| Welcome
to the Higher and Higher Tour!
SueC and I had not PLANNED to go to Easton for the Sunday concerts. Why? I do not wish to elaborate, let's just say I discovered last year when the Band played Easton that the pit had been taken by the promoter and given out to his "buddies" in the media. THIS year, on inquiry with the box office, I was told that the pit was reserved for the handicapped. Since I expect to become handicapped myself soon, either by being shot in the knees by disgruntled musicians or by merely becoming worn to exhaustion from touring, I did not complain. The rights and needs of the handicapped should be both respected and protected, and I wish to applaud the State Theatre for their sensitivity and commitment to this group. The box office told me that there would be people in wheelchairs in the pit area, accompanied by their "helpers". IMAGINE my surprise when all I saw in the pit were HELPERS, with nary a %*@$ wheelchair in sight! How odd! LOL SueC said she recognized all that were there, and I recognized one well-known fan, front row pit center. ; ) Congratulations on outfoxing the fox. (snort!) SueC and I came to Easton for one reason: to hear Higher and Higher. I believe the Lord will provide, and since our motives were pure, we were rewarded with a decent pair of box tickets on John's side for the late show. It was meant to be! THE VENUE A description of the venue can be found in prior reviews. I'll simply say that it is in a lousy area and the parking sucks. Meters must be fed 8 days a week. Dirty piles of snow from last week's storms were everywhere. The theatre itself is elderly and doesn't show the love or the money that have been invested in many of the old Fox theatres. The stage was as I remembered it. It's on the small side, not very wide and not very deep, therefore the mikes are pushed up to within 3 or 4 feet of the edge. It makes for an intimate concert. There is a pit (grrrrrrrr), regular theater-type floor seating, a balcony and a box for 8 on either side. You can bring in bottled water to pour over you after Higher and Higher. There are a number of older, friendly ladies acting as ushers. Security is present and strict. An announcement requested no flash, and then further said no photography at all, for "copyright" reasons. Odd, that one can take photos at AC but then not at Easton. LOL A member of the audience was nabbed early when her flash was seen by security. THE FASHION REPORT JL- White long-slvd shirt, LEATHERS, BOOTS JH- Black long-slvd shirt (looked "clingy"), black jeans GE- Flag shirt, black slacks GM- Tight black tshirt Norda- Burgundy jacket and slacks, gold mesh sleeveless top 
JL has brought along a great rock 'n roll look for the tour. No reviewer will call him a "slicked-up appliance salesman" THIS tour. (Ames, IA review of Fall Tour 2002) Someone else will have to hawk the refrigerators! Norda's been wearing high boots. (note to promoters: have an orthopedic surgeon on call) There was no intermission, hence no change of stage attire. THE CONCERT The setlist was the same as the first two AC concerts. (see March 8th review for the list) I'll be curious to see if the Moodies include additional songs for their first non-casino, non-double concert at Sandusky. I will not be attending since the ticket gods rewarded SueC with a pair in row Z, ONE minute after tickets went on sale. MaggieMay and SueC do not sit in row Z. The fall tour setlist was 19 songs; right now, Tour 2003 has 19 songs. I find it near impossible to do a decent review of a concert from farther back than the third row, and this review will be short. The box seats were quite good actually and provided a very different view. One of the things that I rarely notice is the Moodies light show. It cannot be enjoyed in the front row. From the box I could see the circles of swirling colored lights on the stage FLOOR during Tuesday Afternoon. It's very pretty! LoM (not to be confused with LOAM which is relaxing on the banks of a pond in England) sees Justin playing the white Strat. It was very startling to walk into AC for the first concert and SEE the Strat there, as it had formerly only been seen at the very end of the gig on SeeSaw. Mild heckling was heard (again) when a member of the audience yelled "Where's Ray?". Justin was not required to respond this time, for another concertgoer yelled back "He's retired!" We're slow, but we can learn. Graeme spent WYS early on getting assistance with his earpiece. The BIG NEWS of the evening occurred during Justin's introduction to The Actor. It's SueC's "job" to capture Justin's exact words during this moment since SHE took shorthand in high school and I did not, mostly since I expected to have my own personal secretary in my adult life. We weren't adequately prepared tonight since we were on the fly. I believe JH said "Ray's decided not to tour" but I can't read lips from the box. That is not the big news. The Big News was his subsequent INTRODUCTION OF THE BACKUPS. Yes, you heard me right! Those unsung, unnamed slaves of the dark were introduced to the world and in a VERY nice fashion, I might add. Justin "done good". : ) I appreciate the Band choosing to do this. It's the right thing to do and the decent thing to do. I like them all, and respect each one, and was very pleased to see them recognized. GOOD JOB, MOODY BLUES! Some more tidbits...SZ had cool target-like lights on the stage, again, something I had never seen before from brokerland. I'm still getting used to SZ with Norda. She has um...a kind of a "freaky" voice on Slide Zone (this is not intended as an insult) that I like. It gives an interesting effect to what is a pretty freaky song. TSIYE was really good tonight and was rewarded with enthusiastic applause. YWD saw Norda's drumstick baptism. I didn't see if she got hit, but did see her kicking a drumstick around that had fallen near her. Watch out, Norda! Those drummers are wild things! ILS evoked a huge ovation, which woke me up. LOL (That's a lie of course, I heard EVERY note) H&H did not get the same response that it got in AC which was interesting. (shrug) However, it was the same OUTSTANDING performance and SueC and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Graeme danced over to John tonight - it looked great and he seems to PULL a top-notch performance out of Justin, actually reach in and pull it out. I believe Graeme can do anything, and might even have Justin dancing up there before tour's end. (um...maybe not! LOL) The end of the concert, Nights, Question and SeeSaw, were their usual fabulous. It was a very good concert! The new setlist is incredibly exciting and provides a "must see" motivation for the jaded Moody Blues fan who has tired of last year's 70 concert plus repetition of the same old, same old. The introduction of Norda has not suffered the same injustice that was done to Miss Bernie when she joined the Band and to Paul in taking over Bias' additional keyboard duties at Albuquerque. Practice was done on tour and in concert at the expense of the paying public for that transition. I experienced several evenings of agony as a group of total strangers tried to play together on stage. These concerts show the time and effort put in BEFORE the tour began. It bodes well. My hope is that TMB will not fall into the same pit as they've done before, and become so ENAMORED of a setlist that they don't change it regularly. It's great right now, but it would be a damn shame if some change isn't seen in June. Their magnificent catalog begs it. My work on Singer continues. English Sunset requires it too. I still have to call out "England" every time I play the HoF dvd, and while John is willing to do that onstage, Ray's parts were too important to ES to be ignored. For Singer, I sing Ray's parts and the Band does what "works" for them. SueC and I yelled ROLL OVER together with a smile. It's not great, but it's the lemonade we're making out of life's lemons. While polite and appropriate, Justin's introduction of the back ups was also a welcome and unexpected change. The man at center stage gets most of my guff and to be FAIR, I must point out that John's piece before Question has been said and said and said. He needs new "shtick"! While it's lovely, and meaningful, and yes, perfect, it has become boring. Rote. John needs to work on a new presentation to go with the new tour. But of course, Keep The Faith! MaggieMay More tea, Vicar? |
