a massive sign that said "SG" darren was sorta doing a Bond 007 pose, and Daniel was holding onto his guitar. They were back to back. Then they came out and did this song (we didn't know what it was called)
I was on this massive sugar rush and I was screaming stacks of crap out like "Darren, you married the wrong person!"
Anyway, I'm yelling and Darren did this really sad number when they dragged out a piano and sang Imagine by John Lennon. Some people threw roses on stage, and Darren kept picking them up and placing them on the piano in front of Daniel.
The grossest part of the concert was when darren, who was performing "I want you" my fave and wearing tight leather pants went up to the drums set( which was surrounded by glass) and did something I am not even going to go into.
Overall, it was a good concert. It went for nearly two hours, and they did most of my faves, and ended up finishing with the "remix" of I knew I loved you and finally, Affirmation was the last song. The last one was best, because it would be all dark, and then bright, then dark and bright. It was so cool.
