GARY NUMAN
NORTH AMERICAN “PURE” TOUR
Reviews
April 17, 2001 9:30 Club Washington, D.C.

Richard Stott writes:

EXCELLENT gig for opening night of Pure Tour 2001!!!!!!! Solid showing by the band and our man.....opened w/ Pure (of course) and proceded to play just about all of the songs on Pure and some classics like Cars, AFE, DITP, Remind Me to Smile, Metal, Q of F, Films........I think Exile was represented by Innocence Bleeding, but I have to check again.......... Crowd was great but more than a bit pushy. I think the show was about 80% sold....there was some room to move but not much. Worst part of the night was waiting 1 1/2 hrs in the cold, wind and rain and finally having to give up waiting to meet up w/ Gary after the show.......1:00am and he still hadn't come out.........I was totally numb, soaked and miserable and just couldn't wait any longer. Tour shirts are rather strange.....black shirt, white "negative" of the Pure cover w/ Gary w/ his arms out.......tour dates on the back. Purified CDR was $15, shirts were $20........no other items available. Gary seemed to be having some sound problems w/ his monitor early on but it seemed to be rectified quickly.

Sid writes:

: Holy shit. I really haven't heard any new Numan material since "I, Assassin." I own old stuff, and still listen to it, and thought it would be a trip to see the show just to hear "Down in the Park" live. I know he's been putting out music since then and has developed a following of little goth/industrial kids, but I never heard the stuff. I almost didn't go because it was a blah day and none of my friends were intested. For a while I regretted going because the opening band, GwenMars, was so painfully bad. Then Gary and the band finally took the stage. My jaw dropped all the way from the balcony (center stage - perfect) to the sound guy's head when Steve Harris came onstage and began to lose his shit. I haven't seen energy like that in forever - felt like I was at a punk show again (a real one ... not the crap that passes for it now). The mohawk and the bondage pants are defnitely a killer combo. He's a punk rock Jimmy Hendrix. I honestly thought he was going to set his guitar on fire as he was dancing around it light an inspired madman. As they opened with "Pure" I realized I had heard that song before ... but never made the connection. Gary has aged damn well - both musically and physically. He's fucking fierce! That's the best way to describe the live show. FIERCE. I never dreamed I would see people banging their heads and thrashing about to "Cars." The entire set was phenomenal. I've been to hundreds of gigs and seen many bands, and truly believed I was getting tired of music. The past few years concerts have bored me, even when it's bands I've loved a long time. Gary's show shot chills through my body, the kind I haven't felt at a concert since being a teen-ager. The band was tight and Gary was right on and the lighting was just perfect. "Down in the Park" turned out to be, of course, brilliant, as was "Telekon" and "Are Friends Electric?" Gary had the presence of young David Bowie and the flailing of Henry Rollins. The crowd was a mix of people my age (30) or older and little goth kids with white faces, everyone enjoying the hell out of themselves and screaming every time Gary struck a new wave pose. My only complaint, other than the weakness of the opening band, is I wish Gary had played longer than an hour and a half. It went by way too quickly.

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