George Michael 25Live USA Tour in San Diego

I had the opportunity to go to George Michael's 25Live tour which kicked off in San Diego tonight. I've never been a huge George Michael fan, but my wife is/was. As a result, we ended up buying tickets for the show at the San Diego Sports Arena.

While George has been a tremendous hit in Europe, his following seemed to have waned over the last decade. If you don't remember George Michael, more information about him can be found on his website, here, or on his Wikipedia page, here.

According to George's Wikipedia page, he has been quite active in politics since his early days in Wham! Tonight, his political commentary was very brief and to the point, saying something like, "Last night I saw two women get married on the TV; it's about fuckin' time," with the audience enthusiastically supporting his statement.

As far as concerts go, the San Diego Sports Arena is not an ideal venue. The facility is old, the seats are uncomfortable, and the $20 to park is pure extortion. Perhaps if they hadn't sold off a good portion of their parking lot to build a Chili's, Chic-fil-et, and an Arco, there would be enough parking and they wouldn't have to charge so much. Fortunately, we arrived early and were able to park on the street behind the Sports Arena for free and then walked to Stuart Anderson's for dinner. With the money we saved from parking we were able to eat dinner with a drink as the run a half price appetizer and drink special in the bar before 7:00 p.m.

We returned to the arena about 45 minutes before the 8:00 start time to walk around and look at the souvenirs. There were a few reasonably priced items and some unique items, but most items were at concert pricing. For example, a program was $30. We then headed to our seats and I noticed that the arena had made an effort to improve the acoustics of the place by hanging punching bag like devices along the perimeter and putting some kind of baffling in the ceiling girders. Unfortunately, we didn't realize we'd have so much time to look around as the concert didn't actually start until 8:30 p.m., despite the fact that the tickets and the marque said "8:00 p.m. prompt; no opening act."

As for this specific concert, it was probably one of the best live performances I've experienced. George had six backup singers, and nine or 10 musicians playing with him. However, what made the performance was the stage, which was uninspiring upon first glance. But when the lights went down, what looked like three flat panels opened up to reveal a three-tiered stage for the musicians. In addition, the center panel was an LCD screen that went up at least 40 feet, draped over the stage, and then into the audience as can be seen in this poor quality cell phone picture.

During the concert, the screens served as a giant "Jumbotron" showing clips from his old music videos, closeups of him singing, and the like. At other times, the graphics looked like something from Windows Media Player, simply pulsing to the beat. Either way, the screens, especially the center one, was quite impressive overall as seen here.

If you get the chance and even halfway like any of George Michael's songs, I'd strongly recommend seeing this concert. Beyond the awesome staging and performance, George was clearly in touch with his fans playing many of the favorites dating back to Wham! and not overly emphasizing the "new stuff" that so many performers do. And if you do go, make sure you stay for the finale as it's not to be missed; however, I wont tell you more as to avoid any spoilers. Let's just say that the audience left on a high note!