The Donna Summer Tribute Site

Windsor, ON 

August 27-28, 2008

Do not read ANY of these fan reports if you want to be surprised when you see the show!

You have been warned!  ;-)

If you heard a song you liked at the show, why not buy a download of the original?

 

 

Well, I saw Donna perform at the Coliseum in Caesars Windsor yesterday, and I just have to say…it was Fan-Bloody-Tastic! As I expected, the majority of the people seemed to be the casino crowd, a lot of elderly people with a few younger in the mix. I had a prime seat, centre section, eight rows from the front, near the centre of the row. Couldn’t ask for a better seat -- it pays to book your show ticket on the day it comes out. The Coliseum holds around 5000 people, and in my estimation, the room was packed to the rafters.

It was a 2-hour performance all told, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of the show was dedicated to tracks from Crayons -- pretty much a 50-50 split between new songs and old classics. In fact, the only songs from Crayons that weren’t performed were Brazil, Science Of Love and Be Myself Again. I loved the digital screens that projected different things (such as flames during her performance of I’m A Fire), they were definitely used to good effect.

Donna looked fabulous, and she sounded awesome, it blew me away. I loved the fact that she changed outfits about 5 times during the show. My favourite was the multicoloured dress she wore after the first costume change. And as for the crowd response, they responded extremely well to her hits, getting up and dancing like nobody's business. It must be said, there’s nothing more amusing than the sight of an elderly grey-haired lady getting up on her feet and dancing her heart out to Donna.

For the most part, unfortunately, the new songs weren’t working their magic on the crowd -- probably because most of the patrons are just there for the free tickets and may only be familiar with her hits, but I did notice a couple of the songs did seem to get audience approval. I could definitely tell there were Donna fans in the audience. One guy was all dolled up in a suit holding a vinyl copy of “On The Radio” and a young guy a few rows in front was wearing a shirt with a recent picture of Donna with the word “EMPRESS” in silver sequins over the picture. Made me laugh.

Here’s a run through of the set list. As I said, the show went about 2 hrs (from 8pm to 10pm)…

1. Changing Of The Guard
2. The Queen Is Back
3. I Feel Love
4. Dim All The Lights
5. I’m A Fire
6. Sand On My Feet
7. On The Radio
8. Mr. Music
9. Crayons
10. Enough Is Enough
11. MacArthur Park
12. Bring Down The Reign
13. Stamp Your Feet
14. Slide Over Backwards
15. Selah (Mary’s solo)
16. She Works Hard For The Money
17. Bad Girls
18. Hot Stuff
19. Fame (The Game)
20. Last Dance

A few notes about the new songs…

I loved Donna’s entrance during the intro to QIB. The purple screen rotated and she was frozen in a pose as it revolved around. The thing I noticed is how great most of the new Crayons songs sound live. I was especially thrilled she performed Fame, as I didn’t expect her to sing so many new tracks. I also loved her rendition of Sand On My Feet, which she performed in a bit slower tempo, absolutely lovely. Sadly, I was least impressed with her performance of Crayons, mainly because she seemed to have forgotten the words to the first verse, but she did recover in the end.. I loved the “iDons” during Mr. Music. Though I have to say the dancers were a bit distracting during some of the songs (not to say they weren‘t good, they were pretty acrobatic), but I did like the parody they did of the iPod “shadow people”. The crowd really liked Stamp Your Feet, and I thought it was a fine performance. Bring Down The Reign was very nice done live, and it did seem a genuinely heart-felt performance. I really liked how Donna did Slide Over Backwards as Hattie Mae. Mary and the other girls told us the back story of “Hattie Mae” and then Donna came out and performed. After that, Mary performed her song Selah, after also getting an even more ridiculous name than “Hattie Mae Blanche Dubois” (sadly I can’t remember the names, I lost count after the 10th name frankly). Mary performed well, and I really liked the song. And as for Fame (The Game), I loved it, Donna really nailed it.

I was so impressed with Donna’s performance, and I was so happy to have gotten as good a seat as I did. It was a joy to see the crowd up and dancing and having a great old time! And she’s got one more show in Windsor tonight. I wonder if it’ll be as good as it was yesterday. It’ll be pretty hard to top!

P.S. Though photography wasn’t allowed at the venue, I snuck my camera in (I’m so naughty, naughty!) and managed to take a couple really good pics of Donna, I was actually blown away considering the lighting isn’t exactly optimal and even being 8 rows back it isn’t super close to the stage, not to mention that I didn’t use my flash. I wasn’t the only one to take a camera, the people on either side of me had one too. So I was in good company. Sadly I only got about as far as halfway through the show when I stopped snapping. I was too nervous about being spotted that I put the camera away. I did manage to get a good two dozen or so shots thankfully.

One other thing: Before the concert, I noticed the lady next to me wearing a Crayons t-shirt. I found out they were selling merchandise and completely missed it on my way down to the Coliseum. I high-tailed it back there and bought one for myself. They did have that hoodie, but it was a bit too rich for my blood -- as it was this t-shirt was $35. Ouch. But how could I not see a Donna show and not buy a t-shirt.

I think I need a lie-down now from all the excitement!

Summer2K

Just got back from DONNA's concert at the Caesars Windsor tonight on the 8/ 27th. She was simply fabulous!!! The song list was

-Queen is back
-I feel love
-Dim all the lights
-I'm a fire
-sand on my feet
-On the radio
-Mr. Music
-Crayons (with samples of Hall and Oates' Maneater)
-EiE (No more tears)
-MacArthur Park
-Bring Down the reign
-Stamp your Feet
-Slide over backyard
-Mary's Selah
-SWH4T$
-Bad Girls/Hot Stuff
-Fame (the game)
-Last Dance.

The production was a nice improvement from the past concerts and the technical aspects of the show enhanced Donna's fabulous vocals. The three male dancers (ok, I am in love with white boy J. Benz) had the tough job of firing up the crowd during some of the new material, which seemed to have been decently received by this audience. Some people were dancing along for most of the show. I did have issues with a small portion of the crowds towards the front left of the stage... Geriatric! But by the time Bad Girls was on... most people were up and all over the place dancing.

The sound was crystal clear and the beat contagious. The new material translated quite well onto the live stage and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a magical night indeed. Concert lasted about 1 hr and 45 mins. but the icing on the cake... getting to meet DONNA backstage after the show. It was a brief meet and photo moment, but Donna, wearing dark glasses, and a glittery gold suit looked very much the shinning star she is. Needless to say... I am never washing my right hand again after touching the Diva's hand as well... LOL!!!
All in all... another fabulous night by Donna and crew.
PS- Mary Bernard sounded equally fabulous during her solo number. Bravo!!!

- Julio

Just got back from seeing Donna at Caesar's Windsor, and it was a great show (both shows were sold out). Donna looked fabulous, and sounded even better! For an older crowd, they were really into the show. BTW, I think I was sitting about 8 rows behind Emile (summer2k), but was too shy to say hello. So glad Donna sneaked in Fame after Hot Stuff! They segue really well. Donna also kept cutting up during the Hattie Mae bit. Really good to see her enjoy herself, and the audience was laughing along as well. When she sang Sand On My Feet, I heard some casual fans around me saying "what a beautiful song", and for the most part, they responded well to the new stuff. They just got really enthusiastic about the hits, This could be the best Donna show I have seen, and the audience seemed to have summer fever.

- Brett

August 27th was a hot summer night in Windsor. I put on my Donna Summer concert t-shirt from 3 years ago, grabbed my passport and headed for the Detroit-Windsor tunnel to the Caesar's casino in downtown Windsor, Ontario. When stopped at the Canadian border, I told the border guard I was headed to the casino. She asked "Are you going to see Donna Summer?" Apparently there were many cars traveling from Michigan to head to Windsor that night to see her. The Windsor Casino was bought by Caesar's and it just was renovated to double its size and a new theatre was created that holds 5,000 people. Tickets went on sale in April. Donna had two shows booked for the venue. I was thrilled to know I had 3rd row seats almost center stage. I met Steve Woznicki and a few other friends at the casino. Funny story, Steve was also asked by a different border guard if he was seeing Donna Summer as well. The show was completely sold out for both nights. We invited Al Hamood to go, but he had booked a trip to Lebanon before knowing about the concert. Tom Gilliam was going to the concert the next day. When I arrived, I was about the only one wearing a Donna t-shirt. I received many comments on my shirt.

I saw Donna's first show of this tour at Wolftrap and now I was seeing her again towards the end of the concert tour. It is always interesting to see what worked, what didn't work at what has changed. Con Te Partiro was removed and replaced with Bring Down the Reign. I had to wonder when someone had the time to do all the graphics on the screens behind her for Bring Down the Reign? Where they completed while the tour was active? When did they have time to reherse this? Also at Wolftrap, she included "Science of Love" in-between "She Works Hard for the Money" and "Bad Girls". I noticed this song was removed from the Windsor line-up, which I thought was a good choice. Once you are dancing to "She Works Hard.." you want to keep them up for "Bad Girls." The encore, I believe at Wolftrap started with " Be Myself Again". This was replaced with "Fame" which is really great live! I was glad I got to see this. 

When Donna came out to talk to the crowd, she stated her mother's parents were from Nova Scotia, which made her part Canadian. Then she said the familiar "eh?" which is a very popular phrase heard in Canada. I noticed her body guard was also on the stage. I had never noticed this before. Usually the body guard is behind stage. Donna appeared to be having fun on the stage and even laughed and forgot her "Hattie Mae" speech a couple of times when introducing Mary to take center stage.

One thing I find interesting with the Donna Summer Crowds. We are still there, but we are a little older now. Way back 20 years ago we were up dancing in our seats when she entered the stage. Now, most people just sort of move around while sitting in their seats, not wanting to stand up and block the view of the person behind them. As Donna's concert progressed, more and more people would stand up and dance. Then, for the final song, Last Dance, everyone in the arena finally stood up to do the last dance of the night. All except one older gentleman in the front row. Donna even motioned to him to stand up, but he shook his head no, but with a smile. 

The Show ended and we went to a lounge for a while that overlooked the river to downtown Detroit. It was a great night. Two women we were with were walking through the casino to go back to their car. They found the band members at a bar and stopped to hang out with them. The band invited them back to the concert the next night. I haven't yet heard back from them as to how the concert went. 

I am always thrilled to hear and read Donna Summer fan stories and enjoy seeing the photos of people that have met Donna. I feel we, as the old fan club, open this door to welcome Donna fans back stage. I am happy to see that continuing. This was a fun night and another great concert by Donna.

Keep your feet moving

Jerry Kovach

 

Photo from Brett
Photo from Jerry Kovack

 

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