| Welcome
to the Higher and Higher Tour! "If they just played that song 18 times, *I'd* be happy!" said SueC, as I vigorously nodded in complete agreement. I expect subsequent tours to be billed as "Graeme Edge and The Moody Blues"!  THE
VENUE
The Tropicana looks as bad as it ever has and seems filled with elderly gamblers on their last legs and their last dollar. I refuse to spend a penny in a casino where the highlight is betting on some ragged live chicken stuck in a box laying eggs! Doesn't Atlantic City have a Humane Society? Have these Jersey people never SEEN a chicken before? Luckily, there are other, chickenless hotels here on the cold gray ocean. I leave the showroom and run as fast as I can thru the casino to the taxi stand, throw a buck at the bellman and lock the door of the taxi behind me. The showroom is ok, with a similar layout to Paris, LV. They dumped the grating stack of speakers on either side of the stage. It's a good place to see a concert! THE FASHION REPORT JL - Black long-slvd ruffled shirt, cuffs undone, LEATHERS, BOOTS JH - Black long slvd shirt, black jeans ; ) GE - Jimi Hendrix shirt, black slacks Norda - Brown patterned bolero type jacket, brown slacks, brown cap sleeved shirt. String tie type necklace. JL's hair looks great, very blonde with a super cut. It seems longer in back than on the fall tour. It's a great look! Justin's studded boots haven't been seen in a long time; I'm afraid that Marie must have put them in the Goodwill bag. : ( (along with the policeman shoes! LOL) THE CONCERT The second night of the tour proceeded much like night one. Same setlist, which may be seen in the first review. Though Justin said in an interview that the Moodies don't rehearse (rehearsing being beneath them), it is obvious that the MBs spent some quality time in a practice hall and it shows. Lovely to See You again opened the concert. I love the song, and the performance is great, but it doesn't create the same type of atmosphere that the majestic The Voice did. Perhaps it was Pavlovian and nothing else, but the opening chords of The Voice ALWAYS gave me chills. This doesn't. I'm happy to hear LtSY, but would have liked to retain The Voice in the setlist. (and there are people in hell wanting ice water too) I watched JL on Gemini Dream and I don't think he looked down on his cheatsheets once!!!! It went well and he seemed MUCH more relaxed on it. Great song, great performance. There are a number of "new" songs, new being defined as not in the setlist for the last 3 years. There are a LOT of new things to take in. I noticed tonight that JL uses a 12 string on Lean on Me, and moves wonderfully in the boots. Justin came up to his mike to introduce English Sunset, held up a finger to the audience and skipped backward to turn ON his guitar. (oh dear! Not THAT finger! *A* finger. His left index, I believe. Whew!) Proving once again that electricity is a good thing. Justin's intro speech to The Actor was different tonight, but on the same theme. He said, and I quote: "We're going to do an old song now, from uh one of our early albums what we call In Search of The Lost Chord. I know this is a particular favorite of um our old mate, Ray Thomas. And he's decided not to, to tour, so we wish him well. And um but the music's gonna continue and so (verbiage lost in the applause). We love him very much...but this is The Actor" I realize the above paragraph SEEMS strange, but it made sense at the time. Norda's introduction has apparently been limited to the first night, and Bernie might tell you she was damn lucky to get THAT. Norda is already developing her concert patterns; the jacket was shed again after TSIYE. LOL I forgot about the last night's misery and loss, and made it a point to listen to Norda's vocals on The Actor. She appears to be singing the same part Ray sang, but of course, an octave higher. It's not in any way "wrong", but it doesn't do the job. Not for ME, anyway. I've seen IKYOTS quite a number of times, but saw a couple of different things this evening. Tonight was the first time I had ever seen Graeme put his hand out in front of him as if to see if it was raining (this was done after he played "thunder in the air") or Gordon Marshall "cueing" Paul Bliss with an upraised drum stick for the glissando. LOL The anticipation of YWD had Justin jumping up and down on stage (per SueC - I don't spend much time watching Justin, and please, would all of you stop that hysterical laughing) before the start. Justin has either been "messing" with us during YWD or has been creatively rewriting it; he USED to say Oh yes, I wonder (in his case "wonda"), but has limited himself the last two nights to "oh yes". I guess he doesn't wonder any more! Higher and Higher proved to be the showstopper again tonight, and it appears that Graeme  has no problem
delivering the goods. Justin's guitar work was outstanding on it
and I think that Graeme should seriously consider keeping him. Graeme
again introduced it with a dedication to the American astronauts.
It is, without a doubt, the highlight of the concert, and blows everything
else out of the water.
AYSC. Hmmmm. Well, the flute interlude was just as long as the night before, so I must assume that the lengthy flute solo is an intentional part of the arrangement, and not a major goof on Norda's part. The song is beautifully performed, however, I simply do not like the arrangement. The flute solo is a fine piece of writing, but it doesn't seem related to the rest of the song and its length makes it dominating. I watched TDMH during the flute solo and it's very obvious that he DOES like the flute solo. In fact, from his facial expression, I'd say that he likes it a LOT. Although it's not improvisation, it sounds like improvisation, and I don't like improvisation. I'm puzzled why the songwriter would want to alter it in the first place. Nonetheless, it's the artist's prerogative. I wonder what Ray would have done with it if he had had the opportunity to perform it. We'll never know. Justin's vocals are beautiful on it and the song overall has a mysterious, haunting quality. Quite a piece and quite a treat! When the Moodies finally break down and hire that baritone, perhaps I can persuade them to do MY favorite song from TOAD: To Share Your Love. Once a rocker, always a rocker! Singer's lyrics had to change with the new line up. (sniff) The repeated refrain "I'm just a singer in a rock 'n roll band" is sung by JL, then by JH. The duo then sing "We're just the singers in a rock 'n roll band" and tonight they ended with "You're just the singers in a rock 'n roll band". SueC said they did it differently last night, and perhaps they're still tinkering with it. (shrug) The flute solo in Nights was the next item on MaggieMay's to do list. You might think that a flute is a flute, but Norda's performance SOUNDS different. If I closed my eyes, I would be able to tell the difference - her flute sounds distinctively different in the lower register. It's not bad, but it's different. Perhaps it can be attributed to differences in the two instruments. Nights, Question and SeeSaw were performed admirably. All in all it was a very good concert. After leaving the night before during Singer, I lingered with a friend waiting for SueC. I was VERY surprised at the number of people that leave the concert after Nights! I had no idea concertgoers did this. Perhaps Nights should be moved to the encore position to keep those suckers in their seats! SueC, Red and I headed back to our hotel, bitching and moaning on a grand scale at how life had cheated us. Writing is cathartic for me, and I worked out the rest of my emotions by pounding violently on my keyboard. I suppose I could have marched outside to scream at the ocean, but it was cold, and the girls bitch when I track a lot of sand into our hotel room. I like to limit my suffering! I wrote until 4am, went to sleep and woke up a better person. ; ) There are many things in life you may not like, but that doesn't change them. I was loathe to give up the touring life and decided I had to find some way to live with it. SueC was in the same spot, and after MANY cups of coffee we decided what we would do. We would do exactly what we had ALWAYS done: go the concerts and have a wonderful time. Our grieving might not be entirely over, but we're old and don't have a lot of time to waste. LOL It sounded like a good plan, but I couldn't figure out HOW I was going to cope with the new sound. I knew I could get TO Singer, and could enjoy the rest of the concert, but how would I get THROUGH Singer? Though he didn't write it, Ray *made* Singer for me. I thought and I thought and it finally dawned on me: Hell, *I'd* just sing Ray's parts myself! For the people who just shot out of their chairs, don't worry. Singer is a loud song, and unlike a few others I've personally had to put up with (and you know who you are) I won't sing loudly. It worked out tonight quite well, and I felt satisfied. If the Moodies can't find someone to do "scorching the earth!", then I'll just do it myself! Ditto for "Roll Over". You've got to figure out what works for you and I'll figure out what works for me, and this worked quite nicely. I can't help them, and would not presume that they would remotely WANT me to, but I can help myself. Um...I hope it was as good for YOU as it was for me! ; ) MaggieMay |
