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Paris Las Vegas - October 16, 2011(View photo gallery here)
CC-30  The audience let Barry get through Somewhere in the Night this time. Oh, before I forget, someone told me what he had said the night before. When the audience went wild as he started SITN on Saturday night, Barry apparently said something to the effect of "This is a ballad - let me get through it" - not in a mean way, though. So tonight's audience let him get through the song - well, until he got to the sexy part, then they went wild again. That's okay - I got to experience the romantic part, and that's what I always look forward to. I love his vocals - they're always so smooth and they just make me melt. Been trying to get a shot of Barry during Can't Smile Without You with the smiley face in the background - finally managed it. No playing around with the lyrics tonight - not fast, not slow. Barry was slightly more serious, but at the same time it was a very happy performance. The crowd sang along loudly and enthusiastically. Lots of smiles on faces.  Barry didn't play around with the ballad segment tonight. Well, let me try that again. He did play around at the very beginning - by doing his silly little, "I must have a ballad in here somewhere" line. But he didn't play around with different songs or ask the audience what he should do. Instead, he sat right down at the piano and said, "Let's see if you remember this one..." Well, duh! I kind of think we do! Barry went straight into Even Now. I guess he didn't feel that he had done enough damage to our hearts last night, because he picked up right where he left off the night before with ripping them right out. The performance was extremely touching. Not overly sad, but it was emotional - you could definitely "feel" the song. The ending was a killer - that pained facial expression, the reaching for the audience - excellent.  I've really grown to love Brooklyn Blues. I always liked it - but I mean I really LOVE it now. I think it has something to do with the way Barry performs the song these days. It seems so personal for him. There's something about the expression on his face and the look in his eyes - he looks happy, comfortable. I love the groove the song has, and I love the different elements of the song - Brandon's sax, the additional playing by the horns, the choreography with the backups, the long note at the end. But I think it's that look on Barry's face as he sings the first couple of verses that really sells the song for me. There's another place in the song where he sometimes really plays to the audience - when he sings the lines about "I've sung love songs to a princess". Sometimes he sings those lines matter-of-factly - nothing special about it. But some nights he chooses to act those lines out a little, motioning toward the audience as if we're all his princesses. That's how Barry performed it tonight.  As for the long note at the end of Brooklyn Blues - mark your calendars. Tonight's note beats everything else he's ever done! It went on forever! Unbelievable! I had several people (who weren't at the shows) ask, "was he in good voice?" Uhm, yeah... Barry has begun using a quote in his dialogue that leads into Brooklyn Blues... Paraphrased, it's, "you can't know where you're going until you know where you've been" - Barry has been using it more in the context of talking about going back where he started, and how that could lend insight into where you're going in the future. Hmmm... Interesting quote, if you think about it - could have a lot of implications. The first time I heard it, my reaction was that I had no desire to go back - in fact, I was extremely opposed to the idea of going back. But then I got to thinking that there really were some nice things in the past, and they really did provide good guidance for the future. So, maybe it's not such a bad idea after all. I Am Your Child was extra beautiful tonight. Really, not just the song, but the entire intro that Barry does leading up to the song, where he talks about music in schools. Tonight's dialogue had a different feel to it. Barry delivered the dialogue more slowly than he normally does - he would look out into the audience and pause as he spoke. So, that was a different way to start things off. But then the performance of the song seemed even more beautiful than usual - and it's always beautiful. Sometimes there's a sad feeling to the song - not tonight, though. Barry's performance was so beautiful, I didn't take any photos at all. The "scratchy record" portion of the Grandpa Joe segment also had a different feel to it tonight. I have to include a shot of his smile during that portion. The photo illustrates the mood.  Nature Boy was a combination of silly and that same tone illustrated by the previous photo. And it was happy. While baby Barry is singing, Barry gave us some of his silly facial expressions - although, I also have to say that I've seen him play it up much more. Actually, the most expressive part of the performance was when baby Barry was singing those extreme note ranges - Barry used his finger to conduct - and that's not new, he's done that often. But this time those finger motions were just as extreme as the notes baby Barry was singing. The audience seemed to enjoy that. And when adult Barry took over the singing of Nature Boy, he just looked happy. I really don't think I've ever seen him perform the song that way - it's always much more serious. And it's not that this wasn't serious - it was just HAPPY. Look at the photo...  Barry's performance of This One's For You changed in the middle of the song. I've seen that happen once before. He started out looking toward the audience, connecting with us. It was one of those feel-good performances where it feels like he's singing directly to the audience, as if the song were meant for us. But then in the second verse, the song took on a different tone - much more emotional, and at the same time Barry seemed to withdraw into himself a little. The ending of the song was really emotional. As the song ended and Barry started to leave the stage, the expression on Barry's face was probably the most emotional that I've ever seen with this song. It was like he had absorbed everything the audience was feeling about the unknown future. That's a scary thought! We don't even like feeling it - we certainly don't want to be forcing it on Barry! But as he came back on stage for New York City Rhythm, he was our happy New York boy again, smile on his face, loving his music. Like Brooklyn Blues, Barry always looks so happy during this song. He really prompted the audience to applaud for each keyboard player as they did their solos - Barry would actually point at people and motion for them to applaud. I wouldn't want to be that person! I usually hold my applause to the end. Well, I mean, come on... I'm trying to figure out ways to get decent shots of the guys during their solos - it's not easy to find good opportunities to take photos of the band - so I've always got a camera in hand. No air piano tonight, although Barry did have a big smile on his face during that portion of the song. One of the poses that I've been wanting to capture but can never remember is his closing pose for NYCR. I finally remembered tonight. The shot isn't as sharp as I would like it, but it's a start.  Love Is Here to Stay was very romantic again tonight. I really like it when he performs the song that way. Sometimes Barry slowly strolls across the stage as he moves into the second verse. I love it when he does that, too - it adds to the romance. Even Barry's bow and acknowledgement of the applause was special tonight - loved the way he looked out at the audience, smiling, and nodding toward us. 15 Minutes was fantastic! Seriously fantastic! Barry's performance tonight surpassed anything he's ever done with that song. Heck, it even surpassed a lot of his best ballad performances. To say it was incredible is a major understatement! Barry's rock vocals were spot on - I've NEVER seen him sing a song with such forceful attitude. And it wasn't just at the lyrics that I frequently mention - Barry sang this way throughout the entire song. Every point during the song was forceful - the character's determination came through. You could feel the burn, the fire of someone not just desperately wanting something, but having the confidence in themselves and the determination to accomplish it. Barry's facial expressions showed that determination. Like last night, you could see the fire in his eyes. Before Barry even got to "Just gimme my shot" the music was building - something I've never noticed before. For the last portion of that song, the entire place rocked - really rocked. Not Manilow-rock (because I know that's what some people are going to be saying) - that place rocked like a rock concert. I know! I've been to plenty of them!  I couldn't stop smiling at what I was seeing. I seriously kept expecting to see a hand go up with the rock salute! That was one magnificent performance. The audience had to have loved it - they were loud - they were cheering. Maybe there were still some who didn't get it (I didn't see any) - I mean, Barry was about as far away from his image as anyone could be. (Well, short of getting spiked green hair and covering his body in tattoos - please don't do that! We love our clean cut Barry! Hee!) Barry changed his final stance again. This time he raised both fists in the air, teeth gritted. Oooh... I think I like this pose best of all. My picture came out too blurry to post - started to post it anyway, but decided it just wasn't good enough. After that, in response to all of the audience reaction, Barry did resume the fists-toward-audience pose with that same little pout - and then he played air guitar again. That pose is actually a combination between a fighter stance and an air guitar stance - some nights it's looks more like air guitar, some nights more like a fighter stance. But of the three poses I've seen for that final note, I like the one Barry did tonight best. No sadness for Bring On Tomorrow tonight. (bring on tomorrow, tonight?? that sounds goofy! Take two...) Tonight's version of Bring On Tomorrow didn't have the same sad feel that it did last night. (big smile) Barry didn't let any song be sad tonight, really. This song wasn't as emotional as it's been in the past, not as expressive. Still very, very beautiful, though - so not saying that the performance lacked anything. Or maybe we were all just so worn out after 15 Minutes - we were still in a rock state of mind! Ha! Actually, I was getting into a Bring On Tomorrow mood before we got to the first chorus. I just wasn't feeling the song quite as strongly as I have in the past. But that changed when Barry left the piano and walked to center stage, especially from "they told us we're crazy" - at that point, I was feeling that BIG feeling, even if I couldn't feel as much emotion. Barry seemed to be singing the song out to the universe - he wasn't connecting with the audience as much as he has in the past. Overall the big ballad was still there and beautiful. I've just seen it enough times to detect a difference in the performance. Even Barry's bow after the song didn't connect the way it normally does. Maybe the audience members weren't the only ones worn out after the 15 Minutes performance. Actually, now that I say that, Barry's intro to Bring On Tomorrow seemed a little shorter than normal and he seemed a little out of breath. Guess that just proves how hard he worked on 15 Minutes! Barry seemed very happy as he started Bandstand. He didn't goof around as much during the segment tonight - he seemed to be letting the backups do most of that. But he still had a big smile on his face as he performed. He did get a little silly with the dances. He's begun referring to The Swim as The Nose, and he goofs around during that part. Oh, and he was a little more silly during the part where Keely slides between his legs - his facial expressions were hilarious. I'm not going to post those pics in this review - they'll be up on my website later, though. I did manage to catch a slightly better shot of Keely dragging Barry off stage after the song - and also one of the group goofing around as the curtain came down.
Then it was time for Mandy - and that was depressing. Sorry, it's going to be depressing because it's the beginning of the end - I don't think there's anything that can change that. Still, the awesome performances of the previous songs, as well as some of the antics, had brought me back from the brink of tears - don't know about anyone else, but at least I had regained my composure by that point. And so I could thoroughly enjoy Mandy. Barry's performance of Mandy was very, very nice. I really felt it tonight. At one point, Barry looked toward the heavens again - wow - that got to me. And then when he sang, "the pain is calling" - that expression on his face got to me, too. The note seemed to be extended again - a little longer than usual.
My mood dropped back down a little during I Write the Songs - I think everyone's mood dropped a little. Hey, it was one of those "the end" things. Sunday night. Everyone has to go home. Most people not going to be back for a while - several not going to be back at all. I "get continued next week" - but most people weren't going to be that fortunate. So the mood was much more somber. Barry looked out over the audience a lot. If I were to interpret the look on his face, I would say he was trying to get our mood back up. Don't know if that's the case - don't even know if he knows what we're going through right now. That's just what the facial expression looked like to me - or what I wanted to see, anyway. When Barry stood up from the piano for the ending of IWTS, he was wearing a smile - again, if I were to interpret what I was seeing... It seriously looked like he understood what we were all feeling .  Barry was definitely bringing the mood back up with Copacabana. That smile he wore throughout the song wasn't typical of what we usually see. This was different. He did play around with the lyrics a little - acting them out, emphasizing them. Of all the expressions on his face, the one I would have most liked to have taken a photo of was when he sang the "Ah, love..." line - the way he cut his eyes toward the ceiling with a whimsical look on his face was just so cute. The requisite tux photo is going to be different this time. I love those green lights behind him.  I so love that Barry has started including It's A Miracle again at the end of the show. It's such a happy song. I caught a shot of Barry singing "The miracle is you..." I think we (the audience) tend to disagree about the miracle really is...  I was prepared to take photos of Barry's final bows. But... He got to me - big time! He gave us "the look" again. Normally, he does a bow at center stage, then goes to each side, then walks to the back of the stage. But tonight, he stopped and just stood there looking at us - it was "the look" - and it was an even bigger "look" than what he did at the beginning of the show. I literally said, "Oh..." and had to put the camera down. There's nothing you can do to prepare for that - I don't think there's any defense against it. After pausing to look at us for a moment, Barry walked back to the Manilow sign and waved goodbye to us. The first final wave was a little more lighthearted. Then Barry took a deep bow, followed by a slower, more serious wave. He took another deep bow. And then Barry just stood there with his right hand raised until the curtain was almost down. Just as he disappeared from sight, I saw him reach up with his right hand and remove his ear monitors. Even that was difficult to watch. How many remember when he left the stage at the Hilton for the last time - how he removed those monitors as he walked out of site? This is way too early to be feeling this way, especially since it's beginning to sound like there are going to be some really great things coming our way. I guess it's just because it's unknown - because we don't know when and mainly, we don't know what. It's been a long time since we've had to wonder when we would see Barry again. Even for those who couldn't get to Vegas frequently, the knowledge that he was there helped. Hopefully we'll know soon. And we won't even be able to remember why we were upset in the first place! Okay, I'm lying - we knew where he was going after the Hilton, and we still stood there crying after that last show. It's your fault, Barry - you're the one that makes us emotional - you've made a career of it!
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