Cher - Live: The Farewell Tour (2003)

Recorded live in Miami in November 8, 2002 during her 2002 "Living Proof -- The Farewell Tour," this is an audio document of Cher in all her extravagant diva-ness. No doubt it was exciting for those in the audience, who sound not just like they can't get enough, but that they've been waiting for this event as eagerly as some zealots await the Messiah. As a record, though, it's not such hot stuff as the several costumes she's pictured in within the inner sleeve. She churns out many of her most popular numbers with adequate stadium-strength accompaniment, concentrating more on her late 1980s-early 2000s hits than her early smashes. Indeed, she sounds more comfortable with the more recent club-dance percolators than the oldies from the 1960s and 1970s, most of which she dispenses with a standard, rushed-through, show biz medley. Her voice doesn't always sit comfortably in the mix, the backing band bombast and audience noise at times threatening to submerge her a little. Periodically the songs are broken up by her wise-ass comic patter, and to complete the variety-show-like ambience, she unnecessarily declares in the middle of "All I Really Want to Do," "In the summer of 1965, this was my first hit record!" So musically it's not among Cher's finest moments, but it should keep the faithful happy until her next farewell gig. (That's not an entirely facetious remark; when this CD came out in August 2003, the farewell tour had been extended, with new dates, until at least September 2003.) This music, incidentally, is taken from her Living Proof Farewell Tour Television Special, which is available on DVD as The Farewell Tour on Image Entertainment. Considering that much of the appeal of Cher live rests with the visuals, and that it contains identical music to the Warner Brothers CD, the DVD's a preferable investment for those who want a souvenir of the Cher experience.