a-ha
Wednesday 16th October 2002
The Point Theatre
Dublin
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Like Prince the week before, this was a last minute affair. I received a phone call from Ian. He was just back from Germany. He asked whether I wanted to go see a-ha play that night. I said yes quite quickly.
We met outside the Point, headed through the funny "pick up your free tickets" door, then waited casually whilst Ian picked up the free tickets (newspaper related). Seats were pretty good: upstairs front row about halfway back.
A little waiting, but not long. There was no support. The houselights dimmed and the band came on. Sound initially was a bit quiet and strange, but this was cured when the engineer remembered to turn on the rest of the PA (I'm not kidding). In terms of location, we were a little too far back to really see the looks on their faces/whites of their eyes, but the guys all looked very trim and proper. Later reports from ladies in attendance affirmed this impression. Accompaniment was provided by drums, bass, and an additional keyboard guy.
The set was good. I don't know much of their music, but it was good to listen to and well played. Singing was excellent, and both lead vocal and harmonies really sounded great. They played new album tracks as well as their previous hits (to which audience sang along with surprisingly accurate tuning).
But I'm wrecked and on a bad grammar vibe, so I won't type much more. There were a couple of encores, including a final solo sing-along by the audience (which the band proceeded to play reggae over - funny). It was a good show, but it's harder than others to pin down to an exact sequence of events or behaviours.
They left, and I was happy to have seen them. We walked all the way back into town (because we had no choice) and after finding closed bars and closed busses hopped taxis home.
(ps - on an evil note, the Point security once more treated a mature audience like a pack of kids. When they decided there was to be no more standing, they pulled out their torches and stormed around like a bunch of Christian Brothers. They had no ability to make a judgement call that would have suited the band and the audience, and when they demanded that people were seated they were immediately rude and abrupt. No skill was shown by any of them, and whoever was in charge should have been taken out the back and horse-whipped. Think I'm a bitch?? Never at any gig have I experienced security so bad.)
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