November 14, 2003 - Detroit, MI
| Welcome to the DECEMBER Tour!
On The Road With MaggieMay... I strongly believe one should do ONE stupid thing every tour, if for no other reason than to be reminded of one's own humanity. We decided to do our stupid thing in Chicago. We thought it best not to spend the night in Chicago and rather to drive after the concert, with the logic being that we could avoid hours of big city traffic the next day. We had an elegant room waiting for us and a benign staff already used to our middle of the night check-ins. SueC and I had promised each other that *I* would stay up with her for a change and that if we got too sleepy we'd pull off the road and check in to the Bates Motel. We reasoned that we are usually good for a couple coherent hours after a concert when we're high on life. It didn't work out quite as we had planned! SueC tore up the road and made great time, and our moment of extreme fatigue occurred when we were 75 miles from Detroit. We were both in a bad way and sleep was rushing over us like the tide. It made no sense to stop, though in retrospect, I suppose it also made no sense to crash the car. I made my usual offer: to sing my VAST repertoire of beer commercials to her. Here's to good times, Tonight is something special. The beer we pour, must be something more, somehow, So tonight (tonight, tonight), Let it be Lowenbrau! She passed, and made the acerbic and completely unnecessary comment that I was probably going to go ahead and sing them all anyway. I was offended! Here you offer to pitch in and help and get ingratitude tossed in your face. I tried to think of all the tricks hubby and I used to do when we still drove places and asked her her favorite Beatles song. Not that I CARED! I had supposed this would incite a delightful singing fest. SueC does not sing. I don't understand that! I sing ALL THE TIME. (And recently, to my personal regret, at the hotel pool. Sorry!) Everyone in my family sings, sings all the time and sings quite well. SueC says that the only person in her family who sings worse than her is her sister and that NONE of them can sing worth a damn. My own childhood included long, long trips from Indianapolis to Somerset, Kentucky with everyone in the car singing church hymns. In harmony! Daddy sang bass, Momma sang tenor. We could have had a gospel career like The Happy Goodman Family, singing across the country on religious channels and at all night sings, perhaps getting a cross-over career going with a break on The Lawrence Welk Show. Darn it all, anyway! SueC's favorite Beatles song is We Can Work it Out. I'm quite a bit younger than the elderly SueC and later Beatles. MaggieMay is an unrepentant rocker (hence the problem with the gospel singing career); *my* favorite is Back in the USSR. In my attempt to keep SueC occupied, alert and awake, I um, well...missed our exit. This was a bad thing! When I checked our directions, it was 4am and we were 12 miles past our exit. sigh We were living another song, and it was bad... I've been driving all night, My hand's wet on the wheel! Ken the doorman, met us at the door and remembered us from this summer. That wasn't the usual *bad* thing! He was bored and glad for a breath of fresh air (though at 5am it was more like dog breath) We had collected a number of small bags along the way, not to mention boxes of Diet Coke and he gamely brought EVERYTHING in, including the two boxes of Agatha Christie novels that Red had passed on to SueC in St Looey. Ooops! While Ken was a jewel, the clerk at the front desk was decidedly not. She handed us our keys and we went off for a brisk HIKE through the hotel that went on for ever. I didn't even KNOW they had rooms that far away from the front desk. Ken was still packing our 40 bags of luggage. We finally got to our room and the durn keys wouldn't work. I knew I would never make it back to the front desk, so we stopped in the business center and called them. I told Rochelle that one, our keys didn't work and two that I would VASTLY prefer a room closer to civilization. It took her a while, but she finally came through with a room convenient to the elevators and with a lovely view of the hotel's trash cans. Though Rochelle had given us little cards marked Room 363, she *thought* she had sent us to Room 410. I want to formally apologize to the gentleman already occupying 363 who no doubt was fast asleep when we were kicking his door in frustration. We ended the longest night of the year (at least the longest night not involving a slot machine) with a hysterical, punch-drunk breakfast. And that's our life on the road!  THE
VENUE
The concierge gave us easy directions to the Fox Theatre. I thought it was odd that we were going to the Fox Theatre when the Moodies were playing at the State, but SueC firmly told me to ask for the Fox, explaining that the State was next door. We had been warned that the neighborhood was bad, and it was a strange mix of new condominiums and a number of theatres, some active and some closed down. I was excited to pass Avery Fischer Hall, a famous venue in the classical world. Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers was across the street from the venue. We found a parking lot next door to the State and saw the crew bus and truck. : ) The marquee was lit up, and an employee was announcing the non-smoking policy by decree of the state fire marshall to those in line. No photography is the party line these days, and our purses were cursorily checked. The venue is much nicer inside than the run down outside would suggest. There was a lobby on entry with the merchandise stand on the right and a bar on the left. SueC remarked that it's a nice thing when the line to buy merchandise is longer than the beer line. There was another lobby after the first one and it was quite attractive; lots of gold leaf and hanging cloth panels draped artistically across the balcony. Very nice! We were allowed to take water in (which was confiscated on our way OUT). This venue had a seating arrangement that was entirely unique. There was another lobby/bar area INSIDE the venue with bar tables and stools, and more table seating after it. I almost pulled out my flashlight; it was very dark. The ushers were pleasant, and helped you make your way down several short sets of steps to your seat. The inside of the venue looked pretty as far as I could tell in the dark (and perhaps that was WHY it looked pretty). There were a number of lattice covered alcoves on the walls, lit from behind, and a strange pair of Aztec warriors back lit with blue light, that looked like they might have been guarding the stage.  There
were rows of regular seating on the floor and no separation between the
pit and the orchestra seats. The pit area was a lot smaller than
I expected and the stage was low, approximately 28 inches high. The
front row pit was less than 2 feet from the stage. Moodies in your
laps night! Unfortunately, *my* Moody was Norda! (Just kidding,
Norda! I don't want to piss off a black belt armed with a flute.
) The sound was ok from my seat, the view was DELIGHTFUL. You
never know what to expect when you walk into a strange venue.
THE FASHION REPORT JL - White long-slvd bib shirt with ruffle, leathers, boots, 2nd half the white shirt's black brother JH - Black long-slvd shirt without other adornment, tux pants, shoes, 2nd half lovely white long-slvd shirt with ruffle down the front, gathers at the shoulders GE - Jimi Hendrix shirt, black slacks, 2nd half NEW Christmas shirt with candy canes and Ho Hos 
Norda - Gold lurex (sparkly) sleeveless top with crocheted look, black palazzo pants, no change at half Bernie - White jacket, white slacks, chevron patterned blue and white shirt, no change at half He's tucked! (Ed, make *sure* that's a T) Graeme wore the second of two cool holiday shirts, this one being predominantly patterned, the first being primarily solid red. They look great! I *do* hope Ho Ho refers to Christmas. LOL  THE
BATTLE of THE BUTTONS
JL was looking ahead in the game with his black shirt unbuttoned to midchest providing peeks of his trademark cross. I feel more religious every time I catch a glimpse of it, and I know SueC does too. However, Le Hayward came out for SeeSaw and moved in to the lead...his second button was lower than JL's. VERY nice and quite encouraging! : ) THE CONCERT We're on a runaway train, rolling down the track. Detroit was another fantastic stop on the December Tour. That train is moving fast, and it won't be slowed down. Chalk up another outstanding concert for The Moody Blues! The Holiday setlist was performed in its entirety with a 20 minute intermission. I thought it was the same high energy level as Indianapolis and the same sharp performance. The joy is back in touring for me and for the guys onstage. A great start with LtSY, a perfect (and perfectly funky) Gemini Dream. A bit more is on Tuesday Afternoon these days, followed by the ever lovely Lean on Me. The first half was excellent. I was awfully close to Norda tonight and what I see is what you get. Norda is learning The Voice and is a picture of concentration as she plays her Washburn. There's a music book on the floor in front of her which I didn't notice in the venues where the stage was high and I was in front of JL. Personally, I'm happy she cares enough to get it right. Norda has good recovery and that came in handy when she started the flute part to December Snow while the rest of the band had thought they might do Spirit of Christmas. Majority rules! They must be in the same key, because it sounded fine. LOL Justin pulled out an old trick in Detroit, spending a lot of time looking at the ceiling. I can fully understand that - it's very interesting! : ) I think *I'd* be watching the ceiling a lot with a number of people 4 feet away studiously watching ME. It was a little close for comfort.  I
noticed JL's finger snapping in the Sprit of Christmas where the choir
is utilized on the cd. His fingers are up by his ears and it looks
well, SueC said "InCREDibly hot!". It's wickedly sexy. The
word I would pick would be "masculine". GREAT hair this tour for
JL, btw. I think I say this every tour, but JL has never looked better.
I dare anyone to disagree with me!
December Snow just sounds better, more fantastic every time I hear it. Great guitar, great performance. This song is the December stand out. It's a joy to watch it performed. I don't think I could EVER tire of it! I had noticed JH's vibrato on this piece the night before. Tonight I was looking at his WATCH (hey, gotta look at SOMETHING for 2 hours), I believe on Question, and it was almost flickering as he furiously played. I was getting dizzy! LOL LOTS of people remained up for H&H after White Christmas. Why bother to sit down when the music is going to get you right back up anyway? Another fine performance by The World's Oldest Go-Go Dancer. I only fear that we may lose him to Riverdance. Alas, it ended too quickly. sigh I took a look at the setlist and The Moodies have pumped it up to 21 songs from the former 19. What a deal! Same price and TWO more songs! WOOHOO! Detroit saw another performance hit the book of ones to remember. MaggieMay Hold on to warm September, Cos life can be like December Snow Photos courtesy of SueC |
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