As far as the overall show, I want to say that Friday night's was the best, but... When I compare song to song, the performances were better on Sunday night. Friday night included more songs from the Mayflower, so that made it very special. But I think the performances on Sunday night were stronger.
Something I keep forgetting to mention is a slight change in the opening of the show. In the past, when the silhouette of Kye appeared, he would already be at the front of the stage. Now he has started walking out of the darkness toward the front of the stage. It's a very nice effect - he looks like a swaggering rock star.
Barry kind of bounded out of the smoke again tonight. He seemed to be in a great mood. He was wearing the bright red jacket again.
They were still having problems getting the monitors adjusted properly. Barry even brought his monitor guy out to listen to what the performers were hearing. The problems persisted throughout the show, with Barry occasionally inserting verbal instructions to Cory (the monitor guy). During Copa, Barry even said to the audience, "Ok, on the count of 3, everyone say 'Cory, turn up the wedges!'" The audience didn't quite catch it - Cory was probably glad. I've never had any idea what the performers are hearing in either the wedges or the ear monitors - but I'm extremely curious now.
Weekend in New England was fantastic. When Barry sang the first "When can I touch you?", the audience wasn't late with their "NOW!" yells like they were on Friday night. Barry got a little smile on his face, and sat there playing the same two chords over and over. And then he repeated "When can I touch you" - and got an even louder round of "NOW!". He laughed and then continued with the song.
Looks Like We Made It was a different type of performance tonight. Less emphasis on sexy, more emphasis on emotion. Barry's vocals got especially emotional at the end. I've never heard him do the song that way before. But it had a good effect on the audience.
Can't Smile Without You also had some of those "extra emotion" moments. Some of what I saw in the performance I've seen in other performances at recent shows. Barry has been doing an excellent job of selling the lyrics of the song. When Barry is performing the song this way, it's no longer the light-hearted, catchy little tune that it was for so many years. He really makes you believe that there's someone he can't smile without.
Barry changed jackets between CSWY and the beginning of the Mayflower segment. When the new jacket was handed to him from backstage, it wasn't the leather jacket that he had been wearing the previous two nights. Instead it was the black jacket with the white musical notes down the sleeves. The audience cheered loudly - Barry looked a little perplexed, and said something to indicate that he didn't quite understand why everyone was cheering. But he must have figured it out - because, as he did the usual prologue to Do You Know Who's Living Next Door, he said, "Could be a sex god with musical notes on his sleeve..."
I didn't really catch it the previous nights, but the guys in the horn section (Brandon, Chris and Steve) really played a big part in the shows. The biggest part was during The Night That Tito Played. I mentioned in one of my reviews that the backups were kind of lounging around the set as Barry opened the song. The guys from the horn section were back there, too. And, when it got to the point in the song where the backups started to come forward to dance, Steve was dancing with Melanie (I think it was Melanie, that part is kind of fuzzy) - and did a fantastic job. And while everyone else was dancing, the guys moved over to where the backups normally stand, and they played their horns from there.
Also during Tito, Kye wasn't playing a drum - he was playing two metal trash cans! (He wasn't really playing - it was just part of the set for the song.)
I still think the choreography during Tito is amazing. From an audience point of view, it seems very complex. It makes you wonder how they all keep from running into each other.
The set and the lighting for all of the Mayflower segment is excellent. At first glance when viewing the photos from the show, you really felt like you were looking at the performers in a NYC setting, with an old apartment building in the background. If you looked closely, of course, you could see that it wasn't real. But if you were concentrating on the performers, then you most definitely felt as if you were in that setting.
So, the set list for the Mayflower segment tonight was Do You Know Who's Living Next Door, Come Monday, Border Train, Freddie Said, Not What You See, Talk To Me, and Welcome Home. I'm leaving out Sandra since it's not part of the Mayflower CD (I'm not leaving it out of the review, just this section).
As always, the Do You Know Who's Living Next Door/Come Monday segment is really fun. Both songs have such a great groove to them - and the songs manage to feature everyone. I know I've been talking about the choreography in Tito all week, but there's some great dancing going on here, too.
Barry's performance of Talk to Me was excellent. This was yet another of those "extra emotion" moments - especially at the end of the song. At the beginning, Barry yelled "Stop!" as he did the two previous nights, but this time as he sat down at the table, he softly said, "Just stop, please stop." It was extremely effective. As he sang (while still seated), there were tears in his eyes. Then as he got closer to the end of the song, he got even more emotional and passionate, gesturing and pacing - at one point he reached for the audience with both hands and did his little finger wiggle - it made him appear to be begging someone to come talk to him. His vocals were also just as passionate. Outstanding performance.
Not What You See was also an outstanding performance - my favorite song of the night, I think. There were a lot of similarities between this performance and the one in February of 2002. Barry really connected with the audience on this one - he was really trying to tell us something, and I think at least some of us got it. When he stopped to turn around and point at us one last time, with a smile on his face... That was priceless. A memory I'll never forget.
Freddie Said was a favorite, too - it's just so entertaining with the choreography and the antics of the backups. Honestly, Barry isn't the star of this song - the backups are! There was a striking vocal difference between Barry's performance of the song this weekend and what I heard on the 2002 tour. In 2002, his delivery of the lyrics didn't seem nearly as smooth (in comparison to the recording). At the shows this weekend, his live performance sounded as great as the recording.
Border Train didn't seem to have the same feeling that it did the previous nights. Barry didn't seem to be quite so immersed in it. (but he certainly was with other songs!)
As Barry walked back to center stage for Welcome Home, he gave the monitor guy more instructions. Some of the audience laughed a little. Barry said, "It's pretty funny, isn't it?" - but he didn't really look like he thought it was funny. Like I said, I'm really curious now about what the performers are actually hearing.
You know, Welcome Home is an extremely emotional song. I'm not talking about Barry's performance of it - just the song. I can't listen to it without having an emotional reaction - it's got to be the music doing it. When you combine that with the choreography on the stage, it really hits you. I'm not sure what the right word is to describe it. For me, when I was watching them perform the song, I really did feel the way I do when I'm coming home after having been away for quite a while.
Sandra has been better every night. It was really a great idea to have Barry act the part of a narrator, and then have Keely play the part of Sandra. And Keely's performance is fantastic - or as a friend said, it's haunting. Very believable. The audience was definitely captured by the performance. At the Q&A, Barry introduced the man who wrote Sandra. The same person wrote I Want To Be Somebody's Baby, too.
Mandy/Could It Be Magic had more passion tonight than it did the other two nights. Barry's vocals were also different during the CIBM part - he just sang it differently - again, an "extra emotion" moment.
At the end of the first part of Copa, I looked over and saw that the horn section was dancing. They had an entire bit choreographed. I don't know how long they've been doing it. Usually my attention is on Barry as he's walking off stage.
When Barry walks down the stairs during the Copa reprise, he has started stopping about half way down to point at the audience as he sings "I see you baby..." I'm still trying to get a photo of that - can't seem to catch it.
Sometimes when Barry is taking his final bows, he lingers for a while. He really didn't linger long tonight, though. Or maybe it just seemed like he didn't, because no one wanted him to go.
At the Q&A, Barry asked one fan if she thought that the civilians would embrace the Mayflower segment - the lady said that she didn't know. And Barry shook his head and said that he didn't think they would. If he put a big segment in the middle of the show the way he has for these fan club shows, I would tend to agree with that - but I think that selectively inserting songs would work great, depending on the song and where it was inserted.
I think Freddie Said would work anytime. It's so entertaining, the civilians aren't going to care that they never heard it before. They're going to be caught up in the story, in Kye's dancing, and in the girl's antics in the background.
Not What You See would also work anytime. I've seen that one performed several times over the years - the civilians always get it - always. In fact, it's really kind of neat to look behind you and see an elderly couple "get it", see them see themselves in the song. I've heard a lot of great comments from civilians after this song has been performed.
I kind of go back and forth on Tito. At first I didn't think it would go over well, but now I think it might. The choreography is so intricate - the song is almost like a stage production in and of itself. So it just might win the civilians over.
If Barry performed Talk to Me every night the way he did Sunday night, it could work. What he did this weekend with that song was so much different than the way he performed it on the 2002 tour. This is so much better. And the Kye/Monica argument a the beginning really sets the stage for the song, along with Barry yelling "Stop!"
Something I noticed is that the audience was extremely quiet during the performance of the songs. To me, that says the songs are working - Barry has their attention. I didn't hear a single negative comment from any of the civilians about not knowing the songs and wishing they had heard more hits. I hope Barry will take a chance and include a couple of these songs in future shows.
I decided to attend the convention because I felt that it would be a magical weekend - and it was. Some things I expected didn't happen, but other things that I never would have expected did. And like all great magic, it's the unexpected things that make the evening so magical and that you take with you when you go.
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