The biggest differences were new outfits and "Cloudburst". I enjoyed "Cloudburst" - I'd
never seen him perform it live before. It's a fun little song.
The outfits - wow! Especially that bright blue jacket! I love it! The rust colored jacket
he opened the early show with was also very nice. But nothing tops that blue one!
This was the first time I've seen the new segment where he selects a lady from the Rock
Bottom stage seats to dance with him while he sings "It's Not For Me to Say." He selected
a strikingly beautiful girl who was sitting next to me. She was genuinely overcome. While
they were dancing it occurred to me that it would be even more romantic if he were to sing
Elvis' "Can't Help Falling In Love". (I *hope* that's one of the songs he selects for the
60's CD - he would do a beautiful job on it). He could pay homage to Elvis and melt the
ladies' hearts at the same time.
The most striking songs this time were "I Was a Fool to Let You Go" and "Are You Lonesome
Tonight." He sang "I Was a Fool..." during the Dew Drop segment at the late show. It
started out the way it always does, but about halfway through the song he went to center
stage - it was an incredibly strong finish. I'm never seen him perform the song quite like
that.
"Are You Lonesome..." during the early show was the best of all the times I've seen it
performed. He sang it differently for this show - he sang it much more softly than he
usually does. He keeps saying in interviews that he doesn't have a great voice - but his
voice was beautiful during this song. Someone kept yelling out during the song - it didn't
seem to bother Barry - at least, I couldn't detect any change in his eyes while he was
singing. But after the song was over, he had a little smile on his face and said, "For a
minute I thought I was Elvis the Pelvis."
At the late show he stopped to thank all of the people who worked on the show - the lighting
and the sound, in addition to his band. He mentioned that this was the last show of a run,
and that he would miss everyone until they came back. Then he said that he knew that some
of us in the audience had seen the show many times because he saw familiar faces - he said
he "loved it", but that he felt guilty because of the high ticket prices. But it was a
nice gesture on his part.
After one of the upbeat numbers during the late show, he mentioned that this was his second
show of the night - he pretended to stagger around the stage as if he barely had the
strength to remain on his feet - then he stood up straight and said "But I sound *fabulous*!" LOL
As always, looking forward to going back to see the show again (isn't there a song by that
title? lol).
