Comments by SueW:
The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville (pronounced Sara-ville) seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but it was advertised as "New Jersey’s premiere rock venue" and it was packed! There were probably 10 times more people there than there were in Hartford.

It was VERY hot in there! In Hartford Patty Smyth complained about how cold it was but tonight she mentioned the heat! Kasim started off with a jacket and soon took it off. He used a towel to wipe his face a couple of times too.

The Starland Ballroom did look like an old ballroom (or a barn!) with a wooden floor for the standing area around the stage and raised bars along the sides and back. During each act a screen would drop down and they showed videos, plus announced their forthcoming acts. They also twice stressed all the fire exits and how they are way and beyond the New Jersey fire regulations.

The music for all the acts was VERY loud! It’s no wonder that this venue is situated in the middle of nowhere!

TicketMaster said that the gig started at 7.00pm but the venue website said the doors didn’t open until 8.00pm. As I knew there were 3 opening bands, I decided to get there at about 9.00pm but it turned out that was about 2 minutes before the first band took the stage!

They were called More (their website is www.MoreNYC.com) and I thought they were pretty good. It was loud rock music but all of them looked like they were enjoying themselves and they threw in a slow one near the end.

The next act was John Monnecka who was excellent. He played an acoustic guitar and sang but he REALLY knew how to play the guitar - I was sure that I could almost hear drums as he was playing it! There were some people in front of me who were just there to see him and they said that he didn’t even play his best song!

The final opening act was The Christine Martucci Band who I really didn’t enjoy much at all. To be fair, it didn’t help that I’d been awake for about 26 hours by then, I was very hot and my feet ached like anything but I just didn’t find anything too melodic about her singing and her stage presence was non-existent to me.

It only took about 20 minutes for them to set up Scandal’s set. The instruments were on stage for the other acts so it was only a case of bringing them forward, re-tuning them and testing the microphones. Patty’s microphone is obviously set at twice the volume of the others and I thought it was amusing that the guy would test "bass mike 1-2-3-4-5" and not "Kasim’s mike"! (The keyboard mike was tested up to 10!) Considering how much of Lights On is Thommy Price singing, I’m surprised that he doesn’t actually sing on stage!

Finally at 11.15pm Patty Smyth and Scandal took the stage! They played for about 90 minutes to 12.45am.

During Hands Tied Patty’s microphone came away from its cord so she couldn’t sing at all during the second verse. Thankfully a tech came on stage and fixed it quite quickly.

Kasim’s voice came over really clearly and string in Hands Tied tonight!

"We’re going to take a trip down memory lane - this is all a trip down memory lane! It can’t be 24 years, can it?"

After Downtown Train Patty sang "Metro North Train" and said that she used to often take that train to write songs with Glen Burtnik.

After Heartache Heard Round The World (which contains the line "I’m a rock and roll woman") Patty said that now she’s a rock and roll woman!

Patty said that Out There was written about her sister.

The crowd obviously all really enjoyed The warrior again tonight! After the song, Patty started singing the chorus again with the crowd!

Patty said that this tour was a "love fest" and that they only got together because of Bands Reunited. Patty them mentioned all the band in passing but went back to stress that the tour is only happening because Kasim agreed to play! She said that he grew up with Thommy Price and they wrote together and Kasim received another round of applause! Despite all that, Kasim still seems to hang towards the back of the stage far more than he does with other artists. He seems to chat and joke with Keith but he plays looking down at the stage far more than he usually does (and these songs can hardly be musically taxing compared to the songs on the set list for The Liars Tour!).

Kasim was wearing blue jeans and a black T-shirt with his beige coloured jacket for the beginning of the set. He either had some paper or a handkerchief sticking out of his jacket pocket which made it look quite distinguished!

Patty said that No Mistakes was written when she moved her daughter out to California and she felt so "guilt-ridden" about that.

After Beat Of A Heart Patty sang some of Mercedes Benz before asking us if we knew who she was married to and that he was at home with the 6 kids so that was why she was so happy to be at the gig tonight! She did then say that she wrote Wish I Were You about John.

Next we had the highlight of the gig for me Sometime Love Just Ain't Enough - Kasim’s voice was just brilliant in that tonight! He sings the chorus in the song and the lines about the thunder and the rain but he never actually sings the words "Sometime Love Just Ain't Enough"! He gets as far as "Sometime Love Just Ain't" at the end of the song though!

After Goodbye To You they left the stage for a couple of minutes and then just Patty and Keith came back. They then performed a song by Lucinda Williams called Sweet Old World. Patty said that the song reminded her of her dad (who died when he was only 35) and of all the other people she had lost to drugs and things.

The rest of the band all came back on stage for the final song River Deep, Mountain High ("No matter what you’re doing or where you are, fast and hard is always good!"). Kasim sings a lot of "Do, dah-do"s in that song!

Before they left the stage, Patty said that they would come back out later and sign anything that people wanted signed "including boobs"!

It was the first time for quite a while that I left a gig with my ears ringing! No wonder they were selling ear plugs for $2 there!

Thommy Price

And now time for bed!

They actually kept to the set list tonight!
("Sometimes Love" was Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough and not Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing!)

Many thanks to Gary "Goat" Goveia for all the photos on this page

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