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Paris Las Vegas - July 16, 2011(View photo gallery here)
BB-29  Barry is still emphasizing Daybreak. And somehow managing to be cute while he does it! "Somehow managing" - I obviously need caffeine - he couldn't be non-cute if he tried... But anyway, he's really been emphasizing the song - sometimes he bounces and sometimes he skips a little. It just popped into my head - positive affirmation - that's what it sounds likes he's doing - a positive affirmation. But it really sounds like it's more for us than for him. Barry has toned down Somewhere in the Night...just a tad. He's been starting off the song by saying, "This is a nice one". Never saw him do that before during the shows. He's right, though. The romantic part was still quite romantic. The sexy part was what was toned down a little, but just a little - not much. Someone deserves whatever kind of award lighting people get just for that part of the show alone. That beautiful blue lighting goes so well with that song. And so I STILL don't have the lyrics right for Looks Like We Made It! One more attempt at this: And I know it's true today Because you are there, everywhere And if they aren't right this time, then you just need to go to the show and figure it out for yourself! Even Now was fantastic. He hasn't topped his all-time best - but that's an awfully high bar to aim for. I'll never again say he can't do it, though - because he always proves me wrong. Still, this was right up there in the 99th percentile. The first part of the song was SOOOOO expressive. Barry really connected with the audience. His voice was slightly different for the first two lines of the song - a little deeper than normal, a little softer. I got the impression he didn't intend to do it - but it sounded nice, anyway. Barry spent a lot of the early part of the song looking out at the audience. Sometimes he seems to actually see people (don't know that he can, there's just that illusion that he can) and when he switches from person to person it makes the song seem very interactive. This time even though he was looking out at the audience, for the most part the gaze seemed kind of far away - but there was still a connection going on. I absolutely loved the look in his eyes when he softly sang "how I wish you knew" - wow - I felt that! When Barry stood up from the piano, I saw a mixture of performances. I'll comment on that more later - because I saw that happen all night long. The first line ("when I never hear your name") was kind of soft, kind of wistful. But by the time he got to "God I wish you knew", the power was building. That last chorus was shaking - it was shaking the rafters. When Barry walked to the back of the stage for that long note, it seemed to go on forever. Barry reached for the sky, then he reached for us. And the note kept going. Then when he walked back to the front of the stage and he hit that last long note - it shook the rafters again. A huge, huge, BIG power ballad ending. After he finishes that note, if you're sitting close enough you can look into his eyes and see how much energy he spent on the ending of that song. It takes him a moment to get out of that place that he's been throughout the performance. I guess that's another reason I like being close - not only can I literally FEEL the energy and whatever emotions he's projecting with his performances, I can also see other little aspects of what he's doing on stage that make it all so special for me. I'm not just watching a performer. I'm watching our Barry work as hard as he can to make it a special event for everyone in the room. I can see how much energy he's spent. Sometimes it feels like I can see his mind working during the songs, making changes right in the middle of a song. Brooklyn Blues was even more upbeat tonight - and had even more of a groove. Barry made a comment about it, too, before the song started. It kind of rocked... Barry always reacts to the horns during the song - you'd think I could remember to try to take a photo of it. Well, there are two places he reacts. The first place is a small sax solo by Brandon - if you turn back to look at Barry, you can see him reacting to the music. But the second place is toward the end of the song, when the horn section plays these four notes (I think it's four) - Barry almost always closes his eyes and just appears to be in heaven at the moment. The long note was great - not the longest, but still long enough for him to be showing off. What it lacked in length it made up for in power - it wasn't just something audible - you could see it in his whole body. That happened more than once during the night - I comment on that a little more later in the review.  I couldn't take any photos of I Am Your Child tonight - it was just too beautiful. Barry did a very nice job. There were some slightly different piano playing by Barry on the song - and some slightly different vocals. It seemed as though Barry was feeling the music on this song just as much as he was feeling the lyrics. I really liked This One's For You tonight. Barry didn't play to the audience so much - this was one of the performances where he seemed more drawn into himself. He did look out at us briefly at the beginning of the song, but then after that he actually seemed to pull back. This isn't the only song where I saw that tonight. For all of the ballads (almost) he seemed to pull back into himself after starting off the songs by really making a connection. There's nothing wrong with either method - it was just an observation on my part, something I don't see often. Probably what grabbed my attention is that as he was singing the part about "and I'm the one who cries" there really was a feeling of a strong connection to the audience. But then within a line or two Barry had pulled in the rope, so to speak - then the song turned into more of a performance than a personal interaction with the audience. Although I'll always be partial to the times when he's looking out through the audience, this created a new view of the song. This shot is from New York City Rhythm - this when Barry started playing is piano solo. It really shows the mood he's in during the song, and his connection to the music. There was also another shot - I got the most hilarious shot at the point where Barry asks if he should go on Dancing With the Stars and then yells, "No!". But I can't post it. Never mind Garry and Marc - Barry would walk down off the stage and throttle me if I posted that shot!  I almost got the conductor shot - if I hadn't chopped off one of Barry's hands. Of course, I chopped off one of the conductor's hands, too - so I guess it's even!  Love Is Here To Stay was so beautiful tonight. Barry started off the song singing so softly and tenderly. Ooh, that gave me chills. That was ROMANCE, with capital letters! Really nice performance of the song. 15 Minutes was so awesome! I don't know how Barry makes me love it more and more each time, but somehow he does. I tried again for that opening pose of Barry before the spotlights really shine down on him. It's not much better than last night - only not as fuzzy. So I'm not going to post it - but I'll try again tonight. Either the lighting on the guitar players has improved, or it was just better at the angle I was shooting from tonight. This shot of Kye playing the harmonica isn't bad.  That music rocks - it really does rock. I can't sit still. And Barry is bringing such attitude to the song. You can really see it in this photo.  You can clearly hear that echo during 15 Minutes now. I just love that part of the song. I think it's a combination of both the music and the lyrics at that part - and maybe a little attitude, too. I love the musical climb up to "Just gimme my shot" - is that modulation? And then the echo at the end of "shot" - gives me chills. And I love those lyrics - "painting the sky for all of those eyes below" - and in the live performance he looks down and points to the audience. And then the music climbs back down again. Just love it! Catching Barry playing air guitar is going to prove difficult. I can get the shot - this is one of the them - but since it's a still shot, you really can't tell what he's doing. Maybe if his pose was a little more as if he were playing the guitar it would look more like it. Still, here's one for you, such as it is.  Bring On Tomorrow was also beautiful. This was one of those songs where Barry seemed to start out playing to the audience and then he pulled back a little. This shot is from the very beginning of the song - you can clearly see the emotion that he was singing with. But shortly after that shot was taken, he toned it down. It didn't have quite as much of an emotional feel as it did on Friday night - well, let me clarify that. The beginning of the song, while Barry was at the piano - that's where he seemed to pull inward a little. For instance, on Friday night, when he sang the part about "home is the hunter", there was a ton of feeling flowing out toward the audience. I didn't see as much of that in tonight's performance. Not a bad thing, just different from what he's been doing - and also kind of a striking difference when you see the swing from one to the other in the same song. Also, in the last two shows Barry has changed the "feel" of the way he sings the lyrics during a portion of the song - he seems to be singing them much more quickly. I don't want to say he's rushing through them because that doesn't sound good - what's a synonym for that? Oh, well - doesn't matter - they're just faster than they used to be.  But when Barry stood up from the piano, I started to feel all the emotion again. I saw a wide range - he looked happy, he looked defiant - and I've seen those before. But I also saw something else that I'm having a hard time finding a word for. I saw it as Barry sang the chorus for the last time - he stretched his hand out toward the audience, and there was an expression on his face that was really kind of touching. It was kind of a tender expression - but it was also very powerful. There was a lot of emotion in just that one facial expression. There was a lot of love in that facial expression. Really, that's not something you see a lot. Maybe the overall feel of a song says love - but that's never the first word that comes to my mind when trying to describe what his performance is expressing. Romance, sweetness, tenderness, happiness, defiance, attitude, silliness - but rarely love. So, that was something different. Barry's long notes on that song were fantastic. That last one was especially impressive. The way Barry leaves the stage was slightly different yet again. The lighting seemed to have changed - it makes me wonder if just sitting in a different seat can make it appear to be different. Tonight Barry hugged himself before leaving the stage, but it wasn't a big hug. He appeared to be drained at that moment - and I wasn't sure if it was physical (because he really works hard on that song) or if it was emotional (because he worked hard that way, too). It was just a very gentle hug. Tonight as the Bandstand segment began, Barry came running toward the front of the stage and pretended to be about to dive into the audience. Mosh pit! Come on Barry, we'll catch you! Ha! Barry really clowned around tonight - most I've seen him do in the last several shows. And I got a photo this time! Caught him when he wasn't looking!  Mandy was a killer. Wow - that was one of the strongest performances I've seen in a while. This was NOT one of the songs where Barry pulled back in - he put it all out there for us. It was very strong, very emotional. Really fantastic! That one had the WOW factor. I Write the Songs was like most of the ballad-type songs of the night. Barry started off playing to the audience, then pulled back in. The final note of the song was very impressive. There were several times throughout the night where Barry really nailed his high/long notes - some of them seemed to physically shake you. This was one of those times. Barry clowned around with the lyrics to Copacabana - he acted them out a little more, threw in some accents - all that made the segment very cute. Even more than usual.  Who did that? Who was playing the piano during Copa? Someone inserted a little run on the keyboard that just jumped right out at me. I looked over and saw Joey grinning, but I don't know if he was the one who did it. Barry gave us his "Am I fabulous" pose (the tux shot right after he rises up through the floor of the stage) for a little longer night. Gave us a little more time to appreciate his magnificence. Ha! I'm getting pretty good and taking photos without actually looking at the camera - setting it up, then looking over the top of the camera at his face to snap at just the right moment. Works most of the time - good photo, plus I get to appreciate everything through my own eyes. That's what I did tonight, so it felt like forever that we were getting to look at him. I didn't feel quite as much sadness when the show was over tonight. I've discovered that the way Barry leaves the stage (or the curtain comes down, as the case may be) has some effect on the mood. When he just bows, the sadness catches up. When it seems more like a goodbye to his old friends, then usually the sadness doesn't set in quite as quickly. No promises tonight, though, since this is the last show before I go home. It's sure been a lot of fun to be here for two weekends in a row, though. If I lived in Vegas I would probably be working two jobs just so I could attend every show - I never get tired of them. Uhm... Barry, I swear I don't wear yellow, and I promise I'll never follow you to the airport! Hee! But I also promise I love every second I'm here.
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