| USA Winter Tour 2007
The Las Vegas Hilton Las Vegas, NV Thursday, Feb 8 On the Road with MaggieMay... Ah, ah, We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow. We’re livin’ Led Zeppelin. Darling Hubby and I barely made it out of IND Tuesday morning. The snow started frantically falling around 11am as we sat waiting for our Southwest Flight to arrive. It looked like an English flight to Bangkok, mostly men sitting around, mindlessly shuffling decks of cards as they stared at the snow. By 11:15 visibility was gone and planes appeared on the runway as if by magic. Our plane might arrive, but surely we couldn’t take off in this blizzard. We’d be stuck in Indy, a town that was hung over and exhausted from celebrating. I was pretty surprised when a plane rolled up to our gate, and more than a little uneasy about the bad weather, but what the hell! You can only die once. Desperate people do desperate things, and I was pretty desperate to get out of the COLD. How can I characterize our take-off? Um. “Crunchy” says it all. I just closed my eyes and held on. We landed at LAS after a pleasant flight. I took off my jacket as I walked to baggage. I then took off my sweater. The temp at home was 1 degree (and I mean Fahrenheit); in Vegas it was 72. It’s been a beautiful few days. Vegas is a GREAT place to be in winter! I usually stay where the band plays. It’s the most convenient thing to do. The Hilton (and be warned, there are TWO) may change my mind. There are plenty of good things about it. The staff is pleasant. It’s not horribly unattractive. Friends clued me that the rates had come down considerably, and I opted for a bigger room at half the original price. You can’t complain about that. Food is expensive, but pretty good with several options including the nicest Benihana’s I’ve ever seen. And the band is here!  I
haven’t seen but one, (an extra nice one who smiled sweetly, nodded his
pretty blonde head and said Hi) but I haven’t felt the need to. The
Hilton is first a CONVENTION hotel. Do ya NEED a chiropractor?
Well, we’ve got hundreds here, maybe thousands, wearing chiropractor tshirts
and lanyards and just ACHING to give you a nice adjustment. It looks
like a few other conventions are here too. The Hilton is also not
on The Strip. You don’t have that fun, wild party atmosphere.
In fact, I could be in Indianapolis. I’m not saying Indianapolis
is boring. I don’t need to; you already know it is. That’s
the problem.
The Hilton is BORING. Shrug Don’t stay here unless you’re doing a convention. Don’t stay here even IF you’re coming to a convention. Stay on The Strip. This place isn’t Vegas. I miss the Paris! Pretty boy David Hasselhoff is at The Paris right now, starring in The Producers. The slots at the Hilton suck too. Literally! If the opposite of a loose slot is “tight”, then they’re as tight as...well, I won’t go into it. I have sworn them off and have taken up video poker, under the tutelage of Boo H. I’m finding it satisfying, and MUCH cheaper. A good thing, since concert tickets seem to cost a lot more these days. Were casinos ALWAYS this smoky? Why didn’t I notice it before? THE SHOWROOM The Hilton Showroom is in a corner of the casino floor, well-marked and very convenient. Oddly, the box office is near the front desk. It’s a nice theatre, comfortable, well-laid out, seating I don’t know how many. A couple thousand. It has 3 sections across, a balcony and VIP section (remember, this is a casino) on the right and left sides. The stage is on the low side and not too deep which is always a wonderful thing. That means the performers are closer to the audience. You FEEL connected. THURSDAY NIGHT Fans started arriving in earnest Thursday afternoon and everyone was in high spirits. Badger had reminded me that it had been a year for many fans since they had seen The Moodies. I think that added a nice element, an atmosphere of eager anticipation. I couldn’t believe how many fans I saw there. Tons of ‘em, from all over the USA and at least one refugee from the UK. Though it was great to say hi to everyone, I was very pleased and surprised to get a big hug from Randey and Cindy Rae Faulkner. Randey is the executive producer of Moody Bluegrass, and he’s hard at work putting together Moody Bluegrass 2. Everything about the project is Top Secret, but Randey assured me that things are going well. THE SETLIST: Hey it’s the same as 2006, but it’s a good one. Lovely to See You Tuesday Afternoon Lean on Me (Tonight) Never Comes the Day Steppin’ in a Slide Zone The Voice One More Time to Live I Know You’re Out There Somewhere The Story in Your Eyes No break! Your Wildest Dreams Isn’t Life Strange? The Other Side of Life December Snow 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 THE FASHION REPORT – THURSDAY JL – Black jeans (with leather back pockets), white long-slvd shirt with frilly front, black jacket. An extremely hot look! The jacket was lost a few songs in. I guess it actually GOT hot. JH – Black jeans, lighter black long-slvd shirt GE – Short-slvd color block shirt, black slacks Julie – knee length black skirt, black top, very nice. Norda – Long dress, sleeveless with diagonal strips of maroon, very subtle. Very nice hair. I love the longer length. THE CONCERT THURSDAY The USA Winter Tour of 2007 began well.  The
8pm showtime was a help to those of us struggling with jet lag.
The Big Guys, the back ups, heck, even the crew looked rested and everybody
seemed to be happy to be back in America. Lovely to See You was a
great way to welcome the fans to what will hopefully be a full year of
USA tours. The 2007 setlist was performed in its entirety and without
an intermission. The casinos want to get you out on the floor asap!
The Band sounded great and beautifully performed the songs we love. Everything was solid and well done. The Moodies have a new member of their backline: Jeff is the Moodies new guitar tech. No guitars were dropped, so I’d say he did pretty well! The most striking and the only new or different aspect of the evening was Mick Thornton’s light work. I could hardly take my eyes off the screen during Singer – it’s trippin’! Musical notes rush through a screen of bright colors, giving a powerful visual interpretation of a powerful song. Each song is complemented by a PERFECT visual match. Lots of new stuff on the screen. It’s Art in Progress. I was seated on the right side on the inner aisle, and I noticed several people moving past me to the stage during Singer. Uh...what? This was definitely an early sign of Bad Things to Come. It was definitely a nice concert. Not a great concert, not a thrilling one, but one worth seeing. MaggieMay Im looking for someone to change my life. Im looking for a miracle in my life. Photos courtesy of MaggieMay |
NEXT