She came out wearing a nice dark button down shirt w/ a white t-shirt underneath w/ a gold crossed design on it. Her hair looked liked it was just done for this NY show, because it had some waves and slight curls on the sides.

The first song was "Love's Got A Line On You" which is the opening song to all the shows so far. Patty's vocals were hard for me to hear because I was in the first row right in front of her and the mike stand she used. She was getting mighty friendly with the people up front by touching their hair and shaking hands w/ some. She seemed to be in a great mood and loving to be in her home town playing this NY gig.

She was moving around dancing lots to the songs and really letting herself go. Patty took her shoes off in mid-set and sang and danced with them off for the rest of the show. (The shoes were part opened on top w/ a snakeskin finish on part of them, kinda sexy.) She joked w/ the band members throughout the whole set.

A fight broke out in the middle of the show, a few people back from the stage. The set list was similar to the one in Boston with the exception of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" which she performed in the late 1990's at a Glen Burtnick Xmas Extravagana held at the now defunct Bottom line Club in the village. I was at that show. Patty commented that she wishes she can do the whole show over before the first encore because she was having so much fun as was the whole entire Irving Plaza Club. When she returned for the encore she was wearing a t-shirt w/ "Handle your Scandal" which she announced that's what her shirt had said on it.

The sound was good at Irving plaza. Kasim's bass playing sounded superb as did the two guitarists who both switched off on lead guitar on different songs. It was a real great night.

Review by SueW:
I obviously don’t understand Yahoo’s driving directions as their comment “goes into” is what I would call "turn left onto"! Consequently I had to find my own way in Manhattan to Irving Plaza but I made it in plenty of time (too early in fact!). I arrived just as the doors were opening and, for the first time in my life, I was "wanded"! Obviously I had totally the wrong ideas of a "wand" as I was under the impression that they were to detect metal objects like cameras or recording devices but they didn’t pick up anything on me! (Maybe these were set to detect drugs or dodgy underwear or something!) Tickets were more expensive ($30) than at the other gigs so far (plus it cost me $25 to park!).

As soon as I walked into the loos I remembered the venue! (I’d seen Kasim here playing on The Power Trio in 2000.) Outside the ladies were chaise lounges again! However the hall itself was smaller than I remembered it and today there were signs that there were no "pass outs including for cigarettes"! Instead of ripping my ticket in half they just passed a scanner over it!

There were probably about 60 people in front of me in the queue but I don’t know where they all disappeared to as there were only about 10 there when I got in! They’re selling a CD and some T-shirts as merchandise (an old photo of Scandal on it though without Kasim!) plus some drum lids(?) that Thommy Price has signed.

In the hall, they had some music playing with videos showing on a screen - to start with it was sc-fi clips and I thought that I bet Doug Kennedy would know which films each of these clips came from! Later they played some sort of vaguely comical film.

I became rather concerned at 9.20pm when I looked at the time as the "Special Guests" (opening act) hadn’t started yet and my car park closed at midnight! Thankfully 10 minutes later a New York DJ same came on stage and introduced Scandal!

The venue was probably three quarters full but only comfortably so - there would have been plenty of room for loads more if we had squashed up a bit. Unfortunately at first some young kid (or someone who acted like a young kid) stood behind me and kept screaming in my ear about how much he loved Patty Smyth! He then carried on a conversation with her at the top of his voice (in my ear!) whenever she spoke! That coupled with the fact that he insisted on jumping (and he was pretty hefty!) throughout all the songs meant that I was soon feeling sea sick and deaf so I moved up a bit!

Kasim looked really dashing tonight as he was wearing a white T-shirt under a black jacket (which Zac Smith stroked at one point!), presumably he was wearing trousers too but I couldn’t see that far down as he stood back from the front of the stage (again!). Tonight for the first time on this tour, Kasim played his black-brown guitar and not his pearl one.

They started (as usual) with Love’s Got A Line On You. The sound tonight for me was better in that I could make out Patty’s words better but the microphone of all “my boys” (as she calls them) were a lot further down so it was harder to make out Kasim. Even in Hands Tied when you can easily hear him, the sound was quite muted.

The lighting was just diabolical tonight! Most of the time they (including Patty) were lit in a red hue which was useless for taking photos. They also kept moving light beams of different colours over the audience - I think that if we had stood on the stage and the band had been on the floor then we would have been able to have seen them better!

This was definitely the local gig as Patty kept saying about all the people she knew in the audience! She again said that "this is a tour of love"!

Patty said that she’d caught “the downtown train” here this afternoon! Apparently John had driven there but she had arrived by train!

Again Patty said that the song Out There was written about her sister but she said that she was at this show (“she’ll be undressed and naked by now”!). In that song Kasim only sings the "Na, na, nah"s!

Patty said that she wasn’t using the F word tonight as some of her children’s teachers were at the gig - not that I’ve heard her use it on stage yet this tour anyway! She dedicated Talk To Me to the teachers.

Someone called out Kasim’s name so Patty introduced him and said (again) how grateful they were that he was playing the tour as if it hadn’t been for him then they couldn’t do the tour! She then asked Kasim to speak into the microphone but I couldn’t hear anything he said (as his microphone was SO low!). He then actually ventured to the front of the stage(!) and kissed Patty on the cheek!

After Beat Of A Heart, Patty decided that she had to take her "happy" shoes off as she had to jump around a lot in the next song - apparently "Thommy has a foot fetish"! She certainly does move around a lot in The Warrior, but so too did most of the audience in front of me! It was easily the most popular song in the set with most people singing and doing the hand signals! Of course, after the song finished, she got the audience to sing part of it again.

Patty then got a bit confused about the set list and started talking about I Should Be Laughing but then opted to sing the song she wrote about John McEnroe (or "Johnnie Mac" as she calls him) - Wish I Were You! When they did sing I Should Be Laughing, it seemed to be a lot slower tonight than at the other gigs.

I quite like Goodbye To You but it always denotes the beginning of the end as they play that before they leave for the encore. Tonight they played a long introduction into it. That’s another song that Patty jumps around a lot in too! Tonight she had Keith Mac jumping with her too!

Thankfully tonight they played a three song encore and thankfully Kasim played all three songs! Patty had changed her T-shirt. Before the break, she was wearing a white T-shirt with a cross on it and during the encore it was white again but with the word "Scandal" on it. When they came back out again, Patty said that she’d like to do the whole show over again as they were having so much fun!

They started off the encore with what is usually my favourite song, Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough but tonight it was totally ruined for me as Kasim’s microphone was turned down SO low that I could hardly hear him at all!! It was almost like he was standing there lip-synching as all we could hear was Patty singing! After the first chorus he spoke to someone off stage - I don’t know if it was about the lack of sound or not but it certainly made no difference to the rest of the song! After that song, Kasim was chatting to Keith Mac and Benji King for quite a while!

I was stunned at the choice of the next song they sang! Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man! I’m not quite sure why Patty chose that song (other than she had once met Tammy and "she’s dead now") but it seemed a totally bizarre choice to me! I even started laughing when I realised that I’ve come thousands of miles to see Kasim and he’s standing on stage playing a song that my Mum liked! (Kasim didn’t actually sing in the song.)

Thankfully they finished on a respectable song - River Deep, Mountain High as usual. (“I always want it faster and harder, Thommy”!) At one point Kasim started to sing one line a few bars too early and I found it ironic that all night his microphone had been too low but it managed to pick up his little "Do"!

The gig finished at about 11.00pm so again it lasted about 90 minutes. Other than the crap lighting and the bad sound, it was a good gig (but I still preferred Sayreville)!

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