| Fall Tour 2005
Genessee Theater Waukegan, IL Wednesday, Oct 26 My wake-up call rang and I knocked off everything on the bedside table trying to hush it. It was 4:45am in New York City at the Pennsylvania Hotel – one of the worst dumps I have ever had the misfortune to stay in. The only thing to recommend it is that it is across the street from Madison Square Garden and I didn’t see any rats. Our 8:04 flight to Dayton was iffy; Hurricane Wilma had finished with Florida and was roaring up the east coast at 50 mph threatening to wreak havoc on my travel plans. Delta’s automated phone line said my flight was still on schedule, and Darling Hubby and I threw ourselves into a taxi. It’s a darn long drive to JFK, but at 5:30am there isn’t a whole lot of car traffic, delivery vans dominate the roadways. Anyone who has to drive in NYC for a living deserves a medal. I’d starve to death first! JFK looked a little cleaner than the last time I was through there and a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks buoyed my spirits. I regret not making a pie for Sid – pumpkin pie is entirely unknown in Scotland. In one insane period of my life, I GREW pumpkins, cleaned, baked and mashed them, made piecrust from scratch and topped the finished pumpkin masterpiece with whipped cream I freakin’ whipped myself. These days instead of whipping cream, I go see them. How was Cream and how did it compare to the Royal Albert experience in May? While the concert at MSG was just as good as the RAH, perhaps even better than the London gigs, the experience wasn’t nearly as enjoyable. The sound at MSG was surprisingly good, full and clear, and Jack Bruce in particular gave a much stronger, more confident performance that was great to see. We saw a setlist change in NYC – Cream added a number called “The Song of Ulysses” which they said had never been performed before. I liked it! The 5000 seat RAH was so much more intimate and personal than the 15,000 seat MSG, and a comparable seat in MSG put you SO much farther away from the stage. I felt detached and uninvolved at MSG, but probably only by comparison. Still, I had a wonderful person to enjoy it with and that made it worth the trip. Darling Hubby was 6th row on the floor in a seat I had miraculously scored online, but Sid and I danced away the evening midway back and midway up, and he solemnly pronounced it a “dream come true”. I only hope My Favorite Scot was as wrecked the next day as *I* was! At $345 a ticket, it must have been a HELL of a gross for the week! That was at cost off Ticketmaster if you were lucky enough to get through on the sale. NYC to Atlanta, 2 hour layover, Atlanta to Dayton, drove home, dumped my suitcase on the laundry room floor, repacked and SueC arrived an hour later for the trip to Waukegan. Justin may sing about moving mountains, but by God, fans DO it. I shudder to think how many miles I covered in 2 days between Nashville, NYC, Atlanta and Waukegan. Thousands, all in the name of music. The drive to Waukegan was uneventful, SueC is a pro. We made our way though the Indiana farmland accompanied by Moody Bluegrass. The cd has taken on an entirely new life for both of us after seeing it performed live in Nashville – what an incredible experience that was! I can *see* Harley Allen singing Lovely to See You, when I hear David Harvey’s mandolin I can *see* him playing. The Nashville concert has increased my enjoyment of the cd tenfold. I hope Randey Faulkner and David Harvey are hard at work on Volume Two, because I can’t WAIT to hear it. What songs will they pick to “pick-on”? The one thing I feel completely certain of is that it will be as brilliant as Volume One. If they don’t include Send Me No Wine it will be a crying shame. It was the clear winner of the evening. Traffic wasn’t too bad in Chicago and the skyline at mid-evening was fantastic – the best time to enjoy it. We were getting close to our destination and it was a good thing. SueC had inexplicably been up since 3am and I could barely keep my eyes open despite napping on both planes. We were starting the tour well-trashed, and sad to say, we’re not getting any younger. Sylvia, our GPS (on loan from Darling Hubby) expertly steered us into Waukegan, a nothing town north of Chicago. It was around 9pm and most of the shops on the main drag were still open. Super mercados. Dolcerias. Tacquerias. Even a lavanderia! There were blocks and blocks of businesses with signs in Spanish. I was perplexed! Where WERE we? Had we taken a major wrong turn??? No one had mentioned to us or online that the City of Waukegan was 80% Mexican! Hey, it’s cool and I have no problem with it; it was simply quite unexpected. I’m sure everyone in Waukegan is entirely legal, fine upstanding American citizens, all. But, geez, if I was coming to the USA from another country, I don’t think I’d settle in WAUKEGAN! It’s cold! I did have the passing thought that if you can’t score pot in Waukegan, you ain’t trying, but I put that quickly away as an unfair and loathesome sterotype. I’ll bet good money that you CAN score goat tacos there! We found the venue, seeing the brightly, in fact obnoxiously lit marquee from blocks away, saw the crew bus parked there and felt reassured that we WERE in the right place.  That’s
always a good feeling! The crew was lucky to have their bus handy
for there aren’t any *nice* hotels in Waukegan. The desk clerk at
the Ramada was finally convinced to come out and check us in after we threatened
to eat ALL the Halloween candy at the front desk and after a cheap room-service
meal we crashed. ‘Tis much better to do so in a cheap hotel than
on the highway!
I wouldn’t recommend Waukegan as a desirable vacation destination. The Moody Blues stuck us there though and we made the best of it. The Ramada finally got us out of our modest (but no rats) room and we circled the Genessee Theatre enough times that I was getting sick. We made a quick stop to say Hi to our favorite merchandise guy parked in front of the theater. No free tshirts were forthcoming from Hal, but the large number of boxes he was trying to move and his moaning about it was entertaining. Part of the street parking was already marked off, but we spied a few spots down the block. We wanted to see the lake and headed toward the public beach. I jumped out to photo a large group of Canadian geese near the marina, and SueC cautioned me not to alarm them. Alarm THEM?  The damn things
came at me and I realized (too late!) that a person approaching them usually
does so with food. I hoofed it back to the car as fast as I could,
the gaggle in quick and determined pursuit. Canadian geese are big
birds and though I don’t know how I’ll die, I sure don’t want to be pecked
to death. I have a long list of ways I *don’t* want to die and that’s
on it. My old friend, Buck Naked (his nom-de-plume) once mentioned
“coming and going” and I think I’d favor that if I get the choice.
More common with men, I suppose. The marina was cold, the lake looked
VERY cold, even the boats looked forlorn and cold, and despite hats and
gloves we were cold. Cement companies backed the marina along with a number
of industrial-looking businesses, ruining what little ambience Lake Michigan
afforded. The whole Edmund Fitzgerald thing looked grimly probable.
Winter comes early to the Great Lakes and it’s a bitter and easily fatal
thing.
The municipal beach was surprisingly nice though, again, surrounded by heavy businesses. The only living things on the beach were the birds. We still had time to kill and SueC foolishly asked me what I’d like to do. I had seen a sign, in fact TWO signs as we drove in the night before for Ray Bradbury Park. Ray Bradbury was my childhood literary hero, opening new worlds for me, specifically, Mars. I had no idea he was from Waukegan! I assume he was and that’s the reason they named a park for him, but maybe science fiction is just really big there. I hope it has been translated into Spanish! 
We asked several people for directions to the park and got
blank looks. Sigh SueC drove back and forth along the main
road but we couldn’t find the signs from the night before. She suggested
that I had dreamed them up! Our GPS includes “points of interest”
and we found the park near The Blue Kangaroo – the local lavendaria.
SueC wouldn’t let me get out of the car, but parked for a minute so that
I could quietly pay my respects. Wait. He isn’t dead yet.
I saw him a few years ago and he looked pretty close to it. Actually,
Bradbury spoke at Butler University along with Douglas Adams, author of
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and is my son’s favorite sci-fi author
(the apple didn’t fall far from the tree). Bradbury is in his 80s,
frail and in a wheelchair, Adams looked the picture of robust health and
died a few months later while working out, proving to me once again, a
healthy lifestyle will kill you AND you won’t have had nearly as much fun.
I’m determined not to make THAT mistake!
We wound back through Little Mexico, amazed at the number of large and usually garish signs in Spanish with small English translations underneath.  Se hablo espanol was everywhere
and I’d say that’s damn smart of any businessman in Waukegan. We
had seen a bar near the venue called The Opera (or something close) and
since it said bar and GRILL, SueC suggested we make for it. I was
less sure about the idea since when we had slowed down to peer in, every
head had turned to look out the window at us. I was hungry, so I
agreed since she seemed determined and we stopped across the street.
I jumped out of the car and saw a statue of Jack Benny! Jack Benny
was from Waukegan? Shrug I had no idea. I hated his schtick,
even as a child, but took a photo of his statue nonetheless.
We opened the door of the Opera Bar and Grill and were almost flattened by (big surprise!) MEXICAN MUSIC! Very loud Mexican music. I quickly noticed that there were no women there, but no one was fighting and The Waltons were on the tv over the bar. John-Boy seemed to be reassuring me. We sat down in a booth and a bored guy in a White Sox tshirt came over to take our order. Can we have a menu? Nope! “Grill” apparently was just for show, he said they had no food, and politely suggested the Mexican restaurant up the block. How then could he explain the man who came walking past our booth eating a chicken leg? There *was* food, WE just weren’t getting any! We could hardly hear ourselves think over the loud music and I was developing an unnatural desire to polka. We had to leave. The Wendy’s around the block seemed our safest bet and we did the drive-thru, circled the venue ONCE again and parked. What can I say? At least it wasn’t Youngstown! THE VENUE The Genessee Theatre is a lovely place! The marquee thankfully didn’t reflect the attractive interior. The staff is pleasant, helpful and friendly, the bar was uncrowded and the lady’s room very convenient. The interior is along the lines of one of the finer Fox era theatres, beautifully restored. The sound was very good from my seat and the stage was at the perfect height – low enough to provide a nice full view and not so low that you have to continually make uneasy eye-contact with the performers. The balcony curved around and had boxes lining the sides of the auditorium. Mikes were set back, but not too far – maybe 8 feet at most. New merchandise included a Moodies messenger bag and a denim jacket with a new dove motif. The tie-dyed JL tshirt seen on Moodymall.net is available and a black tshirt with the same, fantastic photo in red is also for sale. It’s the best tshirt I’ve seen in YEARS. I wear one all the time, but I’ve stopped telling people I meet that I took the photo, because they then always want to know how much I’m getting from each tshirt. LOL!!! 
I understand
the tourbook is the same one from the summer tour but with the fall dates.
There is at least one other new tshirt. I’m afraid of the merchandise
table, so I try not to get too close to it.
No purse searches and thank God, no wanding (as at the Stones Columbus concert). It was announced that no photography was allowed, but I saw a lot of cameras out and no one told you to stop. I can live with policy and no enforcement. The marquee said “Tickets Available” but the room looked sold-out to me, if not, it was very close, and this despite the fact that the White Sox were playing a possible final game in the World Series. Way to go Sox! THE FASHION REPORT I can’t make myself write a fashion report, especially after Sid spent two weeks doing a wretched lisping version of what I write and laughing hysterically at my expense. And this from a man who wears a kilt! Humph! Do you know what a lucky Scotsman wears under his kilt? Lipstick! Justin wore a pink-pinstriped long-slved Oxford shirt and black somethings, slacks or jeans. 
John wore the
gorgeous black long-slved Cossack shirt first half, the shorter white one
second half and those hot snake jeans with boots. It’s total rock
‘n roll stage left and a nice respectable accountant with a guitar at center
stage. It’s totally wrong! Blue jeans and a tshirt would be
great with heck – TENNIES. The western-style shirts look fantastic.
Throw the oxford shirts in the trash. They’re an affront to rock
‘n roll sensibility.
The man has driven me to despair! Norda had a lovely new outfit on – skirt and knit top, as did Bernie, also a skirt and what looked like a velvet jacket. VERY nice for both! They’re cool and classy rock ‘n roll grrrrls. Graeme wore the blue palm trees shirt first half. THE CONCERT I hate first concerts of the tour, though The Moodies first nights out have greatly improved over the past couple years and have often been quite respectable. My thinking was that the guys had gotten in days before for Moody Blue Grass, had probably recovered from jet lag (not applying to GE, of course) and had “warmed-up” their vocal chords in Nashville. I thought they seemed a little tired in Waukegan. Still, it was a decent and enjoyable concert. The big news of the evening was the setlist change. Here it is! Lovely to See You Tuesday Afternoon Lean on Me Never Comes the Day Slide Zone The Voice One More Time to Live I Know You’re Out There Somewhere The Story in Your Eyes Your Wildest Dreams Isn’t Life Strange The Other Side of Life December Snow Higher & Higher Are You Sitting Comfortably? I’m Just a Singer in a Rock ‘n Roll Band Nights in White Satin Question Ride My See-Saw Justin plays an acoustic Gibson on Never Comes the Day. I had never seen it before his appearance at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville last Saturday. He had performed NCtD at Swindon as a solo piece and it was every bit as lovely done with the band. It’s a beautiful song, sounds great and it’s a delight to hear. A great choice! I LOVE hearing a few of the songs that you don’t hear in Krogers. But... One More Time to Live – WOW!!! It is a knock-out live on stage. It’s a song I have been dying to hear for years, one I play over and over, a treat I never expected to get. This ONE song makes this tour a Must-See for every Moodies fan that can swing it. 
The Regulars (and semi-regulars) were falling off their
seats in shock, amazement and utter delight. THIS is what fans so
desperately want, and we got it at the Genessee. No, it didn’t get
a huge response from the audience as a whole, but the first several rows
were just about hysterical. It was an incredible experience, VERY
well performed, and if not exactly the same sound as the album, close enough.
It was a stroke of absolute genius on JL’s part, a risk (and it had to
have been) that paid off in gold.
Thank-you, thank-you, THANK-YOU! The third song that caught my ear in Waukegan was TOSOL. JH lit into it hard as steel and put something extra on it. It’s a tough song and Justin gave it a mean edge at the Genessee. I like it when he’s scarey! It was a good concert in Waukegan. One More Time to Live made it a great show. Who knows, maybe JH will step up to the plate and I’ll hear Top Rank Suite live on stage. It could happen! I’m starting to think that The Moody Blues are changing their tune, breaking out of “safe” and saying “what the hell!” MaggieMay For I have riches more than these... |
