Vienna, VA July 5, 2008 Fan Reports

This is a set list courtesy of Brian - his review is yet to come. :-)

Intro/Changing Of The Guard
The Queen Is Back
I Feel Love
Dim All The Lights
Con Te Partiro
I’m a Fire
Sand On My Feet
On The Radio
Crayons
Mr. Music
-----Intermission-----
Enough Is Enough (Duet with Mary)
MacArthur Park
Be Myself Again
Stamp Your Feet
Slide Over Backwards (as Hattie May)
Selah (Mary solo)
She Works Hard For The Money
Science of Love
Bad Girls
Hot Stuff
Encore: Last Dance

And now the review:

Summer Stamps Her Feet At Wolf Trap
By: Brian Walmer from Elizabethtown, PA

Guess who's back? Guess who's back? The Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, is back with a new album after 17 years and a summer tour to back it. The Stamp Your Feet 2008 Summer Tour made it's opening night debut at The Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA Saturday night to a packed house of fans. What better way to spend a warm 4th of July weekend then with the "Hot Stuff" artist who has only gotten better in her near 40 year career?

The tour, Summer's first major production show in years, combined a variety of elements including 5 video screens, a 10 piece band, 3 dancers and 7 costume changes that kept the show going through nearly 2 hours worth of music with a brief intermission.
The opening of the show was truly fit for a queen…Summer appeared at the top of the staircase on a rotating video screen as she performed "The Queen Is Back" while dressed in a stunning purple bedazzled gown and 3 dancers performed dressed as guards. Summer performed many of the songs off her critically acclaimed Top 20 album, "Crayons", for the first time including her 2 number one dance singles from the album, "I'm a Fire" & "Stamp Your Feet". She also performed quite a few of her hits to the excited crowd and when she asked them to get up and dance, everyone was on their feet singing and dancing for the queen.

A few lyric flubs on new tracks and microphone problems plagued the night, but other than that Summer proved that she is truly a force to be reckoned with. At 59, Summer is looking great for a grandmother and not slowing down. You can tell that she loves performing live for her enthusiastic fans and interacted with them throughout the evening.

One of the most touching moments was the performance of "Be Myself Again", which truly showcased the performer's songwriting talents. Another new track, "Slide Over Backwards", introduced the crowd to a character Summer created named Hattie Mae Blanche Dubois. Mary Bernhard Gaines, Donna's sister and one of her three background singers, performed a gospel song from her recently released album to fill time while Summer changed during the second half of the show. Gaines also performed a duet with her sister on "Enough Is Enough", a song Donna made famous with Barbara Streisand.

To round off the night, Ms. Summer performed the ultimate girl power song, "She Works Hard For The Money", along with mega-hits "Bad Girls" & "Hot Stuff" which had the crowd on it's feet. "Last Dance" was Donna's encore and had the crowd cheering and applauding throughout quite possibly the best song to come out of the Disco-Era.

I'm just getting back from the show. and I have to tell you, you are going to be in for a treat! First off the stage set was incredible.

Here is the song set:

Queen is Back
I feel Love
Dim All The lights
I will Go With You
I'm A Fire
Sand on my Feet
On The Radio
Crayons
Mr. Music

Intermission:
9:15

No More Tears ( EIE)
MacArthur Park
Be My Self Again
Stamp Your Feet
Slide Over Backwards
Mary sings her song from her album
She Works Hard For The Money
Science Of Love
Bad Girls
Hot Stuff
Last Dance.

Now that's out of the way. 8:00pm Beginning of the show the band comes out in white for the first part of the show. Some type of music plays and this big screen in the middle of stage. Three dancers dressed in marching band uniforms come out as the Queen is back starts to play. The Screen begins to turn around and out comes Donna wearing purple sparkling long dress, long hair and great set of pumps matching the dress. behind her is the crown symbol. Yes she's back, now you know your Queen is Back. She looked amazing. voice in perfect form.

Then she talks for a bit welcoming everyone and starts singing I Feel Love. It's the same from L&ME. But I couldn't believe she would sing this. The crowd loved Donna.

Then starts with Dim All The Lights. Crowd again starts dancing and singing. Then, she talks about a song she heard a guy singing and I was really surprised that she was going to sing this song for the very first time I've been to her concert. She sings the Italian version first of I Will Go With You before going into the dance version. and we were blow away when she hit the final note, I thought she was going to do the low note. but no she did the high note. Perfectly.

Next she sings I'm A Fire the album version. let me tell you it really sounds good live, she did the whole version. just before the song ended. Three young good looking guys came out wearing orange shirts and black pants. Dancing. While Donna goes change for the next song. The light and the props through out the show was fantastic. you have to see it. It's hard to describe while writing this.

Next Donna comes out wearing a dress ( think of Peruvian ) colors orange pastels and velvets. She sings Sand On My Feet. **Just a note here all the songs from Crayons sound really good live** Then we go into On The Radio and the audience were her background singers.

Next song was Crayons. the Ziggy part was sung by Warren Ham one of the keyboard players in the band. The Dancers come out wearing sleeveless tees, green, red and yellow. black sweats. Donna still wearing same dress. The dancer were good, that add to the show very well. And then two of the dancers pull two props out with the box of 24 Crayons onto the stage. the colors just blast.

Next song just before it starts, the guys changed the props to matching iPods and then Mr. Music plays. Donna says, I love music. Dancer are dancing Donna looks at them strange. She must have given one of them the evil eye. because one the iPods wouldn't light up. ( Someone's in big trouble ). Then Donna goes off stage to get ready for the second half of the show. Time 8:55 Intermission.

9:15

Band comes out in Black outfits.

Donna comes out and starts to sing No More Tears (EIE) Wearing Red pantsuit with Red umbrella with Mary wearing Black pantsuit Black umbrella. and then lightening strikes across the screen and MacArthur Park starts. Donna again hits the high note and holds it perfectly and sings the bridge part as well. then she goes into Be My Self Again. sang beautifully. Then goes to the back. The Dancers ( the guys) come out wearing football uniforms and act like they're fighting. Donna takes off her jacket and talks to them and then Stamp Your Feet starts. Donna is also moving around. This woman has energy you wouldn't believe.

After that, she changes into another outfit wearing black pants and matching blouse, with Hattie Mae hat white with a red heart. Mary talks about this woman before Donna comes out and sings Slide Over Backwards. after singing that. Donna has Mary sing one of her songs from her new album while she goes and changes into a pantsuit silver grey looking almost like the one she wore on the Today show but without the fluffs. And we Sing She Works Hard For The Money.

Next song was Science Of Love, perfect form. She still has her pipes. Then Bad Girls, Hot Stuff and the final closing Last Dance. yes, that ain't I worth a dime-a-dance...lol did a few bars more before the final ooh. The show was Fabulous! you have got to see her. I'm going to see her again in a couple weeks for the Baltimore show.

On sale:

the Crayons cd

Crayons t-shirts the Eye t-Shirt (yellow and orange w/ Donna Summer name)

Crayon 8x11 postercard. I'll get that at the next concert.

Crayons hoodies men/ladies

No programs :(

that's it. I'm sure other fans will post their reviews here soon. some in more details than mines. and some pics. I wish I could take pics but didn't since last time I was at Wolf Trap I couldn't get any shots with the ushers around. Hope the Baltimore show will allow cameras. Hugs all.

- Eston

Just got back, and I'm glad to say that Donna put on one hell of a show! The backgrounds, costumes, dancers, everything was spot on.

The set was basically four giant back projection screens. Two on the right and two on the left. In the center there was a larger revolving screen with one side clad in cloth . This would be used for Donna's entrance The base on the set was also cover in back projection material.

Appropriately the show opened with the changing of the guard. The dancers came out in purple and white guard regalia. I can't remember what song they were dancing to, but it was an instrumental piece which than segued into "The Queen is Back"! Donna was wearing a full length purple gown which was highlighted with sparkling sequins. The hair was worn long like the recent TV appearances. Donna was a little shaky on the lyrics, and I'm not sure if it got the show off to a great start. After this Donna welcomed the audience and explained that she had a new CD out called "Crayons" and to please "go out and buy it" when we had the chance. At this point I'm a little shaky as to what order things happened but highlights included: rousing renditions of "MacArthur Park", "I'm A Fire" (which really does need to be shortened to a decent length), and "I Feel Love"; we than got "Crayons" with the dancers coming out in Crayola inspired tops. During this song the dancers rolled giant boxes of crayons onto the stage and once this song was done they were than revealed to be huge iPod screens, and this of course led to "Mr. Music". Surprisingly we also got "I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro)" sung mostly in Italian!

Donna and the "real Diva" Mary sang "Enough is Enough". Donna wore a red "metallic - like" pantsuit during this performance coupled with a long matching jacket. "Be Myself Again" followed. Once this song was over three football players took to the stage. Two of them were chastising their fellow teammate and Donna tried to break up the fight the best way she knew how: with a song - "Stamp Your Feet"! Donna ripped off her jacket to reveal a tight black corset coupled with a team jersey!

Once this song was over Mary walked out on stage and gave us a little gossip about Miss Hattie Mae. They call here Miss Hattie because of her extravagant hats. Apparently she had recently come into some money after marrying a man and following him to Chicago. Upon her return to Louisiana, Miss Hattie had gained some more names: Blanche Dubois. Miss Hattie opened up her own Po-Boy restaurant and this led into Hattie taking the stage to perform "Slide Over Backwards". Some great choreography with the background singers and dancers participating. "Hattie" was wearing form-fitting black pants which flared out below the knee (this is a great way to shape Donna's figure with most of her pants in the show like this), the black corset was now coupled with a black blouse with slits on the sleeves. Donna than gave the spotlight to sister Mary who performed a stunning track from her new CD. Donna returned wearing the gold/metallic/leather? pantsuit and jacket that she wore at the Mansion launch last month. Donna gave some insight into her song writing inspirations telling the famous story of Onetta. "She Works Hard for the Money" and "Science of Love" followed. "Last Dance" closed the show with Donna returning to the stage in a full length fitted black gown with spaghetti straps. The audience went absolutely wild! I thought my eardrums were going to be damaged! It was an amazing first night, but I'm sure some minor issues (like Donna not knowing the words to some of the new songs!) will be smoothed out as the show rolls on.

As far as the new songs go I can't really tell what the audience's reactions were. Whenever an oldie came on the audience was on their feet in no time. When a new song came on they were firmly in their seats! My friend and I were the only ones up during the new stuff (and we were rudely shouted at to sit down by some people behind us!!!). Donna was clearly struggling to make a connecting with the audience on the new stuff, even instructing us to get up and dance at one point. However she shouldn't be discouraged by this because during intermission and after the show the new CD sold like hotcakes! So, go figure!

It was a great experience with a sold-out crowd, and I can't wait to see her again when she comes to Baltimore.

The set list in no particular order was:
MacArthur Park
Bad Girls
Hot Stuff
Dim All the Lights
I Feel Love
She Works Hard for the Money
I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro)
Last Dance
Stamp Your Feet
Mr. Music
Crayons
The Queen is Back
Sand on My Feet
I'm A Fire
Slide Over Backwards
Science of Love
Be Myself Again

-Mykol1 (shamelessly stolen off the forums ;-) )

Vienna, VA - 2008 Tour Kick off

July 5, 2008

© 2008, the author(s) & photographer

Copyright 1997-2015

Photos courtesy of Ron S Click any image for a larger version