ABBA-Mania, closest thing possible to an ABBA show

[cairnterrier]

This evening I took in the Talcott Mountain Music Festival at the Simsbury (Connecticut) Performing Arts Center (A large and impressive open air field facility...and my new favorite place to see live music.) The headlining act was the ABBA tribute band ABBA-Mania performing with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

I must say....not only did the four main members look exactly like ABBA, if you closed your eyes, you would not know the difference from the real thing. Along with the great acoustics of the venue, the music was beautifully enhanced by the full accompanying orchestra...in simple terms the performance was rich, powerful....and ROCKED!!! While I never was able to see ABBA perform live in their heyday....I can only assume that what I saw tonight was about as accurate as it could have been.

Setlist for this concert:

First set

*Mama-Mia
*Voules-Vou
*Does Your Mother Know
*Chiquatita
*Give Me Give Me Give Me (a Man After Midnight)
*Summer Night City
*Waterlou
*Fernando
*Thank You For the Music
*Super Trouper

Second Set

*S.O.S.
*One Of Us
*Knowing Me Knowing You
*I Have a Dream
*Lay All Your Love On Me
*Winner Takes It All
*Money Money MOney
*Take a Chance On Me

Encore

*Dancing Queen

Worth every penny of the $25.00 Ticket and then some!

[dave910]

Jul 10, 2009 23:00:18 GMT -5 cairnterrier said:

This evening I took in the Talcott Mountain Music Festival at the Simsbury (Connecticut) Performing Arts Center (A large and impressive open air field facility...and my new favorite place to see live music.) The headlining act was the ABBA tribute band ABBA-Mania performing with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

I must say....not only did the four main members look exactly like ABBA, if you closed your eyes, you would not know the difference from the real thing. Along with the great acoustics of the venue, the music was beautifully enhanced by the full accompanying orchestra...in simple terms the performance was rich, powerful....and ROCKED!!! While I never was able to see ABBA perform live in their heyday....I can only assume that what I saw tonight was about as accurate as it could have been.

Setlist for this concert:

First set

*Mama-Mia
*Voules-Vou
*Does Your Mother Know
*Chiquatita
*Give Me Give Me Give Me (a Man After Midnight)
*Summer Night City
*Waterlou
*Fernando
*Thank You For the Music
*Super Trouper

Second Set

*S.O.S.
*One Of Us
*Knowing Me Knowing You
*I Have a Dream
*Lay All Your Love On Me
*Winner Takes It All
*Money Money MOney
*Take a Chance On Me

Encore

*Dancing Queen

Worth every penny of the $25.00 Ticket and then some!

I'm glad you enjoyed the show. Seeing that the original members of ABBA have no plans to reunite, this is the closest thing you'll get to see from a reunion.

[cairnterrier]

Amazing thing being here....at this particular concert, there were 22,000 people in attendance. 22,000 people paying to see a tribute band! Can you imagine if ABBA actually did do a reunion tour?

[Dawn]

I've heard that the members have been offered staggering sums of money to do even one performance - but so far no go.

I agree, 22,000 is a very impressive turnout for a tribute band. It definitely says something about the enduring popularity of the music.

Good to see that ABBA-mania mixed in some of the deeper cuts along with the hits. I'd like to catch this show myself if they're ever in my area.

[cairnterrier]

Yes....the members have been offered giant sums of money but have repeatedly turned them down.....all of them stating that they reuniting would simply be the band living in the past and not truly being what they are today.....in short they are saying that they are 60 year olds who don't want to perform with people seeing them as 25 year olds. While I see where they are coming from, I think one tour for an appreciation for the fans would be amazing.

As for for the set list of the concert I saw....yes, I loved the deeper cuts as well. The hits were great...you had to expect "Dancing Queen" as the last song much like Billy Joel playing "Piano Man"....but to hear "Fernando" played with the full orchestra was ear candy plain and simple. In that case....I think they actually played it better than the original. It was that good!