October 29, 2003 - Fort Myers, FL
On The Road With MaggieMay... The DECEMBER Tour!!! Here we go! Though cruelty is my constant companion, and MaggieMay revels in a twisted handkerchief and tearful pleading, I'll relent and start with the Big News first: The Setlist. No new songs were performed on the first date of the Fall 2003 tour. A tall blonde angel offered comfort and held out the possibility of songs from December being performed in New York. In November. HAHAHA THE VENUE Barbara B. Mann Theatre on the Edison Community College campus is not much to look at. It's the biggest building on the small college campus, and while it's an older facility, it's kept in good repair. The appearance of the boxlike structure is softened by a pond and trees. There's a good sized lobby, drinks both soft and hard are available and the lines aren't very long either at the drink line OR at the women's restroom. Security is a relaxed thing at the Mann. My purse went unsearched and my pockets went unpatted. Pleasant ladies checked our tickets and an EXTREMELY elderly and outwardly frail lady escorted me to my seat. She gasped when she saw that she was going to have to make the walk to the stage, and insisted on doing her duty despite my reassurances that I thought I could find my seat. God bless her little heart! The theatre proper has a fairly small 2 row pit (22 seats in the front row) of temporary black chairs on a black carpet. There is a walkway and chair rail separating the pit from the first row of red orchestra seats. The orchestra is separated into three sections. Mann has a good sized balcony and wings of boxes on both sides. Total seating per another quite elderly lady was estimated at 1776. I don't *know* if that figure is correct or if it was just a familiar sounding number to her. LOL (I feel I can joke being on the fast track to elderly myself. People will tell you that MaggieMay's memory is "not what it used to be".) I suspect this is close to correct as SueC saw a sign stating that the capacity of the floor was 1250. I was so excited to be there, I forgot to ask security the ticket sales for the evening. My guess is that there was VERY little deadwood. I had noted at least two people wandering around outside the venue asking pitifully for a ticket. One frowzy gal was hitting up Ted, a post middle-aged security guard out back. I could tell she was out of luck when I called Ted over to our car to ask about parking and he began stroking my hand. She indignantly yelled at us that "Alabama is in THAT direction", whatever the hell THAT means. Hey, we HAD our tickets! The stage was a warm and welcoming sight, unchanged from the last many concerts: three front mikes, 2 drum kits and 2 keyboard spots.  Mick
had a new lighting design going behind the stage before the concert that
reminded me of kaleidoscopes, done in the blue and purple December colors.
Very cool! The stage was fairly high - at least 4 feet. I couldn't
rest my elbows on it to clap at the end, though I tried. The mikes
were well set back - at least 6 feet from the edge and perhaps closer to
8 feet. The stage was wide and there was plenty of room for
the Band and equipment. There was an identical speaker setup on either
side: a small front fill speaker facing at an angle to the audience,
a good sized double box and an 8 set flying. No other front fill
speakers were employed at Mann, and thank the Merciful Lord for that!
THE FASHION REPORT JH - NEW white linen/gauzy shirt with small color spots down the placket, black jeans, shoes, 2nd half lovely white long-slvd shirt with gathers at the shoulders. JL - White long-slvd bib shirt, leathers, boots, 2nd half black long-slvd shirt with ruffle GE - Jimi Hendrix shirt, black slacks, 2nd half flag shirt Norda - White low cut ruffled shirt, black slacks Bernie - Black on black Paul - White long-slvd shirt, untucked. He tucked it in for the 2nd half. (The shirt, I mean! LOL) Gordon - 2nd half blue-print short-slvd shirt,cargo pants I was puzzled at Justin's shirt and thought initially he had cut himself shaving, leaving small droplets of blood to drip onto his chest. Blueglow informed me that the droplets were embroidered "asterisks", alternating red and green and that there was red stitching on the collar. SueC added that the placket had very thin piping on each side which alternated from red to white to green. It's a very nice shirt, but it probably appeared to be simply white in the 5th row.  HAIR
was the big fashion news tonight. John's looked great, not too short
and a lovely color. Justin's hair was BREATHTAKING. It's very
long and down onto his back and too gorgeous for words. It is SO
rock 'n roll! OMG! My oh my! Mmmmmmm.
A curse on any man or woman with a pair of scissors who goes near him. LOL!!! THE CONCERT Well...I'm darn sorry to say that my faint hopes of hearing anything from the fabulous new cd were dashed. Graeme wasn't kidding in his recent interview. The 2003 Setlist was performed in its entirety with a 20 minute intermission. And here it is for anyone who somehow *missed* it. Lovely To See You Gemini Dream Tuesday Afternoon Lean on Me English Sunset Words You Say The Actor Slide Zone I Know You're Out There Somewhere The Story in Your Eyes 20 minute intermission Your Wildest Dreams Isn't Life Strange The Other Side of Life Higher and Higher Are You Sitting Comfortably I'm Just a Singer in a Rock 'n Roll Band Nights in White Satin Question SeeSaw Being emotionally prepared is a good thing (Thanks, Graeme!), and I pretty well knew on the basis of public statements and quiet rumblings that nothing from December would be performed early in the tour. While it was still disappointing (MaggieMay *needs* a reindeer), the Band MORE than made up for making me wait by putting out a FABULOUS concert. WooHoo! First, some concert notes... The concert began auspiciously with a clean start and an excellent rendition of LtsY. Gemini Dream was... PERFECT!  In
addition to his flawless performance of a song that has eluded him at times,
John threw in enough energy to light up San Francisco, including the bridge.
WOW! He was feeling good tonight and was on top of his rock 'n roll
game. Justin bravely worked right along side him, but while his vocals
were fine, there seemed to be a problem with Big Red. I did not get
a good guitar sound in the first half. My resident guitar *experts*
thought that the volume and the reverb needed to be turned up. Someone
must have caught on to the problem and turned a few knobs because we had
a lot more lead guitar in the second half.
Tuesday Afternoon and Lean on Me went quite well. English Sunset had a few problems tonight. SueC said that JL was still being humble while JH had moved on to the requiem, but Justin's guitar troubles were what caught my attention. It wasn't real obvious, but I LOVE ES and I knew things weren't kosher. Maybe he just got lost. You know...it didn't sound too bad! Just kind of...um..."alternative". The jam seemed fine. Pretty exciting. Justin had a new speech prior to The Actor. We've actually got a new album. (Wild screaming by excited idiots in the audience requires the rest to be paraphrased. Unfortunately, MaggieMay was the worst offender. I thought for SURE we were gonna get somethin'.) And it's Christmas songs! And we won't be promoting...how early they start commercializing Christmas, by not doing any of the songs tonight. You can come in a couple weeks and see us in New York! In the meantime, they're at Borders and elsewhere, and the album's called "December". If we put in the new songs, we'll have to take out some of our old favorites. And this is one of our REALLY old favorites, from an album called ISOTLC. This is called The Actor. The Actor went well as did Slide Zone. IKYOTS gave me chills tonight. : ) I guess I've been longing to hear it again. TSIYE finished an EXCELLENT first half. YWD was fine, and ILS was marred by catcalls (of the enthusiastic variety) DURING the song. I heard one man in the audience yell shut up at the offenders. It got a HUGE ovation. Higher and Higher was characterized by an outstanding performance by Mr Edge. Blueglow reminded me that Graeme had included a bit of Irish dancing in his H&H performance tonight. It was great! The audience received something less than the always stellar performance by Le Hayward on H&H. It was fine, it was adequate, but I'm USED to brilliant. If you set impossibly high standards, you are stuck with them. SueC had pointed out a very unusual thing during TOSOL. Justin was not wearing his always present large signet ring on his right middle finger. I noticed him rubbing his fingers and knuckles. I fervently hope that whatever the situation is, that it is minor. I was shocked a bit when I realized the ring was off - I don't think I've ever seen it off, and figured that maybe it couldn't come off. I don't know what to think! It's a little worrisome. I would think playing without its significant weight would be VERY strange and awkward. Norda got a HUGE ovation (and an introduction by JH) after AYSC. Singer, Nights, Question and SeeSaw were fine. Everybody looked great and sounded great. I thought the band played extraordinarily well for a first concert and there were few problems. At various moments in ES, H&H, and Question the guitar didn't "sound" right. A fan pointed out John's Ampeg amps and I didn't recall seeing them last tour. The bass speakers have a distinctive emblem on the bottom and they are incredibly LOUD. You really noticed it when standing up at the stage for Question. You can't hear anything else! Boy, tone those suckers down a bit, please! (They *do* sound good though.) The evening was a wonderful treat for a starving person. It was an exceptionally great first concert and in general, it went smoothly. Justin not wearing his ring...well, certainly it could be cosmetic. On the other hand, it *could* be related to something more. On other fronts, The Moodies have a new Production Manager: Mark Hogue. Contrary to rumor, John Burwick is back as guitar tech. Most faces remained familiar. Merchandise is again under the fine hand of Hal and there are a NUMBER of new things this tour - and out at the first gig, too! There's a fabulous new December tshirt, so adorable and attractive that SueC and I bought one and while visiting in adjoining restroom stalls, impetuously decided to rip off our clothing and don our gay apparel, ie our new December tshirts. It's exactly what I had imagined and absolutely PERFECT. There's a new red December tshirt and a new cool looking Moodies tshirt. There is a lovely new December tourbook. I had first thought they had just switched covers from the summer tourbook, but there are some new treatments throughout. I rarely read the darn things, so the copy could have changed and I wouldn't be apt to notice it. Put in more photos and stop wasting your time. LOL For all you fans sulking in utter misery, I offer this: the NEW Moodies cd, DECEMBER is FOR SALE at the merchandise stand. I knocked several people over in my desperate rush to buy it before the concert, since we had bought the ONE copy that Barnes and Nobles had on hand (requiring the clerk to pull it out of a box for us as he was stocking) and SueC has been playing it almost nonstop on her personal cd player. Still, our Town Car has a great stereo system and I've had the opportunity to hear it several times. It's not cheap - $22 at the venue, but I would have paid ANYTHING at that moment. And probably offered anything else Hal wanted, too! <snort> The near sell out crowd was absolutely WILD tonight - loud, up, and screaming. It was fun! I hope Sarasota does as well at turning out the rockers as Mann did. The Weasel is sold out, and it should be another wonderful evening. THANK YOU MOODY BLUES! MaggieMay Don't need a reindeer, I don't need the snow. Tell me you love me, I'm ready to go! Photos courtesy of SueC |
| Sarasota |