My entire family went to see Donna at The Venue in Hammond, Indiana. My daughter, her boyfriend, my son, his girlfriend, my cousin and his wife and me and my wife. Wow, Donna definitely covers all generations in my family! I was lucky enough to score first row center for all of us and what a great time we all had. It was a bit of a different set - I may be missing something and the order may be out of sync but here is what we remember:
Opened with:
MacArthur Park
I Feel Love
Dim All The Lights
I am a fire
Sand on my feet
On the Radio
Mr Music
Crayons
Stamp
La Vie En Rose
No More Tears
Hard For the money
Bad Girls
Hot Stuff
Last Dance
- DEN14 |
I just read your Niagara Falls review and I thought I better get busy with the Horseshoe Casino review. First of all I may need to explain the background. For my fiftieth birthday, I told my partner I wanted him to book Donna. I have been after him to do it for 2 years so he would have plenty of time. When I saw on your FABULOUS site that Donna was going to be in Hammond I took matters into my own hands. When the tickets went on sale, you had to be an American Express gold card member. (How was I to know my partner had one???). Determined to get good seats I called the casino directly and got 6 seats in the middle of the 5th row. I had to get six...me, Jim (my partner) and four friends who listen to Donna (ok forced by me) but had never seen her in concert. I needed my entourage because I was celebrating my birthday 6 months early!!
We got to the casino 3 hours before the concert. We figured gambling was in order. One friend did extremely well and the rest of us should have stayed in the bar. At 6:30 we made our way to The Venue. As we were going in (we are an extremely talkative bunch) the ticket lady became our friend and she informed us that the show was sold out and they added some extra chairs. We ordered cocktails in celebration.
We took our seats and were surprised that the 4 rows in front of us were mainly occupied by late twenty to early thirty people. I was expecting fuddy duddy high stake rollers. The kill joys ended up being the 2 forty-nine year olds sitting next to me. Anyway, just a little after 7, the band started playing, and the first bars of MacArthur Park started and the crowd went wild. (I must give kudos to the crowd...loud and enthusiastic). The screen turned and there was Donna and she went into MacArthur Park. The crowd actually got louder. I wish I had got a picture of her smile at that moment. You can tell she was surprised and happy. The fourth song was I'm A Fire and she had to tell us to sit that she was going to give us something to stand for later. It helped that the young people in front of us knew the new material. She was funny, told great stories and for the first time she really interacted with the crowd....at least more than I have ever seen her do. You can tell she was on a time schedule. Nathan kept her informed of her time. (Being so close I could catch part of the interaction). One of the many best parts, we got 2 Last Dance. When she came out for the encore and started Last Dance, the crowd started screaming and never stopped. At the end of the first version, she dropped her head and when she looked up there were tears coming down. She started blowing kisses at the audience (wrong move because they started yelling louder). She walked over to Nathan and we got Last Dance again. She ended the concert with 2 minutes to spare.
She has four new fans. My friends talked about her until 3 am while we gambled, again at breakfast, for the three hour trip home, and here it is Wednesday and they are still texting about her. Her voice was exceptional that night. Her spirits high. As for me...I am still hoarse and I broke my pinky clapping. As for the kill joys sitting next to me....after the 3rd song they traded seats with a young couple who were dancing and clapping just not as vigorous as us.
I did not take a lot of pictures (see clapping, yelling and broken pinky) but I am including what I did get when I remembered I had a camera.
Thank you so much for your site.
Derek
PS...I almost forgot...here is the song list:
MacArthur Park
I Feel Love
Dim All the Lights
I'm A Fire
Sand On My Feet
On The Radio
Mr. Music
Crayons
La Vie En Rose
Enough Is Enough (with Mary)
Stamp Your Feet
She Works Hard For The Money
Bad Girls
Hot Stuff
Last Dance (twice)
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