November 19, 2003 - Salisbury, MD
Welcome to the DECEMBER Tour! On The Road With MaggieMay... If Indianapolis was the high point of the Fall Tour, Salisbury was definitely the LOW point. Life is full of unexpected pleasures and the highs are always balanced. Into each life, some rain must fall. And it rained like hell on Wednesday! Our tour experience contrasted in every way with our outing to Reading. We got a late start (MaggieMay had to see a man about a horse!) and the traffic was horrendous. We sat on the highway, moved a few inches and sat again. The rain started in earnest as we negotiated the highway by fits and starts. SueC had a horrible time of it, the rain came down in buckets and the highway lines were faded badly. Our last 50 miles were on a state road, and if Breezewood, PA is the town of 10,000 rooms then SR 13 is the road of 10,000 traffic lights. We hit everyone. We ran through Wendy's and got someone else's food and pumped gas under a leaky roof that landed drop after HUGE drop of water on the top of my head. I asked SueC about her umbrella and she knew exactly where it was... In her suitcase! sigh I knew we were going to walk in late to the concert looking like drowned rats, if we made it there at all. MapQuest proved its inadequacy one more awful time and we searched in VAIN for Priscilla Street, giving up when we reached Fruitdale. Though The Band can be *relied* upon to start a modest 10 to 15 minutes late, we were already inside that zone and about to miss LtSY. SueC suggested we turn around and drive back to our hotel, but we had already been through a lot and I thought some December Snow would warm me up. : ) We found an English speaking gas station attendant and discovered we would NEVER have found Wicomico with our lousy directions. SueC was surprised to find a fairly close parking spot to the venue and we ran in anxiously to find that the concert hadn't even started yet at 7:45. Crispy told me that there had been some electrical problems and that they were delayed past their normal start. I walked into the multipurpose 6000 seat arena and gasped. It was at least two thirds empty! How could that be? Did anyone KNOW there was a concert tonight? sigh All I can say is, it was a crying shame! For the record, the promoter was Jack Utsick Presents NE, Inc. Jack, I would say that you did a piss-poor job of getting the word out. That turnout was a crime. SueC and I staggered under the shock to the worst front row seats we've ever had, making us long for the ones we had at Powers Auditorium. We were directly in front of a huge set of three speakers placed on the floor. More sighs. It sucked! LOL  Photography
was limited to "instamatics" at Wicomico. Yeah, yeah.
THE VENUE The Lippizaner Stallions are appearing at Wicomico next. Need I say more? Temporary end stage, usual setup, speaker set flying and one on the floor. THE FASHION REPORT JL - White long-slvd shirt with bib/ruffle, leathers, boots 2nd half black tank with white long-slvd overshirt JH - Sherbet western shirt, blue jeans, studded boots, 2nd half white, thin long-slvd shirt with ruffle down the front, sleeves rolled up, black jeans GE - Santa World Tour shirt, black slacks, 2nd half Red Ho Ho shirt Norda - Black hiphugger with ivory band at top and on cuffs, midriff black sleeveless top NEW, no change at half Bernie - Black long-slvd shirt, black slacks, no change at half Gordon - Black long-slvd knit shirt, black pants, 2nd half white tshirt with dragon Paul - White long-slvd shirt Norda had a new outfit tonight! Cute, as always. Sorry guys, we were too far away for a photo (Norda's developing QUITE a male following.) With our instamatics, of course!  THE
CONCERT
The cavernous Wicomico arena just SUCKED the energy out of the few people there. The Moodies earned my enduring respect by even coming out onstage. To their credit, they performed a good concert. A few concert notes... Smooth start into LtSY. The Holiday setlist was performed with a 20 minute intermission. Heck, I would have played straight through, left after Question, and gotten the hell out of there. Gemini Dream was without question the worst I've ever seen it. They had no idea where they were, or rather, JL had no idea where he was, and JH had no idea where JOHN was, they dropped out and then started in again. Hey, Make it Work Out! HAHA It seemed like it went on forever! Graeme left his drumkit during Lean on Me, but returned for English Sunset. There was nothing obvious onstage, but he seemed "under the weather". I was getting popped by the speakers during ES and shoved my earplugs right into my brain. They should move those damn things to the far sides and angle them in rather than subject people to such misery. I took off during ILS and spent the rest of the first half at the very back of the arena where the sound was quite decent. The light show was fabulous! You simply can not appreciate it from a seat near the front. I don't understand the things that look like brains in TSIYE, but they're cool. LOL We went back to our seats for the 2nd half, and it didn't seem quite as bad. I'm sure we had already suffered all the ear injury that was possible. The Voice was really great tonight, and the DECEMBER songs came off well. The Spirit of Christmas is quite striking. Poignant, is the word I'd use. Graeme did a good job with H&H despite whatever he has picked up. I hope he got some rest and plenty of hot tea with lemon and peach brandy. That will cure anything! LOL  SeeSaw
ended the concert perfectly! JL started playing before counting off,
surprising the hell out of Graeme and Gordon. Justin glanced over
sharply but was laughing and after a moment of mayhem they pulled it together.
I was glad I was leaning against the speaker box - it was VERY interesting
to watch.
What a nightmare! Luckily, it was liberally sprinkled with the most wonderful music in the world. It's just too bad more people didn't get to enjoy it. The Tower has GOT to be better! MaggieMay Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right. Here I am - Stuck in the middle with you! Photos courtesy of MaggieMay (SueC does not own an INSTAMATIC!!) |
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