November 12, 2003 - Indianapolis, IN
| Welcome to the DECEMBER Tour!
On The Road With MaggieMay... Indianapolis is my hometown. I don't live there anymore, though I'm still a resident Hoosier. Childhood memories fill every street - looking in Ayre's whimsically decorated windows while Christmas shopping with my mother, falling in love with a serious young medical student I met at Wasson's, eating at Wiesz's, my dad's favorite downtown deli, strolling the Circle arm in arm with my husband to be. Indianapolis was a good place to grow up and while it was pretty much a cow town when I was a girl with not a lot to recommend it, the city seemed to grow up with me. The four universities here and the ISO provided a huge number of opportunities for a teenage girl with a cello. I still have many ties with Indy and Gabe and I regularly attend concerts and Broadway shows (and sports events too) at Conseco Fieldhouse, the RCA Dome, Clowes Memorial Hall and Verizon Wireless Music center (the venue formerly known as Deer Creek). It's not NYC, but it's not bad! LOL The Moody Blues last appeared in Indianapolis at Deer Creek in the fall of 1999 in support of Strange Times. I'm a big fan of The Murat, and it has been mildly infuriating to see The Moodies all over the USA and to long to see them back in MY town at *MY* venue. I've fought a quiet campaign of Ghandi-like civil disobedience, one summer wearing a Moodies tshirt at every concert held at Deer Creek. Dave Lucas (a Clear Channel bigwig) would pass me at the venue, glance at my tshirt and walk away scratching his head, confused. The week The Murat was informally announced online by The White Eagle of the North, I was greeted at the VIP Club by Deer Creek/Clear Channel employees with BIG smiles and an excited "Guess who's coming to The Murat!" They were shot down when I told them "The Moody Blues"!!!  THE
VENUE
I don't know when The Murat (pronounced The Mur AH for all you out of town goobers!) was built - it was there from my early childhood and one of the most unique and BIZARRE buildings in Indy. It was built and owned by a Masonic group and called The Murat Shrine. And what a goofball place it is, brightly colored and topped with minarets. As a young married, I was invited to a music event there by a member who after issuing a warm invitation to me and my husband, looked around and lowered her voice saying it would not be appreciated if I brought "colored" people with me. I don't go where ALL people aren't welcome, didn't then and don't now. It's no surprise to me that The Murat fell into disrepair since it was built on a foundation of prejudice and intolerance. Custody of the building eventually fell to the City and Big Bucks were put out in conjunction with Sunshine Productions (now Clear Channel) for restoration and renovation. The Murat had its special beauty restored and became a place with a heart, open to all. It kind of restores your faith in humanity. The Murat center as it's called today consists of the primary theatre and two other strangely named smaller venues - The Egyptian Room and The Corinthian Room. New groups find their way to The Egyptian Room and I spent one AWFUL evening there seeing (of all things!) Alien Ant Farm. The room is standing room only and I watched a frantic twenty something crowd jumping up and down from my spot of relative safety against the wall in the back. It was the kind of evening that points out just how OLD you are! LOL The Murat has a fair-sized gated parking lot with overflow lots on the northside. Its downtown location has both pluses and minuses - lots of great restaurants ten minutes from the venue and two homeless shelters where America's tired and poor lounge on the sidewalk, waiting for their handout dinner. I was amazed to see something I don't think I had EVER seen before on our quick drive to the venue: a homeless dwarf. Isn't Life Strange!  The
Murat has a nice marquee that had been changed that afternoon to solely
list my favorite rock 'n roll band appearing tonight. The outside,
though different from any other building in Indy, is attractive - the venue
has an odd paint job that looks like tromp de oeuil (it's starting to peel,
too). The main entrance is flanked by the stage door, "stage left"
and the trucks and crew bus could be seen parked next to it.
The Murat Theatre is a fair-sized 2800 seat facility with one balcony. The comfortable seats are arranged in three sections on the floor, right/center/left. I have wondered a number of times if the overhanging balcony doesn't obstruct the view of the seats underneath. Hopefully, I'll never have to find that out. The box office and will call is in the immediate entryway and tickets are taken about 20 feet from the main doors. A couple of security guards stood by the ticket takers, but my purse wasn't examined or the large shopping bag I had with me. There's a spacious attractive lobby inside with a long bar and it's a comfortable place to have a glass of wine or a cup of coffee. The merchandise stand was setup in the far corner and Hal looked busy. One leaves the lobby and makes a turn to the right to the theatre. The restrooms are downstairs and there's a staircase to go up to the balcony. What's it like upstairs? Heck, I don't know - I've never been there. LOL The Murat is done in red and gold with the gold trimmed red velvet stage curtains carrying the color theme. It's not the prettiest restored theatre I've seen, but it's very nice. The substantial stage is 47 inches high and the mikes were about 5 feet from the stage, far enough away that SueC couldn't read the new setlist at break. I was too excited to care about speakers (or much else!), there *were* speakers and they were quite adequate. The sound from my seat was great! Clear, undistorted and loud without being painful. My earplugs stayed in my breast pocket. : ) The controversy of the evening was the unexpected (to some justifiably disgruntled fans) appearance of a PIT! The Murat box office had done everything but file sworn affidavits SWEARING the pit would not be opened for The Moodies concert. Damn liars! Someone must have changed their mind, because a pit magically appeared. My dear husband had frantically called my cell on Monday night, reaching SueC and I WELL in to our Patron Margaritas at the hotel bar. He was frantic not only because pit tickets were onsale, but because he had no idea *how* to work Ticketmaster! My honey done good and relocated the entire "family" on to the front row pit. I'll be hearing about it for the next ten years! It looks like I've been paid back for getting him up to the stage at the last U2 concert. How did I do that? Don't ask; it's a sordid story! HAHA The two row, 40 seat pit was tight quarters and I could touch the stage with my hand. There was almost no legroom and latecomers to the central seats had to body surf across the row. It was EXACTLY where I wanted to be! : ) THE FASHION REPORT JL - White long-slvd shirt, leathers, boots, 2nd half black long-slvd shirt with ruffle JH - Sherbet western shirt (untucked), blue jeans, studded boots, 2nd half white long-slvd shirt with embroidered dots (again, untucked) GE - Jimi Hendrix shirt, black slacks, 2nd half NEW Red Ho Ho shirt Norda - Gold spaghetti-straped top with black ruffled skirt, no change at half Bernie - White pants outfit, black shirt  Graeme
appeared for the second half in a new RED shirt with Christmas decorations
on the shoulders and Ho Ho on the back and front. Great shirt!
Justin has gone wild with the untucked look. It's ok, but I'm uh...tuckered
out with it! lol
THE CONCERT The Moodies at The Murat put out one of the best concerts I have had the honor and pleasure of experiencing, rivaling both Caesar's Tahoe and the RAH. It was Magic in Indianapolis on Thursday night with a rockin' concert, a new setlist and the formal public debut of their new CD "DECEMBER". What MORE could you ask??? The Holiday Setlist: Lovely to See You Gemini Dream Tuesday Afternoon Lean On Me English Sunset Your Wildest Dream Isn't Life Strange Slide Zone I Know You're Out There Somewhere The Story in Your Eyes The Voice Don't Need a Reindeer The Spirit of Christmas December Snow White Christmas Higher and Higher Are You Sitting Comfortably I'm Just a Singer in a Rock 'n Roll Band Nights in White Satin Question Ride My SeeSaw We had ventured to The Murat full of hope and Christmas wishes and felt a tiny pang of disappointment on hearing the opening notes of LtSY. Oh, it was good, it was fine...but it wasn't what we *hoped* to hear. SueC leaned over to me during English Sunset and mournfully whispered "Those %$###S (affectionate word meaning, um...great performers and all around good guys) aren't going to change a damn thing!" We were stunned a moment later by the opening chords of YWD, and looked at each other in glee. An anonymous band member told me afterward that he watched my look of stunned surprise at that moment. I am not known for my poker face. ; ) The songs we have heard and enjoyed live at over 200 concerts took on a new energy. Even the change in setlist position was incredibly exciting. You just didn't know what was coming next. The Moodies followed a supercharged first half, leaving us to wait in suspense through an intermission which seemed twice as long as usual. 
Our next treat was the opener for the 2nd half, a greatly missed favorite of this traveling duo. Ah, The Voice! It sounded freakin' wonderful. It would have sounded even MORE wonderful if they had done the whole song. With your arms around the future, and your back up against the past? I have no future and no past! LOL Was it done intentionally to cut time? If so, put it back in - you're not saving that much time anyway. Great, GREAT song and an unexpected pleasure. John had this to say (all quotes are paraphrased): JL - We have some new music! The album is called December. We'd like to share with you some of those songs with you tonight. JH - This is the opening track from December - it's called I Don't Need a Reindeer. The start sounded exactly the same as the cd, but sounded like some parts were missing when you got in to it. Bernie was WAY too loud in her harmony, almost shrieking. It was a much mellower song onstage and less punchy and upbeat than on the cd. JH sounded GREAT, but he fell out of several parts on the chorus, leaving the girls to carry it. I REALLY didn't like that. Maybe it is a stage arrangement, maybe it was first performance jitters. It's a fantastic song, and I'll be listening closely in Chicago. Funky ending; it needs work.  JL
- This song is called The Spirit of Christmas.
Very, Very Lovely! A sense of reverence was about it. Harmonies were much lighter and better balanced. I liked Bernie/Norda's treatment better than the choir utilized on the cd. Great guitar solo. Strange ending - they just chopped it off. The abrupt ending would be my only complaint. JH - Thank you very much! So our album is called December and we've done some old songs and some new songs, and this is one we would have done anyway, if it was a Christmas album or not. And uh this is called December Snow. Plaintive and BEAUTIFUL guitar work. Simply inspired! sigh Justin's vocals were perhaps the most lovely I've ever heard. What a fabulous song! What a performance! Passionate, tender, deeply moving, ACHINGLY beautiful. BIG Sigh. It sounded like the flute was doing the running background part along with the keyboards - nice effect. That guitar just KILLS you on it. Nice piano interlude with the guitar, kind of a Captain of Her Heart bit. JL does 12 string duties on his Guild. Time, take this sadness from me, Time, bring my heart back safely...  Oh,
December Snow is a beauty and worth the price of admission. I do
wonder how many fans will think JH wrote this song for them. <snort>
JL - ...performing new songs, we'd like to say a gracious thank you very much. I know it's a little early but we'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and happy holidays. And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without this song! White Christmas is the one song that I felt didn't "come off" on December (imho). It's a song that is deeply ingrained in my personal celebration of Christmas and I've had a hard time accepting the Moodies version. I hate the move to uptempo with the keyboard triplets, and I don't think the guitar solo works. Each to his own! The straight treatment at the beginning of the song is excellent and the Jays do a nice job on that. I was surprised at thinking hey, this really works in concert! : ) I hope the online fans who have expressed reservations will give it a chance in concert. It would be a WONDERFUL ending to an all December concert. John actually did a better job in concert on it, holding "bright" sustained where he falters a bit on the cd. I have to say White Christmas live in concert has won me over. I love it! H&H is fresh and tasty EVERY night. It puts the concert firmly in the category of rock 'n roll and serves as a showcase for what the Moodies do best: deep head lyrics and a message of promise all tightly wound up in the finest electric guitar performance ever seen on stage. Just like the title, that song takes me higher and higher. And The Beginning of the Free! 
AYSC was lovely, Singer was hot, Nights was sadly beautiful and Question and Seesaw brilliantly wrapped up an INCREDIBLE night in Indianapolis. If you weren't there, you should kick yourself in the head. : ) It was momentous to BE there and be among the first to hear FOUR new songs by the greatest band in the world. It was a night I will always remember. This evening's concert was very special to me! I celebrated the day I gave birth to my precious son, twenty-one years ago at a hospital not far from the venue. Ryan is his Mom and Dad's pride and joy and has become the man we've always hoped he would some day be - sweet, funny, bright and compassionate. And a damn good-looking kid too! I firmly believe that the Mother Who Endured 9 Hours of Labor should be catered to (and for the rest of her life, too!) and Ryan laughingly acquiesced at the suggestion that we go to see The Moody Blues on his 21st birthday. His steady gal, KellyAnna, has won us over completely, and not just because she has taken a small interest in TMB. This was her first Moodies concert, AND her first John Lodge pick. (Yes, she's *my* girl!) Our champagne family dinner at Palomino's was delightful, and I felt all the warm fuzzies that one can possibly feel at sharing a milestone with the people you love. It stayed with me right until the moment before the Band walked on stage. We had sat as a family together, against the stage, sharing all the excitement and love in the world, when Ryan called my name. I looked over at him (safely a few people away from me) and he smiled devilishly and said, Hey, Mom! It's kind of hot in here, don't you think? He took off his sweater and underneath he was wearing...  A
JETHRO TULL TSHIRT!
That boy is going to be the DEATH of me yet! MaggieMay May your days be merry and bright, And may all your Christmases be white. Photos courtesy of SueC and MaggieMay |
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