All Through The Night: A Night To Remember...

Cyndi Lauper played her first ever concert in Iceland last night - the first of her summer tour all over Europe to promote her latest album, Memphis Blues.

She arrived in Iceland on Saturday night at around 02.00 AM in a great mood. She was very interested in the landscape (the drive from the airport was around 30 minutes - it is located outside of Reykjavik), and she was fascinated by the fact that in the middle of the night it was so bright outside. The press yesterday was saying that Cyndi had brought the summer with her to Iceland, since the weather hasnt been much fun in the last few weeks. Yesterday however it was very hot, the sun was shining and it finally felt like summer. Sadly though, Cyndi must be on her way to Norway already because today it is back to being cold and cloudy...





Cyndi is the first major international artist to play in a brand new (not even finished yet) state of the art music house called Harpa. And the hall she was playing in truly excellent.



Sadly, the only merhcandise on offer was from the organizers, with various CDs and DVD's (all of which I own of course!), but no T-shirts or anything.



This was our first time at Harpa, and we had a bit of a shock when we saw our seats. We were front row, and so close to the stage that we could rest our feet against it! Which was not bad when Miss Lauper arrived on stage!



She came on at 08:15, said hallo and dripped the front row in "spirits" from a glass (I wasnt sure it was water or boose). She then launched the show with "Just Your Fool", followed by another track from the new album. She then did a blues version of "She-Bop" ("for all of those people who think I'm just a wanker") , where she went into the audience. More tracks from the new album followed, and then came the highlight of the evening for me: a fantastic version of "All Through The Night". Absolutely beautiful!







Then there were some more tracks from the new album - she did about half of the Memphis Blues album, including "Shattered Dreams", "Early In The Mornin'", "Mother Earth", "Down Don't Bother Me" and "Don't Cry No More". They were very well received by the audience, and incredibly well performed!







She and the band left the stage for a couple of minutes half way through, but quickly returned for "What's Going On" - a great version, very close to the album version. What followed was a mix of new and old songs - she did a long version of "Change Of Heart", where she again went all the way into the audience (so far in fact that the stage spotlights couldnt reach her and some of the house lights had to be turned on). She also did (much to my surprise) perform "Lyfe". Sadly it is my least favourite song from Bring Ya To The Brink, but it did work pretty well in the set.



She talked quite a bit to the audience - she told a long and hilarious story about a grasshopper (I think), talked a lot about the many blues artists that had influenced her (many of whom she worked with on the album), and she asked the audience if Iceland had any animals at all - she seemed very surprised that for example there are no frogs here. She asked if we had any bees for all those flowers, and if we had any birds? And no crocodiles ("eh, who needs them"). Someone tried to give her Icelandic candy, to which she said no thanks - she was on a diet.

She told us that she had gone to the Blue Lagoon (a very popular place for tourists) with her face covered because she didnt want any of those People magazine photos. She was hilarious!





Then it was time for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". People were standing, clapping and singing to a long version of the song, which included parts of the 1994 remake. I guess that for most of the people in the audience it was the highlight of the evening. She tried to get the audience to sing parts of the song with her, but mixed up a few times, leaving the audience a bit confused over what to do - which led to some unexpected and even impressive results! Sadly, Cyndi felt that taking us all with her on the next shows to try and recrate it would be a bit too much ;)





This was followed by another highlight, and probably my favourite Cyndi song ever: the truly timeless "Time After Time".









She took a long time introducing the band (which included Will Wittman, who has been working with her since the very beginning). The band was amazing - and she mentioned that her drummer had been with her on the "Hat Full Of Stars" tour.









The band then left the stage, leaving just Cyndi to perform the last song of the night: "True Colors". It was a beautiful way to end the evening, which passed way too quickly. She left the stage around 22:00.



I have been a huge fan of Cyndi ever since 1983, buying every single one of her releases and followed her career for almost 30 years. So she was very high on my list of people I really wanted to see live. Now I have - and she did not dissapoint! She is very small, very beautiful and despite being close to 60, she still has great energy and moves - not to mention the voice! I think people were very happy in general with the show (I havent seen any reviews yeat - but I will post them here when I do) and the hall itself is great - I look forward to more concerts there in the future.

I apologise for the photos and the videos. She was so close that we could have gotten some amazing footage. However, we were so into the show that we didnt really think think about anything else most of the time. The camera on my phone obviously leaves a lot to be desired - she seems so much farther away then she was, not to mention the bad quality. But hey, it is at least a little something that is fun for us to have, until the DVD from this tour comes out in a few months time. I just hope I will be able to see Cyndi live in concert sometime again...