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Paris Las Vegas - July 10, 2011(View photo gallery here)
BB-32  Looks Like We Made It - Barry always exaggerates the opening line to that portion of the medley. Someone in the audience giggled a little when he did it tonight. And I remember! I remember exactly 4 more words to the changed lyrics! We have each other And there won't be another love And I still can't remember the rest of it. Rats! The audience sang very loudly to Can't Smile Without You. It wasn't a big fan audience - there was a pretty big concentration of us in the first couple of rows, but other than that it seemed to be more of a general audience. But the rest of the audience knew the words and they sang along loudly. Barry coached with the lyrics, but I think that was mainly so he could make us laugh again by saying them so fast. I kept singing this time in spite of Barry being silly - nyah, nyah! Hee! I loved the grin Barry had on his face when he heard everyone singing so loudly. Well, I'll be... He did it. He topped his best performance of Even Now. Granted, it wasn't a gigantic difference - you know, there's only so far you can go once you've reached the top of the world. It's like climbing to the top of Mt. Everest - you think you've reached the top - but then overnight ten feet of new snow falls - so if you scramble up on top of that you've managed to get a little higher. The same thing with Even Now. Barry had already reached perfection - but somehow tonight he found just a little bit more. It just occurred to me that what Barry has been doing with Even Now lately is more than notching up the performance. It changes the tone of the song, it enhances the tone of the song. The CD version and Barry's earlier performances convey longing, sadness - but it's passive. It's resigned. What Barry is doing now isn't the least bit passive. Yes, while Barry is still at the piano at the beginning the song is still relatively the same. Barry brings differing degrees of emotion to it. Sometimes he seems far, far away. Sometimes he seems completely withdrawn into himself. And sometimes he seems to be telling the story to us.  But when Barry stands up from the piano, everything changes. And while even that will differ from night to night, there's still much more to it when compared to the way the song has been performed in the past. This isn't passive - this isn't someone resigned to a situation, not someone just reliving memories, possibly wishing things had worked out differently. When Barry performs the song the way he did tonight, he conveys someone who's being eaten alive inside - someone who would give almost anything to change what has happened, to let that "someone" know how he's feeling. When he's reaching out for the audience, he isn't just extending his hand - he's stretching and straining, trying to hold on with the same passion of someone who is watching the thing they love most in life being pulled away from them, the same desperation of a man trying to grab hold of the last few inches of that rope before falling into the pit. The amount of energy Barry puts into that is unbelievable. It's chilling. And then Barry is singing that incredible long note in addition to all of the visual aspects of the performance. And it really is incredible when he nails it (which is about 99.99% of the time lately). It goes on forever. And it's powerful - more than powerful. And while you're standing there trying to catch your breath from what you just saw and heard, Barry walks to the front of the stage - and even the walk isn't typical, it's just short of being a stomp - and then he sings another long, powerful note that can just take your breath away. The way Barry performed Even Now tonight is so different from when he just performs it as a power ballad. Everyone in the audience is expecting a power ballad. They aren't expecting this, especially if they haven't seen the show recently. The audience is hushed. Some people seem mesmerized. Some seem a little unsettled at the depth of emotion pouring off the stage - and you can absolutely feel that emotion. Some seem taken aback - Barry's performance goes far beyond what they are expecting. When I can pull myself out of the emotion of the moment (which ain't easy!) then I find it gratifying to see the audience reaction. As a fan, we want others to understand our passion. We want those "other people" to see what we're seeing. Even Now is NOT one of the songs I ever would have thought would have been a favorite of mine to see performed in the show. Beautiful song, I love it. I've always enjoyed watching Barry perform it. But I tend to gravitate toward songs that have hope. That really isn't what the lyrics convey. So, I loved the beautiful music, loved to watch Barry perform the song. But never once did I think that this song would turn into one that I eagerly anticipate. There were even times at the Hilton that I hoped he wouldn't put the song in the show - the lyrics made me sad. But now everything has changed. Barry hasn't changed the meaning of the lyrics at all. But he HAS changed the tone. If anything, the feelings are stronger with the way he's performing the song now. I've been trying to figure out why I feel such a difference - and I think I understand now after seeing tonight's performance. It's that desperate, passionate connection with the audience - the sense of resignation, of just giving up is no longer there - I think that's what I found somewhat depressing. The final outcome of the situation doesn't seem likely to change, but as long as you don't give up, there's always hope. So maybe that's why I love this song so much now - the changes Barry has made with the song mesh with my personality - it's something I can understand. Manilow Magic - turning a performance into something meaningful for every one in the room, regardless of our own personal stories. After the song was over, Barry was spent - it took him a few minutes to recover. Barry said, "It's too early in the evening for this!" And then he said "Thanks for coming - goodnight!" Ha! That was one incredible performance. Brooklyn Blues had a great groove again. Barry was back into the music - very demonstrative as he sang and played the piano - grooving out at the piano. I love the expression on his face at that point in the song where the horns are emphasized - he must really love that part. The long note was plenty long tonight - not as long as Saturday night, but good enough to get your attention. I guess Barry was afraid we were going to order out for pizza without him again. Actually, he probably didn't have any breath left after Even Now!  Love Is Here To Stay had yet another feel to it tonight. This time it was happy. Not super romantic - more of a comfortable, happy tone. Barry smiled a lot throughout the song. I did finally get a shot of the conductor moment - not as good as I would like, but at least I have something. We got the french kissing joke again. This time he said that he decided to try to learn French through osmosis - and that's where the french toast and french fries comes in.  If Barry gets any more bouncy during New York City Rhythm, he's going to bounce right off the stage (but we'll catch you, Barry!). He seems so HAPPY during that song. Makes me happy, too. Really, the mood during this song was Barry's mood for the entire night. It was infectious, too. He said something slightly different tonight when he was joking about going on Dancing with the Stars, but I can't remember what it was now. It made me laugh, though.  Of the three songs during the Grandpa Joe segment, I think This One's For You was the strongest. I Am Your Child was beautiful and emotional. Barry "conducted" again with Nature Boy - he's really cute when he's doing that. He even had different facial expressions tonight while listening to baby Barry. He had the audience laughing with that. But This One's For You seemed to be the strongest performance, at least to me. Especially the ending - it was kind of a power ballad at the end. But at the same time Barry was very expressive and you could feel what he was saying with the lyrics. I like 15 Minutes more every time I hear it. There was a lot of attitude in Barry's performance tonight. Most of my photos are kind of botched - Barry really moves around a lot during this song. He doesn't necessarily move to different places on the stage - he's just very animated, uses a lot of gestures, and he's constantly moving backward and forward. Really hard to catch him with one of those little auto-focus cameras - they don't think as fast he moves! If anything, I think the light on the guitar players was even lower than last night - none of my photos of them came out at all. Barry did his fist in the air pose at the beginning, but they didn't turn the spotlight on him - they seemed to be a few seconds late with that, so for the most part we missed it. I can never remember to try to take a photo of Barry playing air guitar.  Bring On Tomorrow was just perfect again. Barry did perform it a little differently, though. Most of the song was the same, but he changed the tone of "they told us we're crazy". Usually that part of the song has a defiant air to it. Tonight it didn't - tonight it was much gentler. The tone was more like Barry was consoling someone, trying to soothe over the hurt of the criticism. Boy, that tone would work on me! I love the defiance, but I liked this, too. This photo from Bring On Tomorrow is a killer - never mind putting an 8x10 up in my house - I'm going 11x14 on this one! I love the colors - deep royal blue on one side, violet on the other, one side of his hair fuchsia. And that expression on his face. Ahh... I'm melting!  The lighting at the end seemed to have changed again. And there was a golden glow - not like the aura that I thought I saw once before - but still golden. The lights were similar to last night in that the fading of the spotlight to a narrow beam isn't nearly as pronounced as it has been. In fact, it happened so quickly, you really couldn't see the fade. But it still ended up with Barry standing in a beam of gold light, that ranged from about his waist to just above his head - imagine a cross between a rectangle and an oval, and you'll be able to picture the shape of the spotlight beam - I'm sure there's a geometrical term for that shape, but I hate math... Anyway, this time it lasted for a few seconds. Barry just stood there in the light with a smile on his face, slightly cocking his head to the side. Then he wrapped his arms around himself, like a hug, like maybe he was hugging the girl, maybe hugging the audience. You could almost feel it yourself. It was totally sweet. For those that are uncomfortable when Barry does something sweet, you wouldn't like it. But I LOVE sweet - and I loved this! So then we switched gears to Bandstand. Tonight I just had to watch Barry - and I'm glad I did because he was extra silly tonight. Last night was toned down a little - but not tonight! He was especially silly at the beginning of the Wipeout portion of the segment - he even had the backups all laughing. And uhm, what were Keely and Kye doing before their dance? Actually, what was Kye doing before the dance? Hee! Definitely not the typical choreography... I gave up watching the videos. Last show of the weekend - all eyes on Barry.  Mandy was fantastic. Very passionate. For this performance, Barry seemed to be singing to himself - drawn inward. It was powerful - big power ballad. Barry only looked out at the audience a couple of times, but there was no lack of connection. Great performance of the song. "I have my own place in your soul..." Yep, he most certainly does. I Write the Songs seemed a little more reflective tonight than it has the past two nights, but there was definitely some big audience connection going on. Made you want to put your hand over your heart and bow to him instead of the way it usually works, with Barry bowing to us. I couldn't believe I was actually able to get some photos of this song. There was still a slightly, eery blue glow - but not nearly as much as what I've been seeing. Don't know if the lighting has changed or if I did something without realizing it with the camera. I love this shot - I love his hair. I think this is the best hair style he's ever had.  Barry somehow managed to get his fingers tangled up with his cane and top hat tonight during Copa, and struggled to get loose so he could hand them to Muffy and Kye. The funniest part of that was the expression on Barry's face - and then how adorable he was afterward when he started laughing. Those kind of things are priceless memories. The scripted and choreographed things are great - but the spontaneous, unplanned things are what we remember.  Despite the fact that I had just seen 3 super fantastic shows - and despite (and especially in light of!) the fact that I get to be back for next weekend's shows - I still felt that sadly familiar ache of post-Manilow depression as the show wound down. Copa is incredibly upbeat and happy - but it still can't totally remove that little spot in our heart that Barry takes with him when he leaves the stage. I guess if we didn't feel a little sad when the shows are over, then we wouldn't feel the elation when we're back to see him again. Of course our friends and family all think we've gone bonkers for feeling this way. But I think Alice in Wonderland has it right: The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad? Alice Kingsley: I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.
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