On Saturday, 29th May 2004 I was standing front row at Hallenstadion with a friend and have been waiting for concert start. Cher was on her (very long) farwell tour. It was the last show at the old Hallenstadion and an incredibly great concert on the one side, an insane show. On the other side it was one of the worst though…
We’ve been standing next to a rather special rocker pair – they didn’t even look a bit scary, but back then it was still allowed to smoke inside the Hallenstadion and we had cigarette smoke in our faces all the time. Consideration obviously wasn’t possible. Absolutely annoying. There was also a strict photography ban. The security had a good look on this. One wrong move and they came running. In front row of course you couldn’t do anything. Well, I still took 2-3 rather blurry sneak peak photos.
Support act was the Australian ABBA coverband Björn Again. I’ve seen them for the first time there and probably were the best one this evening, really fabulous. With all the ABBA songs and the facsimile costumes, their show was super fun.
Cher though… Cher is special and has always been. A real diva, one of a kind. Even with her 58 years back then, you could stare at her as long as you wanted while she was standing in front of you, you wouldn’t find one single wrinkle. Of course this was actually secondary, but somehow… well, as scary as fascinating.
I liked Cher’s songs. She sang many older songs and next to ones like “Taxi Taxi”, “All Or Nothing” or “Strong Enough” even many covers like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2, “All I Really Want To Do” by Bob Dylan or “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss”) by Betty Everett. The Show with the whole band and all the dancers, the colourful outfits, lightshow and visuals was sure impressive. Once she was floating down in kind of a basket, then she was riding a huge elephant. The show was pretty cool. Well, at least during the time she was on stage at all. That not all of it was live, we keep ignore.
Cher changed several times – once she was wearing a sequined dress, then she got into a red director jacket with cylinder and whip. For most of the outfit changes she left the stage. One time she changed to a huge feather headdress, then to a 70s outfit. Then she was wearing a normal jeans outfit with a white blouse and in turn a leather outfit with suspenders. At one time she had straight blond hair, black straightened ones, black curled ones or was wearing a red glitter wig. As cool as it looked, these changes took ages. AGES. After every song any endless long video reviews were shown or dancing choreos performed. At some point it just became too much. cher was standing probably not even half of the whole show on stage. It felt like it anyway. Everything kept draging on.
The setlist look kinda like this:
1. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
2. One By One
3. Taxi Taxi
4. Love Is The Groove
5. Love One Another
6. Gayatri Mantra
7. All or Nothing
8. I Found Someone
9. Bang Bang
10. Sonny & Cher Medley
11. All I Really Want To Do
12. Half-Breed
13. Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves
14. Dark Lady
15. Take Me Home
16. Love Hurts
17. After All
18. Walking in Memphis
19. The Shoop Shoop Song
20. Strong Enough
21. If I Could Turn Back Time
22. Believe
Yes, Cher – a great show on the one side, on the other side just slow and irritating. I liked (and like) her music really well, but visiting the concert wasn’t really worth it. This one visit was more than enough. I wouldn’t really recommend her concert.
[HERE the news review from back then (30.05.2004) out of the SRF archive]
Since Cher has done many shows in Las Vegas by the way and dedicated herself to acting. In September 2014 her 26th studio album was released, she went on tour with. But she had to stop for the time being out of health reasons.
Have you ever seen a Cher concert? How did you like it?
