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Music & Passion - Las Vegas Hilton - June 21, 2008


(View photo gallery here)

What a way to end the week! And, for me, to begin a long break from seeing the shows. There may be a little twinge of post-Manilow depression this time, but not much - Barry sent us out a high that will take a while to come down from.

Barry started the show as up and bouncy as the rest of the week. We didn't get the full skipping dance that we did the night before, but he threw in some of those little steps that he used to do. It just brought back a lot of fun memories.





As Barry started The Old Songs, he said that he would be performing a lot of familiar songs for us - and then he said, "And some unfamiliar ones, too". That was met with a loud response from the audience - we had our hopes up.

Barry did Ready To Take a Chance Again - the vocals were still the short version, but this time he put a lot more emotion into it, so it didn't seem short. And the dance portion was the new longer version. The girl was seeing him for the first time - he said, "Ah, a virgin!" Then as he was holding her he said, "I don't ever want to leave this position." She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself. Then as he turned to walk away he thanked her and said, "You make me feel young." (You *are* young to us, Barry!)

Weekend in New England was extra special tonight. Barry started the song - it was apparent it was going to be one of those emotional passionate performances. He got to the part "When can I touch you" - and the audience was relatively quiet. He stopped, looked at us and said, "There was a time when everyone would have been yelling." He never actually got to finish the sentence because by the time he got to everyone, the audience was screaming and cheering. With mock irritation, he said (paraphrased), "Oh yeah, now you say something. That's just pathetic! Pathetic pity yelling, that's all that is." Then he started laughing. He went through the second verse with some giggling from the audience and an occasional smile on his face. But then when he got to the break in the song, he took it home. In just a second, all of the humor was gone and it was pure passion and emotion - and he took us right along with him. It was one of the strongest finishes to the song that I've ever seen. Incredible.

Bandstand Boogie and the Mayflower segment were again both very fresh and both seemed to have been taken up a notch. New York City Rhythm also fits into the category. Oh, and the winner of the night was Ron W!
Looks Like We Made It! Again, a fantastic performance. Especially the ending!
We got a wonderful thrill - as we were standing and applauding one of his performances, Barry went into Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed! It was an awesome performance. He was all over the stage - Barry can so rock! I love that song. As much as I love Keep Each Other Warm for being romantic, I love this one for rocking! A lot of screaming from the audience, especially when he grabbed that mic stand!
It kind of seemed unplanned (maybe not, who knows except him), but Barry sat down at the piano and said he felt like doing "this one." It was Even Now. Beautiful, beautiful version of it. The ending seemed especially emotional.

Instead of Somewhere Down the Road tonight, Barry sang The Best of Me. (He must have known there was a Kleenex shortage!) As he stood over there he said, "What shall I do?" And then he said, "The Best of Me!" I love that one just as much. Also beautiful - and also emotional.
At the end of the Mayflower segment, as the backups were walking off the stage, Barry said, "Keely, Kye wait a minute." Then he called them all back. He said started talking to them off mic - I could hear him say "Can we do this?" You could see by the expression on their faces that they weren't sure what song he was talking about. But when he told them, they all affirmed that they could do it. Then he told us that he had been working on the 80's album and that this was one of the songs that he had been working on. He said that he had rehearsed this one and wasn't sure if he could do it. He asked Ron W. for the lyrics sheet. Then he sat down at the piano. Everyone was on the edge of their seat in anticipation - somehow I already knew what it was going to be. And then with the first few notes, we knew - it was Open Arms. There was a huge cheer from the audience. But the best was yet to come.

Now, I really don't like much of the music that came out of the 80's (except hair metal, and not much chance of seeing Barry do that!). And as he would mention various songs that he was considering for the album, I didn't like any of them. But I also know that time after time, he makes me love songs that I previously hated. So I've really been looking forward to the new CD.

Open Arms was one of the songs I absolutely hated from the 80's. I recognize that it's beautiful, the lyrics are fantastic. But the original version just never appealed to me. Barry has changed all of that.

Even though Barry had to look at the lyrics sheet, he still managed to make it one of the most wonderful songs I've ever heard him sing. Again, there was passion and emotion in the song. The orchestration was beautiful. Toward the end of the song, Barry stopped playing the piano and turned to the audience, singing while still sitting on the piano bench. Then he stood up to finish the song. As he was about to sing the chorus for the last time, we got his characteristic key change. It just gave me chills. The entire song gave me chills. And this was the first time he had performed it live. Just imagine what it's going to be after he's done it a few times!

It was absolutely incredible. Journey might as well have never recorded it, because Barry blew them away last night.

So, you can see why PMD has not managed to grab me yet. We got an extra big fix for our Manilow addiction. I still wish I was there, of course. But Barry and his gang pulled out all the stops for us last night.


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