| The Crystal Grand Theater
On The Road With MaggieMay... It's difficult *not* to immediately start in with The Moodies Fashion Moment of the Century, but all things come to those that wait, and I had that fact proven to me Saturday night in Wisconsin! LOL A bedraggled MaggieMay made her way home from BF Canada, worn out and done in. I knew I needed a break and was running delightfully close to collapse from the result of too much strong coffee and too little rest, but the prospect of missing four concerts was painful. However, my airplane ticket was in my hand and my Luckydog was waiting expectantly for Mommy to come home. : ) Gabe sweetly picked me up at the airport after the Pearl Jam concert (he said it was really good) and though I had made certain obscene and hopeful suggestions, he arrived fully dressed and laughingly ignored my requests to pull over to the side of the road for a "few minutes". I finally got everything I "needed" (and I mean sleep, of course), but it felt strange to be off the road. After a few weeks, hotel rooms seem "right" and staying up all night feels natural. Life is sure different at home! I thought it would be difficult adapting back to the family schedule, but they were REALLY glad to see me (dog, kids and husband) and smilingly indulgent. What does MaggieMay *do* at home? I go to concerts! LOL!!! Tuesday night was Fleetwood Mac at Conseco Fieldhouse. How was it? It wasn't a sell out, which would be around 16,000 for the concert setup, but there was a good crowd. I was surprised when the band came out onstage, and was looking here and there for Stevie Nicks, but the only person I saw was Tipper Gore. It seems that the Gold Dust Woman has been hitting the creme brulee of late. ; ) She was joined in front by Art Garfunkel. Yes, it was strange. Only Mick Fleetwood looked like Mick Fleetwood. Both Stevie and Lindsey Buckingham sounded fine, but Christine McVie's absence was sorely felt. The really wonderful thing about TMB to me has always been the variety of the musical offerings, the work of 5 singers/songwriters, all on the same page, but writing their own music. We're reduced to 3 onstage in 2003, but it's still a Good Thing. Fleetwood Mac is down to 2 and there's an unrelenting sameness throughout the concert and the selections from the new cd run from pleasant to downright annoying. It was particularly nice to hear Stevie singing her own version of Landslide - a current hit for the Dixie (God Bless America) Chicks. It's a good concert and worth seeing. It's almost harder to prepare for a week on the road than it was to pack for 3 weeks. People always seem surprised to come upon me at a concert in other than my leather jacket and black jeans. After three weeks, I'm damn sick of both! Apparently, from the comments, everyone else was sick of them, too. LOL We began the last leg of the 2003 Summer Tour with MaggieMay's Annual Jimmy Buffett Party. Buffett is a huge thing in Indianapolis, and it just so happens that I have tickets and am able to get enough other tickets for a party. SueC and CL are "must haves" at my annual Buffett party and it was the perfect way to kick off our road trip and get us in the mood to party (not that that has ever been a problem).  It
is absolutely amazing to see a sell out crowd of 24,000 at Verizon Wireless
Music center (the venue formerly and enchantingly known as Deer Creek until
it succumbed to corporate greed), and it's amazing to think that all these
people pay big bucks for an evening of mediocre music. sigh
What is wrong with this picture? Jimmy Buffett can't sing worth a
damn and his music seems best suited for a flea-bag bar, though I must
admit to an affection for the song, Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw?
It's not really a "concert" but a Party with a capital P - fun is the commodity
that Mr Buffett is selling and it's popular beyond belief. That's
what *I* go for! I've done the official concert thing in years past
and now I preside with Margarita in hand over the festivities from a table
in the bar. I have much less beer spilled on me that way! LOL
I don't have much trouble getting other "victims" for Gabe to drag out
into the crowd for the concert and this year we invited the couple who
share our "kids". Beth and Chuck are truly wonderful people who I
intend to "keep" even if our kids ever go their separate ways. (I
intend to keep KellyAnna too and have attempted to impress that on my son.)
Chuck has more jokes than Planter's has peanuts and kept us rolling with
laughter (not too difficult after that first Margarita on an empty stomach).
After our Cheeseburgers in Paradise we moved the party to The Green Room.
The Green Room is a reception area for VIPS (mostly big-voiced and big-bottomed
radio personalities) adjacent to backstage. The backstage door is
guarded, but that's ok! We *know* they're just on the other side
of the door.
The Green Room was hopping at Buffett and I came to realize that we were oddly (but legitimately) in the middle of a big party hosted by the former owner of Deer Creek who is now a bigwig regional VP with Clear Channel Entertainment. Dave L passed by our table a number of times and glanced at me no doubt TRYING to remember who the hell I was! LOL He probably assumed his wife had invited us. "We" were entertained by his other guests who came up and sat down unbidden (though we didn't mind) and drunkenly told us they loved us. Gabe came back with the news that there were a couple of empty seats in the second row and when CL declined to leave the comfort of The Green Room and I flatly refused joining the mob, carried off SueC (or Ed as we now fondly refer to her). She returned to announce that Alan Jackson had come out onstage in shorts and bare feet, and since I like Big Blondes with guitars I was miffed as hell. She's described the moment often enough in the past couple of days that I feel like I was there. (grrrrrrrrr)  I
was itching to get out on the road and into a Moody Blues frame of mind.
We had had enough of the Buffett Party Life and were ready to move on.
CL pulled her car up to the van and we gently moved the drunk leaning against
the car and transferred all the weeks massive luggage into CL's Malibu.
We got the luggage in fine, but we were loaded down with a variety of stolen
inflatable porpoises (or porpi?), Here's The Party signs and hats decorated
with pineapples and sharks. I'm sure Dave L would have WANTED us
to have them!
We had decided to park in Milwaukee and hit and run the concerts in this area and drove straight thru the night. I did my usual: fell soundly asleep in the back seat. I woke once in Rensaleer, Indiana (on the way to my beloved Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville), but the rest of the trip was a sweet dream. I can't describe the JOY of traveling again with SueC and CL - it's like being a member of TMB, lovingly guarded and taken care of by my two tour managers. I don't have to do ANYTHING! Don't have to think, don't have to worry - they get me where I need to be with absolutely no effort on my part. I'm in heaven! Big Sigh. They would have a big future in the rock 'n roll business if they ever decide to chuck taking care of ME. I do have a tiny bit to do...nothing important, only concert tickets and hotel reservations. We had decided rather late in the game to leave after the Buffett concert and get on the road and it dawned on me at some time that we didn't actually HAVE a hotel reservation for Thursday night. Thank God for cell phones. I woke up thinking about it and told the girls to wake me when we were an hour away from Milwaukee and they announced we WERE an hour from Milwaukee. Getting a hold of our hotel in Milwaukee turned out to be a trick and their reservations dept was closed (!!!) but I sweet talked the gal at the front desk into finding us a room despite being "sold out". Babette has been a jewel over and over and we thank her, for she has repeatedly found us room in the hotel and has fed us too. : ) I always seem to be stuck with the duties that involve a hint of prostitution, and while I indignantly resent it, I've accepted that it's what I'm GOOD at. sigh It's so demeaning! We hit our suite like a whirlwind and crashed like an overloaded cargo jet. Friday saw us up late and still groggy from our 3am arrival. I hope the bellman Brian got over his shock at opening our trunk and seeing it FULL of half deflated plastic sea life, signs and straw hats. CL explained that we had just left a Buffett concert and he was VERY impressed, though a tiny bit stunned to hear that we had come from Indianapolis and not Chicago. He gathered everything up and sang Margaritaville on our way to our room. He shouldn't quit his day job, but he was a cute kid. We spent Friday busily doing nothing and when SueC suggested a variety of plans requiring energy, CL and I shouted her down and CL offered her the car keys. Our pleasant evening was capped by the arrival of a fine group of fellow travelers who looked none the worse for the wear of a hectic week's schedule. I woke Saturday in excitement at the thought: Finally! A CONCERT! We enjoyed a 2pm breakfast brunch in the hotel bar (you can't smoke in the cafe) and after making *sure* we'd have something to see, left ourselves for the uneventful 2 hour trip to the Dells. The Dells is definitely not *my* thing, just as Branson is not a place I'd go to for a vacation. I just am not interested in the World's Biggest Waterslide. It's an ok place and I'm sure a pleasant holiday experience for child oriented families. The Crystal Grand is a very nice venue. It's pretty new and well set up. There's plenty of free parking and we swooped in and got a primo paved parking place. It's a fair-sized building, PINK of all things, has a Branson appearance and is in the middle of nowhere.  The
Moody Blues were on the marquee, as were their progressive rock 'n roll
brethren Jethro Tull, but the rest of the offerings were most definitely
country acts that I have no desire to see (Alan Jackson and Dwight Yoakum
were not on the list). It takes all kinds! We had arrived about
an hour before showtime and a number of people were pulling in and admiring,
the pink powder puff venue and taking photos of their friends in front
of the venue sign. We watched them all walk in from the comfort of
the car and geared ourselves up with a boot of the fall Vegas concerts,
fondly dubbed The Ray Thomas Farewell Tour. I've come to love Singer
again, but I still enjoy hearing Ray Thomas "Scorching The Earth".
: ) It's different now, but it has finally won me over.
I'll have to love both.
THE VENUE The Crystal Grand does things its own way! They do not take tickets at the door and you enter into a large lobby. The restrooms are on the far sides, next to the side doors. The smell of popcorn is in the air and it's hard to resist, though we did. They take tickets at the inner venue doors and while there are signs posted about photography (no digitals or pro cameras, no recording devices, yada, yada) they SELL stupid little disposable flash cameras to be used in the venue. 
Guys seem to like buying these for their dates and flashes go off behind
you right and left. Worse, people creep up and crawl in front of
you as if they're trying to sneak an important message past enemy lines
and FLASH up at the stage. One of a fine pair of drunks behind me
repeatedly struggled past the people in the second row, grabbing MY shoulder
each time she got out and pushed her way back. The only good thing
about it was that when she went out to flash a photo, her boorish and inebriated
boyfriend would momentarily shut up.
The venue seats 1500, 1000 on the floor and 500 in the balcony. The usher I had nabbed told me it wasn't a sell-out, but it was darn close. He estimated that 1300 to 1400 tickets had been sold. It was NICELY full with a very enthusiastic audience. (They're probably sick of all that country stuff they're fed.) The main floor is split into 5 sections and a lot of great seats are missed by having all those wide aisles. grrrrrrrrr The decor is stark and limited to a large diamond shape on both of the side walls. There's no pit and the seats are a muted violet color. The painted concrete floor (all the better for beer spills) is gently inclined. The balcony is reached by a large staircase in the foyer and doesn't have wings against the side walls, but is straight back. I imagine it provides a nice view of the stick figures on stage. The stage was medium height, high enough that *I* wasn't getting on it, but not so high that I couldn't see the Boys feet from my front row side seat. (This proved to be VERY important later in the evening.) I would guess it was about 4 foot high. Someday I am going to bring a freaking' tape measure instead of asking people to stand up against the stage for comparison. LOL It wasn't the biggest stage I've seen, but on the large side - plenty of room. It curved out right in front of me and there was quite a bow. I think Justin's mike at center stage was easily 8 feet from the edge. They weren't pushed back too far. ; ) SueC immediately pointed out that our front row seats were DIRECTLY in front of one of the 4 front fill speakers. Aaaaaargh! The front fill speakers were 1 ft by 2 ft boxes placed directly on stage at the edge. There were a pair of 4 unit speakers flying on either side of the stage and that was all I saw. I noticed the three in ear transmitters stage left and chuckled that I had never noticed them before this tour. There's ALWAYS something different to see at a Moodies concert and always things to puzzle you. LOL I really like The Crystal Grand. Yes, it's very plain but it's comfortable and the seating is set up pretty well. After all, the show is on stage! The stage looked great and the Moodies fabulous lighting guy had set up very pretty lighting before the concert. The white panels were lit with a rotating purple sun design that was VERY nice. Very attractive! Sound was adequate though not great and although I put my earplugs in before the concert started, we weren't overwhelmed by the front fill speakers. It was ok! THE FASHION REPORT JH - Pink long-slvd pinstripe shirt, black slacks first half. The world stopped spinning when JH walked out after intermission in (gasp!)... BLUE JEANS!!!! STUDDED BOOTS!!!! TRANSLUCENT WHITE SHIRT!!!! 
THUD. All right, I didn't completely pass out and slide off my chair onto the floor ONLY because I realized that the man next to me might slap me harder than I might like and it would hurt. I do know that my jaw dropped, my eyes popped out and with every other woman in the audience I said "Oh My God!" It was breath-taking! Spectacular! Fantastic! Though Justin is ALWAYS very nicely attired both onstage and off, I have LONGED to see him turn up onstage in blue jeans and look like he used to look onstage in the 80s, I don't know if it made him feel 20 years younger, but it sure did it for me. Let's just say, it *could* have been the 80s again! : 0 He looked absolutely PERFECT! Rock 'n roll all the way. WOOHOO!!! It was an incredible treat. I thought the shirt, which is so thin it almost looks peach colored, was perfect with the blue jeans (though he "might" have rolled the sleeves up - well, hey, he might not KNOW what a great look that would be.) I made my way back to my own seat, having traded seats with CL so that she might have a closer view for a few songs and as I was taking in the sight and smiling ear to ear, SueC leaned over and whispered to me "He's wearing the studded boots". I whipped my eyes to the stage floor and said: Holy Sh**! It was like hitting the jackpot at the casino! In fact, better. sigh Justin Hayward was a rock 'n roll vision at The Crystal Grand and put a spark in the 2003 tour. Hell, he started a FIRE! LOL (Ed, was this a little, um too much?)  (Ed:
That's IT???? Only five paragraphs??? I'll see your five and
raise you three!)
OK, ok! Everyone else was wearing: GE - Red car shirt first half, Jimmy Hendrix shirt second, black slacks JL - White long slvd *bib* shirt with ruffle first half, black one second half, leathers, boots JH - Have I mentioned he was wearing blue jeans tonight? : ) LIGHT blue Gordon - leather shirt, white pants Paul - White long slvd shirt Bernie - White pants suit with black top Norda - Black sleeveless shirt, high neck, mesh midriff and insert, black hip huggers Naughty Norda has scored another hot fashion look with this sexy top. It was Quite Stunning and frankly, I would have had to cover my husband's eyes if he had been there with me. THE CONCERT This was a very solid concert with few errors or incidents. The Tour 2003 setlist was played in its entirety with a 20 minute intermission. The Band looked rested and in good spirits. The concert had a smooth start and continued in that same vein. The only exception was Slide Zone and while I didn't hear anything go wrong, I noticed Gordon trying to get what I assumed was the sound guy's attention at the monitor board. I'd guess his ear piece went dead. He was VERY adamant about it and in fact, JL turned to Gordon and then was seen signaling the sound guy for him. GM was cool and simply watched Graeme in order to synchronize with him. H&H was the biggest song of the night and received a huge ovation that went on for some time. Graeme actually danced across the entire stage and gave me and the girls a little hello wave, um without using his hand. LOL The crowd was very vocal, screaming and yelling but not too big on standing. Standing was severely discouraged by the guards on the left side of the audience, but they were asleep on our side and we got to stand fairly often. Angel had joined us at the Dells and tried to talk me into standing for H&H, but I'm so thoughtful, polite and sweet that I was reluctant to. I couldn't disappoint her and got up and it wasn't very long before we were joined by the entire audience. There were a number of familiar fans at the Crystal Grand but none had been able to score front row center, including The Little Ticketbeggar (that's my alter ego).  One
front row center fellow went out for a bit and came back with refreshments.
He placed a bottle of water onstage in front of John and shoved it toward
him and walked over with the same love offering for Justin. I didn't
see Justin's reaction (that would have forced me to raise my eyes from
the Blue Jeans) but did glance at John who looked marvelously bemused.
I don't think I've EVER seen anyone do anything like it at a concert.
Ed thinks it was done during The Actor. I don't know if the guys
looked thirsty, but I did glance back to check and JL HAD a bottle of water
on his amp. John, the guitar tech came out and removed the two bottles.
Next time, make it an open bottle of fine wine and you might have better luck! There were a heck of a lot of kids at the Dells, which is a wonderful thing, but kids were running back and forth in front of the stage, and one was carrying a sign which got Mom a pick. I saw people pushing forward during the applause for Nights and jumped forward with Angel and SueC. We had a wonderful end to an excellent concert, though I'm certain Angel has lost significant hearing in her left ear as a result of some over enthusiastic and EXTREMELY loud whistling by a big guy who simply HAD to get the Band's attention or die. We drove back feeling incredibly satisfied and pleased and thinking about...  BLUE
JEANS!
MaggieMay We couldn't tear ourselves away! Words of Love, soft and tender, may be sent to MaggieMay. Insults and complaints should be sent to SueC. (Ed: The above is NOT an invitation to insult the editor) Photos courtesy of SueC |
Appleton