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This was a fantastic show! Barry's voice was awesome! The energy level was out of this world! Barry seemed to be in a great mood - everyone seemed to be in a great mood. We started out high and we never came down.
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Barry came out in a black suit with trim that kind of sparkled. As he came out, he gestured toward his suit as if to say, "How do you like my duds?" He was also wearing that sparkling tie that we all love so much.
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Like I said, we started out on a high. It's A Miracle is always upbeat - but there was something about tonight that seemed more so. Daybreak was the same way. Barry didn't play with us during Somewhere in the Night the way he did the night before - instead, he made the song a little more serious. This One's For You came across as being very sincere.
Barry didn't quite give us the same intro to Weekend in New England - he had been introducing the song as being "one of the most romantic" songs he's ever done. He did refer to the song as being romantic, but not in the same way. I have to see if I can describe this... Normally, he introduces the song, then walks back to the piano - you can see him moving from an upbeat mode to a ballad mode. But tonight, he seemed eager to do the song - he seemed to be really looking forward to performing it - that's just how I'm interpreting his body language. And it was an excellent performance. His voice was fantastic, the performance very strong, full of emotion. Some people did yell out during the song, but he ignored the yelling. Tonight he did get a standing ovation for the song.
I don't think I mentioned it for any of the other shows this week, but Barry is still doing his cute little tap dance during the decades medley. But tonight, he did his little dance...then did it again. Okay, that's not unusual - sometimes he does it twice. So he does the dance a second time, strikes his pose, the backups do the same - and then Barry starts doing his little dance again, and again... It even made the backups start laughing. So funny...
Something I noticed in my photographs is that during the snippet of Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, the curtain behind Barry is the same gorgeous shade of blue that it is during Looks Like We Made It. But for some reason, the striking combination of his eyes and the curtain doesn't grab you like it does during LLWMI. So, does the song have something to do with it? Assuming he's still doing these songs next time I see him, I'm going to have to pay more attention.
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But, in case you're wondering, LLWMI still has the same effect... Those eyes and that curtain - wow! And Barry's performance of the song... Yup, it must have something to do with the song.
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Barry and the backups seemed to be having a lot of fun with the decades medley tonight. Well, they seemed to be having fun with everything. But they all had big smiles on their faces during the medley - they just seemed to be having fun.
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Islands in the Stream gets better each time they perform it. That's another one that Barry and the backups seem to really enjoy doing. How Barry and his crew can take a song that I don't like and turn it into one that I walk around singing a week later is beyond me. But they've done it time and time again. (I actually caught myself dancing to it when he was performing it on the Today Show - and I can't dance!) Still love that note at the end, too.
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I still love Barry's Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again and Even Now arrangement. The songs go well together lyrically (is that a word? too lazy to look it up) and musically. Barry sang the songs with a lot of passion tonight, especially the ending of Even Now. He made me believe that he really does think of someone and wish they knew.
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New York City Rhythm continued the theme of the night - upbeat and happy. And Ron P wins again!
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Memory brought the audience to their feet again. This must be one of Barry's favorite songs at the moment. He consistently pours everything he has into it. This is another one of those songs that I'm not crazy about, except when seeing Barry perform it live. He brings something to it on the stage that apparently can't be captured on a CD - and also can't be captured by anyone else trying to perform the song. I still love watching him "conduct" the intro to the song - it still gives me chills.
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Barry skipped Grandpa Joe and I Made It Through the Rain tonight - he went straight into Can't Smile Without You. But he performed that one with the same energy and emotion as usual - the song really does have new life.
We got Careless Whisper again. Barry performs this one with a lot of energy, a lot of passion. You can tell that he's working hard to make us believe the lyrics. I thought he was pretty successful, especially toward the end of the song - there was a LOT of passion in the ending. The audience seemed to really enjoy the performance. That's yet another song that I hated, but I love what Barry is doing with it. It played over and over in my head after the show.
Barry also skipped Somewhere Down the Road. As his intro to Ships, Barry simply made the comment "a father and a son". He "performed" the song again, even more strongly than the other nights this week. The lyrics to the song can be somewhat depressing if you're in a certain frame of mind - but somehow tonight Barry made the song sound hopeful instead of hopeless.
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Barry seemed deep in thought as he started out the Mandy/Could It Be Magic medley. He seemed buried deep in it for a while. Toward the end of the medley, though, he lightened things up a bit, and actually ended the song on a happy note. Interesting.
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And Barry kept the smile on his face during I Write the Songs. He maintained that mood throughout the rest of the show - and the end came much too quickly. I wonder if physicists have ever conducted a study on why time speeds up during Manilow shows??? Must have something to do with that black hole that forms where our hearts are until Barry takes the stage again! LOL
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