Squeeze is one of those groups that I’ve always liked. Their songs are quirky, catchy, funny, intelligent and soulful (like one of my all time favorite songs and one of their classics, Tempted). I finally bought a compilation of their hits when my husband and I went to London back in 2007, but I’ve never seen them in concert. A friend of mine saw them here in San Diego back on April 10 of this year, and I actually forgot about that show until she told me, and I wished I had gone. When they added a Harrah’s Rincon date for their Summer Dance Tour with The B-52s, I snapped up some tickets for my sister and I to finally see them.
I had a feeling that the crowd would be there mainly to see The B-52s. With mega-hits like Roam and Love Shack, they were the perfect dance party band. It was a nice night, still a bit warm with a cool breeze, so it definitely felt like summer when I heard Rock Lobster. While they played older songs like Give Me Back My Man, Whammy Kiss and Planet Clair, I would loved to have heard Dance This Mess Around and my favorite B-52s song, Legal Tender. Overall, they were a good crowd pleaser. I saw that some of the crowd dissipated after their set, and for the sake of Squeeze, I hoped that they were mainly just getting drinks between sets.
I was most anxious when Squeeze took the stage because I knew which songs I wanted to hear. I checked their most recent setlist on my Live Nation app to see if I would hear my favorites, and I definitely heard everything that I wanted to hear. This is my first time using Setlist.fm (acquired by Live Nation apparently), and I’m definitely going to use them from now on! This is the setlist from the Greek Theater concert, which was very similar to the one at Harrah’s. I bolded all of my favorites:
- Take Me I’m Yours
- If I Didn’t Love You
- In Quintessence
- Is That Love
- Tommy
- Top of the Form
- Another Nail in My Heart
- Melody Motel
- Cool for Cats
- Up the Junction
- Honey Trap
- Goodbye Girl
- Bang Bang
- Annie Get Your Gun
- Hourglass
- Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
- Tempted
- Encore: Slap and Tickle
- Encore: Black Coffee in Bed
Squeeze were extremely humble and almost self deprecating. Glenn Tilbrook said at one point “Thank you SO much for staying…and those of you right here (he held his arms out to the people directly in front who were dancing), PLEASE DON’T LEAVE!” I jumped up and was on my feet for In Quintessence, Is That Love, Another Nail in My Heart and Goodbye Girl. The animation for Up the Junction was funny and my sister and I ran down for all the songs from Annie Get Your Gun to the final encore of Black Coffee In Bed. Tempted was simply amazing, and I had no idea just how great a guitarist Glenn Tilbrook was. He and Chris Difford sounded amazing live and I appreciated the audience inclusion and participation. I felt transported back to my teen years watching and hearing them live, because I finally get to add them to my long list of concerts that I meant to see back in the 80’s. As expected, I’m in the throes of listening to and watching anything and everything Squeeze to continue the concert high from the Harrah’s show.
Yes, I more than quite like Squeeze. I think I love them.
(Featured image courtesy of Squeeze Official. Concert images of B-52s & Squeeze taken by Rholnna Jiao.)