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Ultimate Manilow-The Hits - Las Vegas Hilton - November 20, 2008


(View photo gallery here)

It was good to be back to see the show again. I guess after all this time and after so many shows it shouldn't be so important to me, but it still is.

At the beginning I was afraid we were going to see a repeat of some of the problems from last week. There was a large group of people at the show who obviously weren't fans. When the fans stood for the opening number, these folks started yelling for us to sit down - I even saw one or two physically try to make the fans sit down. And I saw a couple of fans turn around to retaliate. I sat down and just had to shake my head.

I see both sides. These other folks have no clue what to expect at a Barry Manilow show. So from their perspective, we're just a bunch of people who are disrupting the show. From our point of view, this is what we always do - we're excited to see Barry and we want to show him how happy we are to be there. I don't know what the solution is - well, I do have a suggestion, but no one cares! LOL I do know it's wrong for the civilians to physically and verbally assault the fans. And it's also wrong for any of the fans to turn around to the civilians and say some of the things that I heard said last night. Maybe we can just compromise? Stand a little less to keep from blocking the view of the civilians when there are a lot in the audience - but at the same time graciously demonstrate how much we appreciate Barry and his music at appropriate moments - and maybe the civilians will get the idea? Because by the end of the show, most of these people were standing up with smiles on their faces. At any rate, all that fell by the wayside early in the show. Thank goodness.

Things seemed different tonight. Barry seemed different tonight. He seemed playful and happy, but he just sang the songs differently. Maybe before I'm done with the review I'll come up with the words to describe what I'm talking about.

He opened with It's A Miracle, as always - and the opening medley. He played with us a little during Somewhere in the Night. That was fun - he wasn't so much trying to make it sexy - he was literally playing with the fans with his facial expressions. Taunting us? No, that's not quite the right word. Basically, instead of making the song ultra-sexy, like he usually does, he just had fun with it. And that made it fun for us.

I loved the jacket he was wearing for the opening of the show. I think I've seen it once before. Not sure what that material is - it looks like some kind of "brushed" something. LOL It's a beautiful shade of blue, too. That's got to be one of my favorite jackets. I don't like it as much as I like the white one that he wears at the end of the show, but it ranks right up there at the top.


We only got one 80's song - but it was Islands in the Stream, the entire song. First time I've been able to see him perform it (didn't get to see QVC). I just loved it. I love the song - his version, not the original - I hate the original. I loved his vocals and his arrangement - and the way each of the backups had a part of it. Before the song, he said that he had worked with the 3 greatest female singers of all time - and that they were on the stage with him tonight! He meant, of course, Keely, Melanie and Monica. And he's right!!!!! As much as I want to see Islands in the Stream performed again, my wish would be that we would get Never Gonna Give You Up and Open Arms before the week is out. Or any of the rest of the 80's songs! I saw the clip that someone posted of Against All Odds - loved that!

Okay, one of the things that was different tonight was that Barry seemed to put a little more effort into identifying the songs he was singing. For instance, as they started the decades medley, he made a point to say they were going to do Sing, Sing, Sing. Never seen him do that before. He did something similar at the end of the show with the It's A Miracle reprise - can't remember exactly what he said, but he was basically identifying that he was doing the same song again.

His intonations were different on some of the songs. Weekend in New England was beautiful, as always. But he sang it differently - the emphasis was in different places - even the speed that he sang the lyrics was different. New York City Rhythm was another example of that. He also made a point at the beginning of the decades medley of pointing out that he would be doing parts of songs, rather than the entire song. That's kind of all he can do - just not enough time. However, if someday he really does want to lock the doors, bring in pizza, and stay there all night - I'm up for it!!

The portion of The Old Songs that Barry sings as the opening to the decades medley seemed a tad more emotional tonight - it looked like there were tears in his eyes when he got to the part about "maybe you'll want to stay." We're not going anywhere! The economy may slow us down, but it's guaranteed we'll be back to see you every time we can! Trust me - we WANT to stay!

I hesitate mentioning a certain moment because I hate to see a beautiful ballad ruined. But at the same time, it was very funny and entertaining. When Barry started singing WINE, a couple of people yelled out - not at the usual place where people sometimes yell out. Instead, they waited until he had started singing the song, and then they yelled - Barry briefly paused and said, "You're late, but that's alright." The audience laughed, Barry grinned, and he went on with the song. Then when he did get to the spot in the song, there was a lot of yelling. He got a goofy expression on his face, and then just sat there playing the same notes on the piano over and over - milking it for all it was worth! It was hilarious - ballad or not, it was hilarious. And then he finally stopped, looked at the audience with a determined look on his face and exclaimed, "I've STILL got it!". A priceless moment.


Looks Like We Made It was excellent - well, it's always excellent. Barry also sang this song somewhat differently than he normally does. The tone was different, but I can't exactly tell you what or why. It just felt different.



As I said, he also did New York City Rhythm, with the chase around the piano. Still love that. (Ron P. wins!)


Even the civilians seemed to be drawn in with Memory. It was a great performance, very passionate. He conducted his "orchestra" at the beginning of the song again.

And the audience also appeared to love I Made It Through the Rain, and Can't Smile Without You. Like the last few times I've seen Barry singing CSWY, tonight's performance seemed to be trying to get a point across. He can't smile without someone. Well, we can't smile without him, either.

Barry got a little tongue-tied during the intro to IMITTR. He was trying to say "soccer and hockey" - but it came out "hoccer and sockey". He stopped and said, "Sockey??!!" Then he reached up and (lightly) slapped himself on the face.

We didn't get Somewhere Down the Road - I hope that's not permanently gone - it hurts to hear it, but it's so beautiful. I'm not sure what Barry's plans for that part of the show were, but he seemed to be calling an audible. He asked Kye to bring the stool out, but then he went back to ask Ron W. to make a change. And so we just got Ships.


But I still love what Barry is doing with Ships. I like the way he's "performing" it. And I still like the way he exits from the stage after the song is done.


He ended the show the usual way. Details are foggy for some reason. But I'm looking forward to tonight.




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