"They say the mind's the second thing to go," joked Tom Jones to the sell-out crowd at Irving Plaza last night. "Trouble is, I've forgotten what the first thing was."
Well, it certainly wasn't his voice. Jones sounded better last night than I have ever heard him. His delivery and timing were perfect, his song selection exquisite. It amazed me how infrequently he relied on his old hits, and how little it mattered. He went through a dazzling array of moods and tempos, going from Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Who Will The Next Fool Be?" to a sublime rendition of Bob Seger's "We Got Tonight" in two moves.
After performing an excellent rendition of Howlin' Wolf's "Three Hundred Pounds of Heavenly Joy," retitled to accomodate Jones' slighter frame, Jones joked to the crowd. "Lucky for me, I'm only two hundred pounds!" The crowd roared.
All in all, it was a perfect performance. He couldn't put a foot wrong. I have never seen such an outpouring of love from a New York crowd to a performer.
The set list was (roughly) as follows:
- Tom Jones International
- Mama Told Me Not to Come
- Who Will the Next Fool Be?
- Delilah
- Just Help Yourself
- We Got Tonight
- She's a Lady
- If I Only Knew
- My Baby
- I Want to Thank You
- Mama & Daddy
- 200 Lbs Of Heavenly Joy
- At the End of the Road
- What Am I Living For
- I'll Never Fall in Love Again
- Green Green Grass Of Home
- What's New Pussycat
- You Can Leave Your Hat On
- Sex Bomb
- It's Not Unusual
- High Heel Sneakers
- Kiss
- Linda Lu
- Slow Down
- Life's Too Short to be With You
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