My thanks go out to Jen and Auntie Carroll for the gift of Phil! The concert was great fun. One of my favorite parts was the show’s opening…Phil came out and sat down at a drum set on the right-hand side of the stage. He played for a few minutes before being joined by his drummer on the left-hand side of the stage. After a few more minutes, the percussionist (that is, the guy playing all the random percussion instruments) came out and joined them. This went on for about 15 minutes, and it was amazing. I could have listened to that all night.

Soon the rest of the band came out, including six (SIX!) backup singers and four horn players. Both the singers and the horn players (the saxophone player in particular) were extremely talented and a lot of fun. They did a really interesting vocal arrangement of “True Colors.” They were also a lot of fun to watch, hamming it up with little dance moves and getting the crowd excited.

Two of the singers came out to sing on “Separate Lives,” and wow…I have to say that I was impressed. I should go find out what their names are…Jen turned to me and said, “Whoa. Don’t upstage the star.” Needless to say, their vocals were outstanding. I had chills. (Chills. During Separate Lives. This is not a joke.)

My only complaint is that I wish he’d done a little more Genesis. I heard a guy a couple of rows in front of us yelling for “Mama.” I was like, “Dude. Get over it. He’s not doing ‘Mama.'” He did do “Misunderstanding,” and I felt like there was another one, but I can’t remember.

Also a few rows in front of us was one extremely drunk woman who stood and swayed and sang and clapped for most of the show. Even “Another Day in Paradise.” Not knocking the song, but it’s not exactly a “get up and shake your booty” kind of number. It’s depressing, in fact.

(side note…that song always reminds me of my friend Jennifer from high school. We had an English assignment that involved analyzing song lyrics as poetry, and she used that song.)

“In the Air Tonight” was pretty cool….there was a crazy, freaky light show during the intro, and for the beginning of the song, Phil wandered around the stage singing with a headset mike. When he got to the cool drum part, a drum set was raised up to the back part of the stage, and he sat down and finished the rest of the song on the drums. That kind of rocked.

There was another drum solo bit during the encore. (whoo! Did I mention that I really liked the drumming?)

The show was at HSBC Arena…I have to say, I’ve gotten a bit spoiled by attending so many small, intimate concerts in the past few years. For the most part, I prefer that sort of setting. But there’s also something to be said for an arena full of screaming fans. You almost can’t help but get caught up in that kind of energy.

All in all, a good show. 🙂