The crowd was wild again tonight. Even more so than last night! Barry really does seem to
feed off the audience.
When Love Is A Many Splendored Thing starts, the backups huddle together and then "shuffle"
in unison toward center stage with looks of absolute adoration on their faces as they
watch Barry sing. Each of them does something different, so I still haven't managed to
take it all in. Monica looks like she's about to faint, Keely and Melanie both look like
they're in a daze... Unfortunately, the lighting is
much too low for me to get good photos of that part of the show.
Speaking of poor lighting, it isn't the greatest during the 40's medley over on what used to
be the Dew Drop side. You can barely see the horn section over there, and you can't really see the
backups in the background, either. The lighting is good on the girls when they move to center
stage for Chattanooga Choo Choo, but not good on Kye.
And another place where the lighting is just too low is when Kye is doing his "rap" while everyone
else is up on the platform. I know that our attention should be on the platform, but what
Kye is doing during that time is amazing - he deserves some attention, too. I've even tried
turning on the flash on my camera, but I still can't get a photo that does justice to his
performance.
And yet another spot where the lighting could be a little better (what am I? the light police?? LOL) -
when the girls are each getting their moment and Barry and Kye are singing Where Did Our Love Go in the
background. I know it's the girls' moment - but couldn't we have just a tiny bit more light on
Barry and Kye? Ok, I admit - I want to take a picture of that and there's just no way with the
amount of light they have on them. What can I say?
There was a very funny human-Barry moment during the show. I normally leave his "human" moments
out of the reviews, but this one is just too funny to leave out. Just before Moonlight
Serenade started, Barry said "I'm leaking" and
walked back to blow his nose. He made the usual jokes
about "with this nose it may take a while" and told the band to "play something, play anything".
But then he walked over in front of Ron W. and started jumping up and down, over and over and over.
If he was blowing his nose, then I'm impressed, because I'm not coordinated enough to blow my
nose while
I'm jumping up and down! LOL! At any rate, he had Ron W. laughing. The audience was cracking up
as Barry walked back out and started singing the song. He was back in the proper mood for the song
long before the audience was! Looking back at the photos I took, though, he had that twinkle in his eye
during
the song that said he was still amused, too. In spite of all the comedy that started the song,
it ended up being very romantic and beautiful.
Another cute moment during Bandstand Boogie. This time when Kye slid Keely through Barry's legs,
Barry bent over watching as she went through. Hmmm... None of that came out exactly like I
intended it to - just go look at the photos!
Are You Lonesome Tonight was beautiful - not quite as emotional as the previous two nights, but
still lovely and still managed to evoke an emotional response from me. He's been asking us to
listen to the lyrics. He said he never really "got it" until he did. Judging from what he's done
with this song over the last several months, I'd say he definitely "got it". I guess I have, too -
I never liked the song until he pulled me into it with him.
Barry said something different tonight as he started the 60's skit with the funny cigarette. I
couldn't hear it clearly - it sounded as if he might be responding to something someone in the
audience said. I'm not sure. I got the impression it had something to do with the cigarette.
Although the skit is hilarious, I'll admit that it kind of bothers me when I look back at my
photos and can see the cigarette glowing and the smoke coming out of his mouth - it just looks
too real! At any rate, he did seem to cut that part a little short, seemed to go into Yesterday
more quickly than he usually does.
Instead of I Made It Through the Rain tonight, he sang Looks Like We Made It - it had the same
sexy groove that he started using on that song a couple of years ago. The audience really came alive (as if they
weren't already) when he got to the end and started his classic thigh rub. Boy, did he get
into it - and so did the audience - gave me goose bumps! LOL!
And then Barry said, "I'm changing the program". He walked back and said something to Ron P. and
then walked over to Ron W. and said something. Then walked over to the side of the stage and
picked up the mic stand. At that point I had a big grin on my face because I had a pretty good
idea of what he was going to do - or at least I was hoping. Then the band started playing Who's
Been Sleeping In My Bed. The audience went wild - I went as wild as I'm going to in a public
venue (LOL - that only means that you would be able to distinguish me from a mannequin sitting
next to me - LOL). I haven't seen Barry perform that song since just before his hip surgery (and I
still feel guilty for enjoying that last performance so much now that I know how much pain he
must have been in while he was doing it). It was the highlight of the evening! When he finished
the song, I looked at the backup singers - the girls were fanning themselves as if to say, "Wow,
was he hot or what?"
He closed out the show with the standard songs. I didn't have a good view of the platform any
night this week. I had a great view as he went up the steps, but could only see a little of
the rest. Kye was a real live wire with his dancing. He was all over that stage.
Is it March yet?? I'm ready to see the show again!
