From the Boston Globe (July 29, 1989)

"Gibson Delivers Perky Pop"

WORCESTER -- It's opening night of a world tour, on an arena stage of fancy lights and roomy ramps, with an 11-member backing ensemble and even a piano that rises out of the stage. It could be a scary position to be in, even for a seasoned performer. What about 18-year-old pop upstart Debbie Gibson?

Don't worry about Gibson -- she sure didn't seem worried headlining the Centrum for the second summer in a row. Older performers should have the talent and confidence of this Long Island teen-ager.

"I was told I was too young to be on the stage," she told a youngish crowd of 9,000 last night, "but here we are!"

"We" was an appropriate word, since the singer-pianist was joined by a sharp six-piece band, three female singers and two male singer-dancers -- mostly young and sharing her New York roots.

They showed exceptional poise for the first night of a big tour, romping on a stage decorated like a castle. It made sense: The pop world is Gibson's play castle with No. 1 singles like "Foolish Heart" [sic] and the new "Lost in Your Eyes."

At first, the bouncy-stepped singer -- sporting a black cap, skirt and high-top sneakers -- was overshadowed by the props as she went through pop- star moves. A shot of fireworks prefaced Gibson's choreographed twirls with dancers Buddy Casimano and Keith Stewart on "Over the Wall," and "Foolish Heart" [sic] -- her first ballad on the hydraulic white baby grand -- was a bit lumbering.

But Gibson pulled it together with dance numbers "Staying Together" and "Shake Your Love," which recalled Olivia Newton-John, an older singer of similar blond, wholesome looks and a knack for perky pop and syrupy ballads.

But while Gibson is a slick songwriter (she won her first national competition at age 12), it was her natural stage flair that impressed most last night.

She was boosted by entertaining interplay with her singers and dancers during the battle-of-the-sexes frivolity of "Don't Flirt" and a snappy six- vocal Motown medley that ran from the Jackson Five to the Supremes and a clap- along to Sly Stone's "Dance to the Music" that let her band smoothly cover key solos.

Even more dynamic were dancers Casimino [sic] (with his aerial somersaults) and Stewart, who also sang a touching biracial duet with Gibson on "Love Under My Pillow," from the star's upcoming '60s-styled film, "Skirts."

But it was ultimately Gibson who shone. First she showed she could put across a ballad, her voice soaring on "Lost in Your Eyes" as she kneeled on top of her piano in a nod to idols Elton John and fellow Long Islander Billy Joel. And while she has yet to pen pop classics like those singers' (though she has already showed growth from her 1987 debut, "Out of the Blue," to the new "Electric Youth"), she matched them for confidence and exuberance as she again engaged dancers on the new LP's title track to bring the set to a zesty peak.

She even dared to do a new song (a passable ballad called "Try") as a first encore, then pulled a young girl from the crowd to dance along to "We Could be Together." Even if other fans coudn't [sic] be together on stage with Gibson, they shared vibes with a good role model.

Mississippi-bred opener Judson Spence, while a few years older than Gibson, unfortunately displayed little of her talent or charisma as he and his five- piece band pounded through funky, forgettable rock.

From the Boston Herald (July 29, 1989)

"Gibson Coming Into Her Own"
By Karen Schlosberg

"DADDY, build me a home recording studio."

Those words may not rank with "I have seen the future of rock and roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen," and Debbie Gibson may not have said those words exactly, but in the annals of current pop music, Gibson's self-made rise from the suburbs of Long Island to a platinum-selling singer/songwriter is pretty impressive.

At the Centrum -- the first stop on her new tour -- Gibson walked a fine line between the somewhat vacuous dance hits of her first album, "Out of the Blue," and the poppier, more sophisticated tunes on her new LP, "Electric Youth."

It does seem just a little mean-spirited to criticize her past too harshly, considering she was all of 16 when she released the first LP -- and both albums were self-penned and largely self-produced and arranged. And certainly, even her emptiest of songs (like "Shake Your Love") are no sillier than other current dance hits written by people twice her age. Even if Gibson, 18, doesn't yet live up to the song-writing standards of idols like Billy Joel and Elton John the operative word here is "yet."

With an 11-piece band (including three female back-up singers and two male dancers/singers), Gibson cheerily pranced through a 115-minute set on a backdrop that was a surreal cross between German Expressionism and Barbie's Fashion Show.

Even though many aspects of Gibson's show -- her four costume changes, her peppy choreography, her tour sponsorship by Natural Wonder cosmetics -- reflected her and her audience's more transient, youthful concerns, when Gibson struck out from both the bland dance formulas and the syrupy ballads into more melodic pop, she trancended [sic] her typecasting as child-prodigy performer.

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press (September 8, 1989)

TEEN-AGE SINGER PROVES SHE'S A PRO IN ENERGETIC CONCERT
By Bob Protzman, Staff Writer

She may be just 18, but Debbie Gibson showed she's a rock 'n' roll pro in concert Thursday night at the St. Paul Civic Center Arena.

Gibson brought to town a pretty darn good show, with a cast that included a competent six-piece band, two very athletic male dancers and three strong female backup singers who also danced. There also was plenty of multicolored, flashy lighting.

Gibson did about a dozen songs from her 3-million-selling debut album "Out of the Blue" and the current "Electric Youth"--ballads, light rock, and tame rhythm and blues and funk. She also offered a brief, stiffly performed medley of Motown hits.

The energetic Gibson was all over the stage -- running, jumping, dangling her legs over the edge of elevated platforms and shaking hands with audience members, dancing in a sort of aerobics-influenced style, and occasionally sitting at both a black grand piano and a white grand piano to hammer out some chords and glissandos.

With all the movement, it was a wonder that she had any breath to sing. But then she didn't sing so much as shout in her strong, girlish voice.

The night's highlight clearly was "Shake Your Love," a lengthy R&B production number on which the entire company got into the act. It included a drum-conga duet, pirouetting and tumbling dancers, and funky call-and-response passages with the small, but extremely responsive, audience of about 4,000 mostly teen-age girls who screamed their approval.

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