Barbara Mann Theatre We left in plenty of time to make the venue Sunday afternoon and felt quite pleased at ourselves for getting a good start. Unfortunately, we fell victim to a bit of confusion and picked the wrong way onto the Florida turnpike. SueC got suspicious right away, but we were darn sure we were wrong when our exit didn’t turn up. It’s amazing how one little mistake can cause a near disaster. SueC got us headed around in the right direction, but a half hour had passed and we had to drive another half an hour just to get back to where we had gone wrong. I began to glance at my watch, and our comfort zone slid into the swamp with the alligators. I held on as SueC tore up the road and ripped past cars thru the now pouring rain. SueC serves the Great American Public and her motto is: Neither sleet, nor rain, nor dark of night, Shall keep the two of us from a Moodies concert! Still, it wasn’t looking good for the touring fans (one fast asleep and thankfully oblivious to our grim plight) to make the opening kickoff of the Big Game, and I quaked a bit at the thought of slinking to my seat right under the nose of The Magnificent Welshman and being punished by his pointed look at his watch. Throw me to the alligators instead! We flew into Ft Myers, and raced to the venue, arriving in the rain at 7:59. I prayed the Moodies policy of starting at ten after was still intact, and that the ladies room was blessed with 100 stalls. It was and it did and we got to our seats with moments to spare, enough time, in fact, for Louise to express her heated concerns in an uncharacteristic way: Where the HELL have you guys been? I could only tell her that we hadn’t wanted to go to Miami, and we had been “cornfused”. Hey, I’m from Indiana, and people get cornfused there all the time! THE VENUE Barbara Mann Theatre is a lovely facility on the Edison Community College campus. The directions simply tell you to look for the tallest building on campus. A neat trick in the pouring rain! It’s very nice, but on the small side; maximum seating is 1750 total, with the balcony contributing 500 seats. It’s an unusual design, with boxes tiered toward the stage. I’ll bet the first two boxes give a great view. Mann had two rows of pit and row A is quite a bit above it. THE FASHION REPORT RT- Black short slvd silk shirt, black slacks, no change GE- Jimi Hendrix shirt, black slacks, black short slvd shirt with right embroidery second half JH- White Oxford shirt, black jeans, white ruffled shirt second half JL- White on white embroidered shirt (gorgeous shirt!), black slacks, white long slvd shirt with button placket second half  The
Battle of The Buttons
I was sure TBotB was a dead issue after the quiet and sexless calm I experienced in the UK, but Ray’s fabulous black short slvd silk shirt first worn this tour at Family Circle brought it back to the stage. It’s the sexiest thing I have seen onstage in a LONG TIME. ; ) I know every female fan sat up straight in her chair and thought “oh my!” (And probably thought a few other things, too) I suspect that Justin noticed this reaction too, and not to be out done, came out for the second half in the ruffled white shirt with an extra button undone! My oh My! Don’t things look good on stage tonight! THE CONCERT  The
permanent setlist was played with a 20 minute intermission. Of particular
note was Gordon’s miserable performance tonight on the YWD drumstick toss.
Graeme finally gave up, walked over to Gordon’s kit and handed him a drumstick.
Very cute of our drummers! Ray chose to do a bit of improvisation
on the LOAM flute solo. It’s his prerogative! I thought it
sounded great! It was a nice crowd, and very appreciative though
the pit was pretty dead. I thought a number of them were fans with
few Moodies concert experiences. The little gal next to me was THRILLED
at the shuffle. It’s always nice to enjoy someone else’s first time.
Good concert, nice venue. Louise’s dear mother has been on laundry duty for the touring fans, so we drove her around back to her car in order to pick up our laundry. It’s a darn good thing we did, because in her excitement to get into the venue, Louise had neglected to turn off her lights. We left her waiting at her car, and I promised I would find a cute cop to jump her. LOL!!! We drove up to the back of the venue and then realized we were blocking The Band’s limo! They had to wait while I fluttered my eyelashes at the cute cop and asked him sweetly to please help a little gal in distress. (Men love that kind of stuff!) Our savior seemed flattered when I told Louise that I had made sure to bring her a cute one. Oh, we finally let the limo out too! MaggieMay |
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