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Review of Sinéad at the Hampton Beach Casino, Hampton Beach, NH 6-13-97

The set list:
Emperor's New Clothes (opener)
You Made Me The Thief of Your Heart
I Am Stretched On Your Grave
I Am Enough For Myself
This IS A Rebel Song
John I Love You
This Is To Mother You
Petit Poulet
Thank You For Hearing Me
Last Day Of Our Acquantance
In This Heart
Fire On Babylon
A Perfect Indian
He Moved Through The Fair (Encore)

By; "JAHowe23@aol.com"

After a great set by local favorites Thanks to Gravity (watch for their first release on Capital later this year), the crowd was fired up for Sinéad. The crowd was so loud that the beginning of Emperor's New Clothes was almost inaudible. Sinéad seemed a bit nervous at first, but relaxed after the first few songs. The band consisted of 4 female backup singers, drummer, guitarist, keyboardist (who also played accordian), computer loop operator, and occasionally a cellist. She performed nothing from L&C, and only 3 songs from IDNWWIHG, so if those albums are all you like by Sinéad, this tour is not for you. However, if you like UM and GO, you're in for a treat. The Gospel Oak material in particular translated well live; I liked all of it better than the studio recordings. My only complaint was that the show only lasted about 90 minutes, but I suppose she doesn't want to wreak her voice.Anyone who wants a tape of the show can ! contact me; we'll work out a trade.

By; Rich Delano <rdelano@bechtel.com>

Sinead came on stage a little after 9:00 to a partial standing ovation. As always, she looked quite embarrassed by it, but seemed genuinely happy. Despite bad sound due to the illogical set up of the Casino, Sinead sounded great. She took the stage with a large band (4 backing singers, 2 keyboard players, a bass player, a guitarist, and a cello player). She played for about an hour and twenty minutes and had the crowd with her the whole way.

She also did two songs I can't quite place:

One was accapella and was probably some traditional Irish song he other sounded so familair, yet I can't for the life of me figure but what it was: The lyrics contained the phrase "There's only one way to be free" as the last line of the chorus. It was a slow number done as the first encore song.

All in all, it was quite a night. It was my first time seeing her and she sounded perfect. I was particularly impressed by her ability to pull off "Fire On Babylon" live. How does she make *that* song look so easy to sing???