Viva Las Vegas Paris Casino I had learned my lesson the hard way, and was frequently reminded of my failure to perform (so to speak) by The Redhead, who had moved ahead in the competition and was not likely to let me forget it. Sigh All I could do now was vow to not miss the remaining concerts, no matter how lousy my stinking seats, or how exhausted I might be from "supporting" the casino. To that end, I obediently went to bed. Unless the girls kept me up all night. I don't remember! Vegas does that to you. THE VENUE Le Theatre des Arts is plagued with a stupid name, as is EVERYTHING at Paris. I love the theme and enjoy the ambiance, but good Lord; I sure get tired of the fake French kitsch that PERMEATES everything at Paris. 
I took German in high school and college, and picked up some Hungarian as a matter
of survival and know only 5 words in French, one of which is "merde", so
I'm at a disadvantage and must use common sense to figure out what the
darn signs mean. I never tire of the view of the casino with my Megabucks
machine nestled at the foot of the Eiffel Tower (half size and nothing
in comparison to the real thang), but I tire quickly of two things – very
badly spoken French and fake-o frenchie names for everything. French
spoken with a Brooklyn accent is truly too much to take, and I've endured
that when contacting the Paris by phone. Our waiter at breakfast
(at 2am) in Le Freakin' Frenchie Cafe foolishly persisted in taunting me
with "Como talle vous?" [sic] (to which I replied "yes") and after spitting
out laughter, frenchily went on. I finally pointed out to him that
I had had it with the french crap AND that we were holding lighted cigarettes.
I suppose that comment sounded much more threatening than it was intended;
I was going to set fire to the menus! He soberly took heed, and brought
our coffee in good time, with nary a french verb or adjective in sight.
Regardless of the annoying name, The Theatre is very nice: comfortable seats, plenty of legroom, nice lighting and good sound. It is nearly the perfect venue – only the Royal Albert Hall rates higher with me, and that's because they serve ice cream at the interval. The Theatre seats 1200 and there's not a bad seat in the house! (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) In fact, "all" the seats are bad (though comfortable) in that one sits rather low to the floor and they seem to rock. This quite hampers the mildly enthusiastic but aged and out of shape fan in her attempt to "jump" up at the end of songs to applaud wildly. Frankly, I was pooped from these efforts after Slide Zone and prayed that for once, IKYOTS would suck and I would not be obligated or inspired to jump passionately to my feet. The Moodies let me down or rather didn't let me down, and I struggled pitifully up, hoping all the while that we could just keep standing for TSIYE, or perhaps I could alone, unobtrusively. There are three floor sections, and the center section is rather large, making it a pain to get into and out of and a major irritation to sit near the aisles and have latecomers climb over you, step on your feet, slosh their beer on you and insincerely apologize while doing it. Friday's concert was technically sold out. I tried the box office for better seats and they were selling the last row. I wondered why a fair number of seats in the first ten rows were empty. Although I did not see it, several incredulous fans reported an empty seat in the first row, occupied only by a rose! I hope the rose had a good time and has good things to say about the venue and The Moody Blues. I've seen or heard of a number of bizarre occurrences at Moody Blues concerts, but this one wins, hands down, the Dog in The Manger Award. Congratulations! Ebenezer Scrooge will be officially presenting this award to you on Christmas Day AFTER you're visited by the three Christmas ghosts who will sit with you through the entire Wagner's Ring Trilogy. At least the rose had no complaints about the setlist! I am mystified why the rightful owner of the seat insisted on keeping it empty. Perhaps it was meant to tease The Band and point out her absence to them. I don't know HOW they were able to go on! LOL!!! THE FASHION REPORT RT- White long slvd shirt, black slacks GE- New (at least new to me) black long slvd shirt with a random white design. Looked great! Black slacks JH- White pinstripe tux shirt, black tux slacks with stripe down the sides JL- White ruffled shirt with the cuffs rolled back a bit, black slacks. There was no intermission, therefore, no change in clothes. THE CONCERT The permanent setlist was played in a rather tired and perfunctory fashion without an intermission as is common at casino concerts. It's amazing how different the same hall will sound depending on your seat location. The 5th row sounded great: loud, clear, and distinct. A few notes...  Someone
in the audience yelled to Ray at the beginning of FML. Apparently
he couldn't understand them either, because he good-naturedly smiled and
said, "what's that?" Paul received a good bit of my attention tonight
since I was right in front of him and I noticed on WYS he puts his guitar
pick IN HIS MOUTH while handling guitar and keyboard duties. YUCK!!!
Actually, it's quite cute (as Paul is in every way on stage), but I started
worrying about him swallowing and choking on it. Please, be CAREFUL
up there Paul! LOL I wonder if his pick has chew marks on it?
JL had some great moves on GD, cementing it in place as one of my favorite concert songs. If you have to ask what they are, then you must be a guy. ; ) Graeme celebrated a perfect set of tosses on YWD by exuberantly holding both drumsticks aloft. Hey, it had to happen sometime! It was definitely Graeme Edge night at The Paris, and tonight, for the first time... GRAEME SANG!!! Yes, it was shocking, stunning, world stopping to say the least. After nights and nights of promises (Don't look so worried, I'm not going to sing! Or Justin, John and Ray requested that I not sing tonight/threatened me if I should sing tonight) we finally had our curiosity satisfied! Graeme came down to the mike and burst into "O Solo Mio". Hey, it wasn't bad it all, and didn't hurt a bit. I think the others may have wickedly held him back all these years in fear that he would steal their thunder. His band mates looked even more surprised than we were, and while Justin managed a grin, John recovered quickly and threw a towel at Graeme. It was definitely the highlight of the evening. You see things in the 5th row that you don't ever notice when sitting in the front row. When you sit in the front row, you might see a few things on either side, but your attention is focused on the stage in front of you.  Not so, when sitting a bit farther back. It can be difficult
to concentrate on the stage! Heads are bobbing, people jump up and
down, arms are flailing. The Theatre seating is nicely inclined,
but at times it's impossible to see the stage for the fans. It didn't
dawn on me before how many WOMEN are there! LOL!!! The
first three rows were chock full of women fans, with only a scattering
of innocent (and probably terrified) men dolloped here and there like whipped
cream on top of pumpkin pie. It had to be 90 to 95% women up front.
I now understand why the Moodies still play the UK – the preponderance
of quiet middle-aged men in those venues no doubt serves as a bittersweet
reminder of their serious role as the founders of progressive rock, in
contrast to the view from the Paris stage of dancing middle aged women
caught up in the throes of unbridled passion for their reluctant and uneasy
rock 'n roll sex gods. Personally, I think it's great!
LOL!!! I was very grateful that I wasn't behind one particularly
tall gal in the center of the third or fourth row who continually attempted
to attract the lead guitarist's attention by waving her long naked arms.
I don't know if she caught Justin's attention, but she sure caught mine!
She had to have been blocking the view of the patrons behind her.
I can only think the unfortunates behind her gave up trying to see the
stage after a while and quietly fell asleep.
The most exciting event of the evening, even more exciting/terrifying than Graeme's solo, was observing the insane cattle stampede to the stage. Wow! Is that what it looks like? It was awful! You'd be taking your life in your hands to try to get to the stage. My rush to the stage is usually a step forward, and I was unaware of the effort and aggression put into it. I was enjoying Ray's flute solo during LOAM, when at the end of the beautiful solo, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. They didn't even wait for the end of LOAM! One person moved and it signaled everyone to jump out of the aisle and race for the stage. I was glad that my seat was in 5 seats so that I was in no danger of being shoved from an aisle seat and mercilessly trampled. What a scene! I was just thankful not to see any of the small children that are sometimes pushed up to the stage to beg trophies from The Band like Halloween treats. A small child would have no chance in that wild mob. It left me rattled and seemed such an inappropriate setting for Question. We left the Moodies and spent the rest of the evening with Catdaddy! Great Band! MaggieMay |
Las Vegas