Summer 2004 Moody Blues Tour - Midwest, Canada, Northeast US
by Maggie Clarke
(I took hundreds of photos Moodies and otherwise; they're being added to www.Moodyland.org all the time)
Fraze – Dayton, OH
Whew! Talk about shifting gears. One minute (last Friday night) I’m grading papers at warp speed, then uploading the grades, next minute I’m packing, and then I’m gone on Moodies tour for 10 days! Since it was such a long haul out to the Fraze from NYC – we drove to Harrisburg, PA overnight. The next day dawned misty and rainy but very beautiful green in PA. It’s interesting how when the light is not intense, the colors have more depth / intensity. I noticed as we approached Ohio, it became sunny but foul-smelling in places (including our digs near Dayton). We figured it was a coal-fired power plant, as it smelled like sulfur dioxide. Anne Marie and I met the Brodbecks of Cincy for dinner – watched the Belmont stakes, on the big screens at the restaurant.
Fraze is in a beautiful park with a lake. There are flowers everywhere. And there are very bold, inquisitive geese. Two were following us down the sidewalk towards the venue, actually walking beside me at my rate of speed 2 feet from me. After a while we all stopped and looked at each other. Neat experience.
The Fraze is an intimate venue of a few thousand and the security was mostly friendly. I was pleased to hear a special combo of Moodies music playing beforehand and during the break. It was balmy weather, and very sunny, so all band members had on shades except Justin in the beginning. Graeme was the last to take his off. The stage was not very high or deep, and there was no space between front row and stage, so we were very close. The crowd was normal until IKYOTS and TSIYE, and then a couple dozen would stand for quite a number of songs. John broke a string at one point. The band fed off this extra special enthusiasm as usual when the fans get excited. John had his sweet spot in the front row on the right. Justin sniveled a bit (spring allergies?) and John seemed hoarse during his Question speech, though his voice sounded really great on Lean On Me, particularly. The sound, in general, was pretty bad though. I always wonder how it is that the equipment gets more sophisticated every year, and they still can’t seem to get it right fairly often. I got quite a few pix with my new camera. Ran into Caroline Ash from NYC who was distributing literature to get fans to ask for the Moodies’ induction into the Hall of Fame… the security stopped her for “soliciting”! On the way out, the trees were lit and made a beautiful contrast against the summer sky.
Sterling Park, Michigan
We started the day by going to Indian burial mound; its like the Egyptian pyramids, not quite as large or made of stone, but it was on high ground looking out over rolling forested terrain of SW Ohio. There were cicadas everywhere; flying through the air, chirping. These amazing creatures hibernate for 17 years, then emerge, mate and die. Now is their time in the Dayton area.
We then left for Michigan, one of only a few states I’ve not been to. I noticed as we got into the state that the speed limit went up to 70… I’m thinking, of course, the land of the automobile. I saw yellow smoke coming out of a plant off the highway. I wonder why environmental laws are not enforced in the Midwest and why the people don’t rise up and demand cleaner air. I wonder if they’ve just gotten used to it. Gas is cheapest in Ohio and Michigan of all the places we’ve been.
The venue is in a county park, and is a bit larger than Fraze, and definitely less intimate and more regimented. It reminded me of the Clear Channel venues like PNC, Jones and Hartford Meadows, though not as large. The venue was selling glow sticks of all colors… not only out front but all during the show they were hawking them in the aisles. There were officials everywhere – seemed less friendly. By the time the show started, half the seats were still empty up front and in the back. It took a long time to fill, and even then there were lots of empties in the front center section. Show started at 7:30, but no one wore shades as the venue opens to the south. Those that did end up in the front center were mainly like dead people. They never got up until the very end. This kind of deadened the band too, of course. The right section was rocking as was the left, and back of me in the 7th row center to some degree. People moved up after the break. So John played with his sweet spot on the right and Justin kept to business without extra audience interactions. There was a lot of space between rows at the venue – it must have looked pretty sparse from the stage. I’m sure it was disheartening to the band The backs of the seats had names of corporations on them. I guess that’s how they sell the best seats and why so many were empty, why none of us fans were in them, and why they were so dead. That’s also been true at PNC Bank arts center.
The Sound was much better tonight. Though it was undoubtedly up at earlier concerts, I first noticed a silhouette of a tree as a background to AYSC; it was very nice and ethereal.
At one point, John had just introduced Talking out of turn, as ‘you know there are times when you say something and ten seconds later you wish you’d never said it’, and there was a palpable delay, so I shouted ‘Talk to us John! – playing on the theme talking out of turn”. He smiled and was heading for the mic when Justin started playing; he did this cute impish smile and shrugged his shoulders, with his hands out like what can I do?
I always find it interesting to hear variations on lead solos. This time it was the IJAS solo that was all mixed up. Nobody seemed to notice. Justin started out with something a little different, got off track, stopped playing at all for a bit, and he just resumed at one of the hooks. The others just kept playing the main riff over and over until Justin got his bearings again.
There was a glitch on See saw – Jus’ guitar not was not turned on so he missed half of the opening riff while he went over to the amp and turned it on. I found it interesting to hear the canned backup track with little guitar tinklings which are normally inaudible when Justin is playing.
Toledo
The day after the Sterling Park concert dawned bright, and it was a day off from the tour, so we took a drive to the shores of Lake Huron, as I’d never been. We did some beach combing and took in the warming breezes. My grand plan, which we actually did accomplish, had been to drive up and back along the lake, then down the St. Clair river and Lake St. Clair, which separates the US on the west side to Canada on the east, all the way to Detroit, and then on to Toledo. An excellent tasty lunch was in this most amazing place, close to where the river meets Lake Huron, and there’s enormous bridges to and from Canada. As it was the boyhood home of Thomas Edison, the area and the hotel / restaurant were named after him. The views of the river and Lake St. Clair were great; nice wetlands along the way, and finally just before hitting Detroit, the Grosse Point area – very expensive, large houses with huge grounds and wonderful landscaping overlooking the water, with marinas dotting the shoreline.
After having said yesterday that there are disquieting air quality issues in the Midwest areas I’ve visited on this trip (and the 3 stacks just south of Detroit were still belching yellow smoke when we came by last evening and again on the way to Canada), there were transportation-related innovations that made my heart sing. There were quite a few bikeways and cyclists using them. In the land of the car, this is significant. They also have lots of planted median strips, and encourage cars to make U-turns as part of making left turns. It seems odd at first, but I’ll bet it keeps traffic moving. They even have lights at certain U-turn locations.
A riverside park across Broadway St (yes, I know) from the zoo, met Ken Barnhart
The show
John wore Blue Jeans for the first half! In all the probably 200 shows I’ve seen, he’s Never worn blue jeans. Black ones, yes. He looked at ease in them. Maybe it’s a new trend? Jus wore his for the second half, and seems to be wearing them almost half the time. For the second half John changed to his wonderful black muscle shirt with white button down open and black jeans. I was thinking for sure he would wear it today as the temp reached a very humid 91. To my ears John’s vocals sounded very good to me tonight – I heard nuances I’d never heard before, and he seemed to sing the phrases a bit differently from usual – I’m having trouble describing exactly what I heard, but I really liked it. There was texture, and yet (for example, on Lean On Me) a certain young quality. I think he’s still battling some sort of bug or allergy, and maybe they compensated by increasing the mic volume. I’m noticing Norda’s flute playing on some of the songs is getting even more adventuresome, and for the first time I think I heard Gordon do some trilling (is that the proper term) on Are You Sitting. I’m sure someone mentioned this to me before, but I finally heard that Justin made some significant changes in his lead solo on Lovely to See you. More funny glitches here and there – Graeme was counting out the intro for Slide Zone, stopped and started again, while Justin was standing there without a guitar, kinda looking a little lost. Interesting to watch. Gemini Dream, Justin missed a line (Make it Work), not sure why.
Security was very tight. Not only were there crowds of them everywhere, one or two of them were always walking up and down the aisles looking down rows at everybody, throughout the show. I really had wanted to take some shots of John in Blue Jeans, but I didn’t dare. I did manage to get off some pretty good ones after it got darker in the second half … when the roving security person caught me, it was during See-Saw.
Venue constructed of stone and brick during WPA in the 30s. At top center of the stage, a stone face with a smile.
London, Ontario
Crossing to Canada was a bit interesting as we were one of few cars sent through mazes with lots of semis. They wouldn’t stamp my passport! Then as the afternoon wore on, the predicted cold front caught up with us, the clouds looked quite erie and ominous and we found ourselves in a severe thunderstorm as I drove into London. There was also a tornado warning. We decided to stay in the hotel room till it blew over..
Fireworks in the sky translated to fireworks on stage. The lighting was spectacular at this portion of a hockey arena named after Labatt (of Canadian beer fame). John was wearing blue jeans again, this time for the whole show. It looked a little threadbare at the left knee, but very comfortable with white ruffly for the first half and black ruffly for the second. Justin switched to jeans for the second half, so both Jays were in blue jeans at the same time for the first time I can remember. Norda had on her green velvety dress.
What a great concert! I was sitting in one of those elusive front row seats tanks to dumb luck with TM (albeit to John’s right, though that’s his sweet spot), so I induced my neighbors to clap and show support for John. He reciprocated by playing to us all night ;-) As such, my main focus was the visual tonight. Having said that, the keyboard bass was too loud and muddied everything quite a bit. This often happens when they go from a loud outdoor concert to an indoor venue. I remember after the wonderful Eugene concert last summer, they blasted the Portland venue to the point where someone yelled “You’re distorted!”. The sound was also ricocheting off the back wall – I noticed it on a song where John was using the 12-string (this may be a record too.. he’s using it on 3 songs – TOOT, LOMT, and DS). John saw me right away and smiled and waved. I spoke with everyone around me, and got them primed to egg him on; folks happily agreed. John was smiling at many, making lots of eye contact, and threw a pic after Question. Security made sure that no one stood during songs and kept people away from the stage. At one point, John noticed that neither Anne Marie nor I were standing for Question (nobody was) and said something like, You too? Both Jays smiled and waved as they left, with longer than usual glances. It was quite thrilling for me.
The visual was captured pretty well tonight with some interesting shots taken at unusual angles. The interaction between the Jays seemed stronger than usual to great effect. I don’t remember any major gaffes tonight. The conditions inside were perfect, unlike the awful muggy, polluted heat of the night before (I’m sure that can throw even seasoned professionals off). I took 91 shots and with this angle, some of them are spectacular..
Afterwards at the outdoor part of the pub with Moodies fans.
Hamilton, Ontario
Spent the day at Niagara Falls, Maid of the Mist, Whirlpool, Butterflies, Niagara-on-the-Lake. Rain finally ended.
Then to Laura’s fan gathering in a hotel near the venue.
Wow, the concerts are getting better and better. This time we had great sound, tho John’s 12 string was rather bassy, great energy from the band, great lighting, some good fan action and lax security. What more could a fan ask for? There were erie silences between songs as the respectful Hamilton audience waited for more after their applause. Friendly fans all around. A guy sitting near me is a drummer; I pulled him up to the stage at the end, and he got to shake hands with Graeme (he’d been calling support to Graeme all evening, but I don’t think Graeme realized what a fan he was). There were also a couple of young children at their first Moodies show (got 2 prs of sticks). No gaffes; no miscues. Just great performance. I was blessed to get 111 wonderful shots with quite a few new angles. John posed sweetly for me near the end. Jus was wearing new white shoes – not canvas, but leather. Looked comfortable. John was still in blue jeans all ight, white then black ruffly. Jus switched to the blue jeans and pink shirt for the second half.
Toronto
– Full trip notes are on paper somewhere...– sound very crisp. No gaffes.
Everybody happy
Scotland Yard pub fan gathering.
Montreal
Started out with horrible seat behind a guy who blocked half the stage. Had to
do some creative seating. First half ended up in an empty in John’s sweet
spot. But few others there were giving him enough to feed on. But the camera
angle was great and I got another bunch of great shots. That doesn’t happen too
often. There were a bunch of us there giving encouragement, getting the crowd
to stand up. John debuted a new white shirt- has some Indian-looking red/orange
trim; wore it with his blue jeans. Looked great. 91. Second half moved to an
empty in 2nd row between John and Justin. John was back into black
pants (very well fitting) and leather back pockets and black ruffly; Jus had on
the jeans and pink shirt with the new white shoes. This was the only show where
we all rushed the stage for Question and See-Saw. They appreciated it. No bag
search nobody caring if people with SLRs came down the aisle, knelt and snapped
pix Lots of interesting gifts tonight. One pair of ladies with a huge sign for
Justin on a sheet; they gave it to him in the middle of the show. Graeme had on
the old colored circles shirt. He’s looking elated at the end (yelling “Rock
and Roll”) but then when the spotlight is off him, he’s looking really bad. I
hope this isn’t taking it out of him. When we were up at the stage, we were
right in front of John. I get high when I hear his bass so clearly. Tonight,
everything was a bit on the trebly side (which when his voice mic is trebly,
it’s not so good), but with the bass, it makes it very crisp, and boy was the
level right up there. It was overwhelming. I loved it. John smiled at me a
lot, in both locations, as did Justin. John was posing for pix for several
people during the first few songs. He held poses for 3 seconds or more. I was
amazed. Don’t let anybody tell you they don’t like fans taking pix.
PNC (NJ)
Great show – a bit loud. Security rather lax compared with last year. Nobody sitting at the front, so I was able to pretty much shoot away. Quite a few of the scalpers’ tix weren’t sold – they were waiting just off the highway with them, so I moved over a bit towards the middle. The Jays were probably impressed with the few of us who came down from Montreal the night before as they did smile at us from time to time. Interesting gaffes in TOSOL. Jus forgot his lines and really fumbled for the rest of the verse. Then at the end, it seems like the automated keyboard track went haywire and muddied up most of the last bit. The weather was a bit chilly – windy around 61, threatening rain, but it didn’t. They filled up the inside of the venue – about 5,000, but not much of the lawn. I was pleased to see that much at least, as it was four years since they had been there. So Justin’s hair was blowing in very interesting ways, caught 71 on film. John’s new shirt was not in evidence tonight, just the usual white and black ruffly. Jus didn’t wear his pink shirt, but the jeans came out for a while. I’m sure they had been doing it all along, but tonight was the first time I noticed Bernie and Norda chasing each other in a circle while banging their tambourines during See-Saw. I wonder how they don’t get dizzy. We were able to rush the stage without a problem at Question. There was this woman who moved up towards the front empty seats to John’s right after a few songs (she stood swaying during the songs holding up an album cover and pen the whole time; that’s one of the reasons I decided to move over – she was blocking the view!) She was coming to the edge of the stage during some songs right in front of Justin motioning with the pen for him to sign. Kinda annoying. Anyway, after See-Saw he came over, took the Sharpie (that had probably been uncapped during the whole show) and signed. After he did it he said, “I tried”. They turned over the album and nothing was there!
The drive down was made more interesting by a motorcycle convention which was leaving from Lake George. There must have been thousands from all over. They were coming down with us from Montreal and were with us throughout the day. We were lucky as the weather stayed sunny though a bit windy. The bikers had their hands full to keep control. The mountains were great after days of driving through flatlands. Leaving Montreal was a bit interesting; the B&B owner told us to just go over the Jacques Cartier bridge – this big old multi-part cantilevered job which has exits to the St. Lawrence islands in the middle and kinks in the middle changing direction. I’d ridden a bike over it in 1995; it’s quite long. But at the end, in Longueil (pronounced long way ;-) we couldn’t get on the right highway so went back into the City (a great view of Mont Royal above the city and the green trees of the harbor islands below it, like a sandwich).
Melody Tent June 26, 2004
Getting to Hyannis after almost a week off from the tour since AC (attending a professional conference in Indy, and taking the bus back to NYC the night before) was great. I’d last been to the Cape in the early 1970s. There are surely a bunch of malls there now, where there weren’t then, but otherwise, the character of the place, historical, sandy and maritime, moraines and woods, remain. I’d never been in Hyannis, and with the Kennedy compound being there, I had this other New England paradigm in my head, with bricks, ivy, stone walls, white churches and steeples. I also wasn’t expecting all the beach-related businesses (reminds me of Florida) and all the antique shops. We went into a few; gorgeous hardwood small drop-leaf tables for $80! I was pleased that there was access to the beach, albeit a small one. The Paddock restaurant, next door to the Melody Tent, had a special offer for concert goers, so it was packed and slow, but full of New England character. Thankfully, we were out of there before the Liberace-type piano player had had much time to play.
Well, this venue was something different from many points of view! The sound was good inside the little Melody Tent, which had Sold Out on the marquee outside. I guess it helps to be made of something that absorbs rather than reflects the sound. Getting in was unusual in that not only were there no scalpers out selling tickets, there was a guy sitting in the bushes on our way towards the venue with cash in hand offering $200 for a ticket. (Cops were in the parking lot…) After I saw hundreds of shows where the Moodies performed to an audience sitting in front of them, this venue offered them seeing us on all sides of them, and us seeing all sides of them. It’s a circular white tent, and there are H sections all in a pie around the center rotating stage with maybe 15 or 20 rows out. At sixth row, where I was, I was slightly above their head level when sitting.
John started playing to all sides from the beginning. Gordon also got up and turned around to acknowledge those behind him (us much of the time). Justin didn’t nearly as much. We were sitting behind Graeme more often than not but the stage moved quite often first one way, then the other, allowing us a front view probably 3 times. The movement wasn’t that fast, though I’ll bet that it could be disconcerting to those onstage. I now have a new appreciation for Gordon’s playing. Isn’t Life Strange and Nights are both masterful arrangements where he uses every single piece of equipment he has. For the first time I could see Bernie play. I only noticed her playing on IKYOTS – the arpeggiated bit. I’ve never seen the band perform in such cramped quarters either. They were literally cheek by jowl. The dino shuffle was a bit funny as when John moved the couple of feet towards Justin he bumped into him, then backed up quickly with this impish apology face on. John sang Isn’t Life Strange directly to us for quite a while. As usual, I wasn’t totally sure of it, but Anne Marie agreed. I was wondering how Graeme would manage to do his dance, and he did it very creatively, at first, in place at his mic, and then in the few feet available outside the rotating stage, and then on the ramp they used to enter and exit the stage. It was great and gave everybody a chance to see at least part of his shtick directly and up close.
For taking pictures, it was by far the most challenging from a photographic standpoint. For the first few songs the sole spotlight was on John with the rest in a dim greenish or pinkish hue. After a while, the sole spotlight moved to Justin, even during John’s songs. I found out at intermission, the Moodies lighting guys couldn’t bring in their normal equipment. There was a circular array of lights on the ceiling of the tent with two guys, surely from the venue, sitting perched in precarious positions, operating what lights there were. I was able to get some very unusual shots despite the challenging lighting. I’ll put some of them up on Moodyland when I can.
Jones Beach June 27, 2004
It was great to be heading for Jones Beach. In 1994 that was the second Moodies concert I’d ever been to (a week after the Philly Mann Center, and again after that pesky air and waste management conference). The Moodies used to perform there all the time, but Clear Channel kept them away since 2000. On the way from the cape, I suggested we stop off for lunch in Stonington, CT, as I’d fondly remembered it from a bike ride there in the 1980s. True to my recollection was the flowers over fences and walls, the views of the ocean and shorelines (as it juts quite a bit into the ocean), and the quaint shops along the main street. Brunch was wonderful in an old café / pub (think Cheers for the décor with a few impressionist paintings on the walls).
Jones Beach (aka Tommy Hilfiger…) is an old, very large amphitheater situated on a sandy island bar off the south shore of Long Island. Much of the island is scrub vegetation on sand, and some, of course, is a famous beach.
The concert was great. There were smiles all around, the sound was clear and lighting excellent after the sun went down. The entire upper nosebleeds were empty, and there were many empties further down too, but I guess it might have been an equivalent number to PNC (around 5,000), which considering that Clear Channel kept them at tiny venues (1,000 to 2,500) for so long, it’s a testament that they were able to immediately boost the numbers back up. The crowd was not the most up that I’d ever seen this tour, but good enough to keep the band energized. LC’s New York fan base was there in force with good seats. I can remember when they sold them all to scalpers – I was at those concerts at the rear of the second section back! Those were also chilly, windy and rainy. This one was glorious with quite a fresh breeze (which mussed up certain hairdos – I didn’t mind!), a good temperature, and not humid. John must have read my mind. He was in his 2 best outfits – first half the new Montreal shirt and blue jeans, second half the black tank with thin white shirt. I think it being the last show always gives the band a bit of an extra kick. I remember back at Caesars at AC, when they would do 2 shows in one night, they held back a little for the early show and then let loose for the last one. Though security searched bags at the door, a number of people were taking shots, some with flash. There were fewer security in evidence at the front, so I was able to get a bumper crop of great shots. At one point a security person tapped me and said “No Video”. I guess since I was following Graeme around the front of the stage (with my camera) he figured I was taking a video. I told him it was stills, and he didn’t hassle me again :-) I’ll get some more photos up on www.moodyland.org as soon as I can get my computer to calm down.