i saw the wizard a true star tonite at the fitzgerald, and he was great and entertaining even though he is getting older now and can't sing some of the songs as he once could. black and white and compassion were the highlights of the show for me, and pretending to care could've been if not for the pack of hill billies with violins playing the background for him when it should have been Todd on the piano by himself. Ethel was completely bizarre to say the least, and joe jackson, well what can i say, he's fucking horrible along with being a way over the top homosexual. its fine to be gay, but save the sailor jokes for your close friends, not normal people. i, for the life of me, cannot figure out why Todd would even think of doing a tour with this guy(joe jackson and ethel), but that does explain why Todd was drunk the entire show and walked into a mic stand early in the set. Joe jackson's voice was ridiculously awful, which explains why no one heard from him since 1982 and steppin out. todd was utterly hilarious the entire show, especially when he laughed out loud while singing when the line about gayness came in black maria. anyone who was paying attention realized how hard it is for todd to do a tour with these wierdos, and his brilliant cynicism was in rare form. for anyone who doesn't know, ethel was brought in by joe jackson, not todd, and believe me, even todd wouldn't choose that bizarre cast if asked. todd if your reading this, it's black and white, get through the rest of this tour with these crackpots and get the utopia reunion together and get back to being able to be yourself onstage and give us what we want, you to be you back in your TRUE element, and not relegated to a side show in a gay pride rally. remember, you ARE a wizard, a true star, and you always will be, so treat yourself accordingly. in the end it was great to see that todd will always be himself, but he has much better acts to perform with than joe jackson and ethel, and i look forward to seeing one hopefully late this year, if possible TODD?
Addendum: 5/23/2005
i knew i'd get a rise out of the fans with that review. anyhow i'd like to apologize if i offended anyone, as i know it is disrespectful to todd and his site. i am not homophobic at all, i just thought joe jackson should not have been trying to hit those high notes, ouch. maybe it was the weather? at any rate todd was very entertaining as always, but i was sad to see most people reviewing my first review instead of the actual show. how could my review overshadow the show itself? but what was up with that "whose your lady friend" song? compassion and black and white were the two highlights but it was a shame that he didn't do afterlife, i was looking forward to that. ethel was.... ethel, i guess? so was joe, so all in all it was an interesting, for better choice of words, show. lets not get our feathers all ruffled next time someone says something to rile the crowd.
thanks, big d
