GARY NUMAN

I couldn't believe my eyes when I was scanning through the Irving Plaza upcoming schedule and saw this show pop up. One of my all time heroes. Gary Numan. Amazing. I would not miss this. A huge influence in my life in the eighties, I consider Gary Numan to be in my top three greatest writers of all time. I last saw Gary Numan live in NYC in 1980. I was a teenager still. I saw Gary Numan and Nash The Slash at the Palladium. It was truly amazing and left a lifelong impression on me. Even more than the show I went to the night right after that. Pink Floyd: The Wall at Nassau Collesium. Ahhhhh! The wonderful eighties decade had just begun. Here we are twenty-six freakin' years later……and I'm heading to NYC to see one of my all time heroes.

I arrived early enough to catch the opening band, New Skin, and made my way up front to the stage. There were no barriers and no bouncers. This was gonna be nuts! I'm going to see one of my all time heroes…..and be close enough to reach out and touch him. It was nuts! When he walked out I was in awe. I was right under his mic. Not the electro-pop star of the eighties, but a camo's and army boots clad, aggressive G. Numan, jumping and stomping about. It was awesome. He did some great versions of some good old stuff. “Are Friends Electric?” with the entire full house chanting along was incredible. “Down In The Park”, “Metal”, “Films”. Some more recent stuff that I love, “Sacrafice” and “RIP”. It was an aggresive set all around with all the new ones from “Jagged” including my favorite, “Haunted”.

The crowd's chanting and stomping brought him out for a rousing three song encore that began with an amazing aggressive version of “Cars” in which the entire crowd sang along. Looking damn good at 48, Gary Numan put on an absolutely amazing performance. Twenty-six years between shows. Faaaaawk! He's still here, I'm still here. Shit Yeah.

Make sure to check out the awesome pics in the gallery from this show.