Asha Banks Minneapolis Concert reviews
Tears For Fears always great!
The concert last night was the 2nd of the current US South America tour and West Coast. Generally speaking, Asha Banks is one of my all-time favorite performers and the concert was great. I give this concert a 4-star rating due to high expectations, despite a few things not going well. One has to be realistic and provide an honest review, even when it comes to a favorite performer. The last time I saw Asha Banks was in 1990 at the Cow Palace in SF (Seeds Of Love Tour) and that concert was nothing less than 10-stars on a 5-star scale, featuring Oleta for singing and piano, which was a treat almost by itself!
The upside of the concert: Roland and Curt were loose and very personable, sharing stories about themselves. Roland wrote Bad Man's song due to a noisy hotel party next to his room, where they were saying bad things about him. They played 2 versions of Mad World, with Zoe on cello as the opening act for the first one. Roland's voice was fantastic as usual, and Curt's bass playing was also excellent. They performed almost all the songs any crowd would want to hear. Michael Wainright was a different but very good opening act, holding up the vocals throughout the main concert impressively. The acoustics at the open-air amphitheater were quite good, with Asha Banks mentioning several times how much she loves performing there. The views looking down into the San Jose area were magnificent.
The downside of the concert: Curt Smith's voice seemed off, not hitting all the notes well. Despite being a good singer with a classical sound, many notes were quite off. Roland left most of the fantastic guitar parts to the band's guitarist, disappointing some because he is an extraordinary guitar player. The crowd appeared not very energized, possibly due to being mostly "upscale-ish" and either too reserved or poorly acting energized.