I saw this show in Manchester on Friday night and it was superb. 26 people on stage including a choir and orchestra and a 'better than the original' rendition of the album from start to finish, followed by three 'warhorses' for an encore (Sweet Jane, Satelite and Walk on the Wild Side)
Anyone else seen one of these shows and what did you think? Would love to see the Stones doing something similar.......

Hi Yorkshirestone

I saw lou reed on sunday and completely agree with you. I was not a big
fan of Berlin but seeing it performed live with the choir and orchestra has
changed my opinion. And the performance of Sweet Jane was superb!

Yeah, same for me!
Saw it in Duesseldorf - unfortunately only 600 people in a 6,000 venue!!!
Nevertheless, Lou was in great shape, the band was good, and they really referred to what the Berlin album has been to me. I mean,I like the grumpy kind of Lou´s dealing with expectations. When Transformer brought a new peer group to Reed´s music, he gave em a hard time releasing Berlin and then Metal Machine music.

I like him. He looks gentle and healthy, doesn´t he??

600 people in a 6,000 venue

26 people on stage including a choir and orchestra


And we complain about the Stones!

6,000? what venue was it held at?

'Berlin' is my favourite Lou album. One of the best albums ever, in fact. I think they had to whittle the songs down so it could fit onto a single LP. I'm hoping someday he'll reissue it on CD in the length it was originally intended to be released.

ablett Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 600 people in a 6,000 venue
>
> 26 people on stage including a choir and
> orchestra
>
>
> And we complain about the Stones!


Right you are.

It must have been a total disaster for the concert team.
Even to book the big Phillipshalle (Dylan and White Stripes play there too)
costs a lot more than you can get in with 600 people (of whose about 100 were on the guest list!)

Yorkshirestone - I saw the show at Hammersmith on Sunday and totally agree with you that the Live renditions of the tracks were infinitely better than the album itself. The 12-strong New London Children's Choir helped make 'Satellite Of Love' quite sublime - a great show which I enjoyed far more than I expected to!

The Stones should sign up this choir for the O2 shows to perform YCAGWYW - goosebumps at the mere thought of it!

Cool- I was kind of lukewarm to Berlin on CD but haven't stopped playing it since seeing it live. Really looked like Lou was enjoying too and he's looking v. lean and healthy. Not a bad crowd turned up - I guess the Apollo (about 2500 capacity, I think) was 75% full, mostly rear circle seats empty.

Berlin has always been my favourite Lou album but I find it's one i have to sit and listen to with no distractions to get the best out of it. I remember when it came out a lot of us rushed out to buy it after the great Transformer and most simply couldn't cope with its depressing narrative - it really grew on me though. Sounds as though the shows were great - I did see him perfom a couple of tunes from this tour on BBC TV recently and thought that his voice was really poor but perhaps he wasn't putting too much into is as it was only a rehearsal

Andy

Agree with you nashville. It takes time and some listens to get into the 'Berlin' album, and it's become one of my favourite Lou Reed albums too. Haven't seen him perform 'Berlin' live, but I've heard a couple of boots and that was great.

A great album with my hero Jack Bruce on bass.
Bob Ezrin locked up his little son Joshua in a room in order to record the heartbreaking cries for "The kids". That´s art.

Saw it in Brooklyn Dec 16 2006, fantastic! (I can't recall a Lou Reed show that wasn't) Like everyone has said here, much, much better live.

Saw it in London last Sunday. Fookin' soooperb!

This is an interesting subject. Preface to say I am (or was) a huge Lou fan since '72. However..I found a high quality boot of this new tour on the internet from an early date (somewhere in New York if I believe) and even posted it in the HotStuff forum. After a couple of listens I deleted it even though it included Steve Hunter (guitarist on RnR Animal record). It simply doesn't hold a candle to the definitive Live renditions commercially available on Rock n Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live. I'm glad Lou is still taking chances and working but I'll be satisfied with the 3 times I saw him Live in the 70s. Rock On !

Amsterdam show:

[rapidshare.com]

Duane in Houston Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is an interesting subject. Preface to say I
> am (or was) a huge Lou fan since '72. However..I
> found a high quality boot of this new tour on the
> internet from an early date (somewhere in New York
> if I believe) and even posted it in the HotStuff
> forum. After a couple of listens I deleted it even
> though it included Steve Hunter (guitarist on RnR
> Animal record). It simply doesn't hold a candle to
> the definitive Live renditions commercially
> available on Rock n Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live.
> I'm glad Lou is still taking chances and working
> but I'll be satisfied with the 3 times I saw him
> Live in the 70s. Rock On !

Duane, I see where you're coming from. The Berlin shows in New York last year were tentative and barely deviated from the original, but there are some great sounding European boots where eht band cuts loose. He did incredible renditions of Oh Jim, Sad Song, The Kids, both versions of Caroline Says. Give it another shot.

I've been a huge Lou fan since the mid-80s (when, believe it or not, I first heard Walk on the Wild Side on the radio as a teenager). I was never that impressed with him live - seen every tour since Mistrial - until about the mid-90s. The best shows Ive seen him do were Berlin on Sunday last and the four Ecstasy tour shows I caught. They were extraordinary. Mind you, so was that album.

OK ..If someone posts these new/improved versions that you speak of I will be happy to give them a second chance.

Please help.

Lou is showing up in Milano next tuesday, and I dunno what to do. Generally speaking I agree with Duane: I was not there bu that RnR Animal must be one of the greatest live recordings ever by any artist.

First time I saw Lou live was in Milano, back in 1992

Set list (I got the boot)

01 Dorita
02 What's Good
03 Power And Glory
04 Magician
05 Sword of Damocles
06 No Money Down
07 Cremation
08 Dreamin'
09 No Chance
10 Warrior King
11 Harry's Circumcision
12 Gassed And Stoked
13 Power And Glory(part 2)
14 Magic And Loss
01 Small Town
02 Open House
03 Nobody But You
04 Images
05 Dream
06 Dirty BLVD
07 Beginning of A Great Adventure
08 Strawman
09 Sweet Jane
10 Rock And Roll
11 Walk on The Wild Side
12 Heroin

Gotta say I fell asleep more or less half way through only to wake up for the encores.

Call me a simple minded but I don't like rock and roll when it gets too brainy.

Saw lou again some years later, in great shape, this time superb rock and roll the way it should be done.

Considering that the tix are around 50 eur, should I go?

C

Download the Amsterdam show listed above and listen to it. It's the complete Berlin album performed live plus a couple requisite greatest hits as an encore. That's the show you'll see. I would think it would be a relatively staid affair. Something like an orchestral performance. That price would also be substantiated a little if you could get a good Lou Reed collectible autographed by The Man after the show.

The problem is Lou doesn't sing like he did in 1973. He sounds tired and old. His voice is a lot deeper and lacks flexibility. Technically he and his band play perfectly but there aren't any risks taken or flashes of spontaneity which made his 70s work so absorbing.

I saw him perform in Amsterdam. I was quite impressed by most of it, but not by his singing. But no matter how beautiful I found this performance of Berlin the highlight for me was Sweet Jane.

I was there in Amsterdam and can only agree with sleeping. Sweet Jane, and satelite were highlights. It was a great evening.

I was at the Hammy Apollo on Sunday night too.

Berlin was not my favourite Lou album, but I agree with the comments about the presence of the choir and orchestration taking it somewhere extraordinarily sublime.

GAZZA, this for you, from NME.com -

"Lou Reed suggest there's even more 'Berlin'
The New York legend says he is listening to tapes
15.Jun.07 4:41pm
Lou Reed have revealed that there could be even more 'Berlin' material to come.

His 1973 album was reissued earlier this year in a one-off run in digipack form. Reed is currently touring, with a show that involves him playing the album in its entirety.

Reed said that there was enough material to make a second album. He said he was listening to a box of tapes at record company BMG which he was listening through to "as we speak".

Excellent. Thanks. Not sure if that means leftover songs or extended versions of what we have, but its all good.

Gazza Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Excellent. Thanks. Not sure if that means leftover
> songs or extended versions of what we have, but
> its all good.

They've apparently finally found the "lost" masters/unedited mixes, including the interlude (played at the gig) which was only released on the 8 track tape. So, hopefully we'll get Berlin Deluxe.

liddas Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Please help.
>
> Lou is showing up in Milano next tuesday, and I
> dunno what to do. Generally speaking I agree with
> Duane: I was not there bu that RnR Animal must be
> one of the greatest live recordings ever by any
> artist.
>
> First time I saw Lou live was in Milano, back in
> 1992
>
> Set list (I got the boot)
>
> 01 Dorita
> 02 What's Good
> 03 Power And Glory
> 04 Magician
> 05 Sword of Damocles
> 06 No Money Down
> 07 Cremation
> 08 Dreamin'
> 09 No Chance
> 10 Warrior King
> 11 Harry's Circumcision
> 12 Gassed And Stoked
> 13 Power And Glory(part 2)
> 14 Magic And Loss
> 01 Small Town
> 02 Open House
> 03 Nobody But You
> 04 Images
> 05 Dream
> 06 Dirty BLVD
> 07 Beginning of A Great Adventure
> 08 Strawman
> 09 Sweet Jane
> 10 Rock And Roll
> 11 Walk on The Wild Side
> 12 Heroin
>
> Gotta say I fell asleep more or less half way
> through only to wake up for the encores.
>
> Call me a simple minded but I don't like rock and
> roll when it gets too brainy.
>
> Saw lou again some years later, in great shape,
> this time superb rock and roll the way it should
> be done.
>
> Considering that the tix are around 50 eur, should
> I go?
>
> C


Now that's ironic, you falling asleep in 92 - and Milan of all places, where the audiences tend to be wild. I took my brother to see the Hammersmith Odeon show in 1992. We were three rows away from the stage, right in Lou's sightline, and my brother literally fell into a deep, open-mouthed sleep as Lou played his "no clapping, dancing, shouting, talking, smoking, eating, drinking, breathing" show. I swear he looked right at us too.

My brother promptly woke up during Rock n Roll and stood up and started dancing. Very funny. He was 17 at the time.

By the way, Lou's got a big old belly on him now. He's skinny with toned arms and a muscular neck, but his belly looks like he's stuffed a cuddly toy under his muscle shirt.

>They've apparently finally found the "lost" masters/unedited mixes, including the interlude (played at the gig) which was only released on the 8 track tape.


I've got that 8-track. When I later heard it on vinyl I was disappointed that the interlude was missing. I do hope the full version is released.

I attended the first Amsterdam gig on Wednesday June 20th in the HMH too.
Next day, as I realised it was the only chance to see this fantastic Berlin-performance again, I bought another ticket for the Thursday June 21th. show.
Two nights in a row in this magnificent Music Hall in the south-East of Amsterdam.
It was way back in 1969 when I heard Lou Reed for the first time, it was on the VU-album White Light, White Heat.
People around me accepted my Stones-addiction by then, but this f**king noise of the Velvets, they never got used to that.

robdeckwitz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> People around me accepted my Stones-addiction by
> then, but this f**king noise of the Velvets, they
> never got used to that.


Not much has changed. I'm 26, and I heard VU for the first time some 8-9 years ago, and non of my friends understood what was so great about Sister Ray, Venus in Furs etc. Although they, just like your friends, seemed to accept that I was(still is) into The Stones



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-07-06 04:11 by Sohoe.