| Welcome to the DECEMBER Tour!
On The Road With MaggieMay... The LittleTicketBeggar has her limitations, and she didn't score for Biloxi or Tunica. : ( SueC, the tour logistics manager, said it would be a LOT of trouble to get to Biloxi from Atlanta. The infamous Two Week Rule was looming too, so we made the logical decision to fly home for a few days. We're gone for long periods during a tour and it's nice to zoom in and see if our houses are still standing and to dump our Florida clothes and pick up a warm coat. Tour planing is intense and we had gone back and forth over St Louis. Was it worth a 6 hour drive? Missing any concert is hell, but then again, we have to last until Boston and we aren't getting any younger! Tickets for St Louis were a real problem too and I wasn't going to sit in the Jeep for 6 hours to get to a seat in row P. The St Louis ticket buy was unique. An arrangement had been made for tickets to be sold as part of the membership drive for the St Louis PBS station in conjunction with their showing of Hall of Fame. The bad thing was, WE didn't know that! LOL Luckily, I was at home for the evening and got the frantic call that Savvis tickets were on sale NOW and here was the number. The sale was already well underway when I called to um..."pledge". A friendly volunteer cheerfully took my details and it went well until he asked my address. Oh, I'm a FERVENT support of public television I told him! The gentleman couldn't tell me anything about the ticket location, but The LittleTicketBeggar is forever hopeful. I asked him to note on my form that I would REALLY like front row. Oh, he laughed and cautioned me that The Moodies hadn't been to St Louis in a long time and the phones were ringing off the hook, but he said he would. The tickets didn't come and didn't come and the people who had pledged WANTED to see TMB and had no interest in selling to brokers (and good for them!). When SueC would ask me if we were going to St Louis, I'd put her off by saying "Well, if they give us front row, we'll go!" They did!!! (To The Band - now you know! LOL Feel free to email any other questions. We're here to serve!) I was darn sorry to leave my sweet husband and my Luckydog looked up at me with sad brown eyes, but I had another compelling reason to get to St Louis. There was a big hug waiting for us there from our little Red. : ) SueC roared up in her mail truck, I hopped in and we were on our lunatic way to Saint Looey! THE VENUE The Savvis center is a hockey arena, home of the St Louis Blues. It's a good sized place and a convenient 2 block walk from the Hyatt in Union Station. The Moodies utilized a cutdown configuration called The Concert Club. The stage is placed at less than mid floor and curtains effectively cut off the rest of the arena. I was VERY surprised when I actually saw the seating arrangement. There were only three rows of seats on the floor! The 4th row was in the regular hockey seating above the ice. Another indulgent guard (go up to one smiling sweetly and see what you get is *my* motto) told me The Concert Club sat 5000 and was technically SOLD OUT. I think the box office had the ability to add some restricted view seats as needed, so pretty much anyone walking up could get a ticket. Seating was on the floor, on the lower level, club seats and then a level above the club seats. Those looked pretty far up! We entered at the top of the lower level of seats and walked downstairs to the floor. Things were bustling in the ring surrounding the arena. Beer, food and restrooms were convenient and a pleasant bar with congenial wait service was right by the venue entrance. A worker was hawking the December tourbooks with a mike. The front row was five feet from the stage which was exactly 47 inches high. I finally brought a measuring tape! LOL Mikes were placed a cozy 3 feet from the edge of the stage. No, I didn't throw my measuring tape out to check. There was a big speaker box at each front corner of the stage with a front fill angled toward the arena sides. A flying set was affixed to a pole at the corner and a light bar was across the front of the stage and at the back. The sound was terribly muffled on the floor. SueC said it sounded like they were in a shoe box. We got guitar from the stage speakers and that was pretty good, but vocals were hockey arena bad. I chuckled at the introduction which could have just as well been introducing the Blues to center ice. Hey, I guess it WAS! Savvis had signs on the doors prohibiting photography. There was a cursory purse search. I noticed a number of ushers protecting the floor; you weren't going to get on the floor without the right ticket. The main thing I noticed was lots and LOTS of smoke. It was very noticeable and thick and it didn't seem to want to rise but stayed right on stage. THE FASHION REPORT JL - Black tank top, white linen overshirt, leathers, boots, 2nd half black long-slvd shirt with ruffle/bib JH - White cattleman's shirt, black jeans, shoes (but it would look so NICE with boots), 2nd half white shirt with ruffle, VEST GE - Black/blue car shirt, black slacks, 2nd half hula shirt Norda - White low cut top with ruffle, black slacks, no change at half Bernie - White jacket, white pants and black top, 2nd half no jacket The RETURN of the VEST! No, not THAT vest (the black vest of 94 that was dubbed the erotic event of the decade) Sorry, girls! Justin must have spent some time rummaging thru his old concert clothes during his time off, for tonight saw the return of the vest. I got darn sick of it in 1999, but it was nice to see it onstage in St Louis. It has large patches of leopard print (!) and gold brocade. Where the hell do you buy something like that? I love the thin long-slvd white shirt with a ruffle down the front and gathers at the shoulders that peeked out underneath it. I've asked my husband to get a shirt like that and wear it for me on "special" occasions, and his answer is always... NO!!! THE CONCERT St Louis got a great concert. The sound wasn't up to par, but was what one expects in a hockey arena. The audience was happy to be there, but not a big partying crowd. The people there were there not to hear any rock 'n roll concert, but to see The Moody Blues. Several people told me they had been fans for years and years and there were many that had seen them in the early 70s. Maybe a more laid back group than I usually see, and certainly not as drunk. The concert saw a clean start and went well with few errors or glitches. Our tiara gals were a little excited and the blonde grabbed SueC around the shoulders companionably during Gemini Dream and began swaying her right in to me. She got a hold of ME too! LOL Luckily, that was pretty much it for rambunctious behavior. (Offstage, that is!) The 2003 setlist was played in its entirety with a 20 minute intermission and things went very smoothly until IKYOTS. Big Red went out for the first few measures of the song and Justin sang a capella. It was EXQUISITE! Ah, the unexpected treats of a live performance. That's why I go! The second half went smoothly and was uniformly excellent. The sound was pitiful at times, and the muffling of the vocals so pronounced that it was a darn good thing I knew what they were singing and what song the Band was on. Singer again had lyric problems. Perhaps a nice cup of coffee at the break is indicated for our two Singers to help them with their concentration. John's been doing a cool version of IJASIARNRB with a high note, and it's very effective in combination with Justin's throaty spoken verse. Quite tasty! Higher and Higher! Can Graeme Edge get ANY better??? That song is a killer and GE knocks 'em dead. I've almost fallen down hysterical at his dead serious takeoff on Irish dancing and he performed an extensive Michael Flatley routine stage left at Savvis for the folks in the stands. Graeme then moved across the stage rivaling any rapper with thumbs out, but with a hot style all his own. Go Graeme! I have only one thing to say about the stage right "climax": I hope to HELL he's wearing a protective cup! OUCH!!! Doesn't that hurt??? There are MANY great moments in the 2003 setlist, but without question the highlight of the entire concert is GRAEME EDGE. More Graeme! More Graeme! It's the refrain I've heard over and over from fans, both casual and traveling. Despite the generally subpar sound, Norda's flute rang clear through a tender and moving AYSC. The rest of the concert, with the exception of Singer's minor lyric difficulties went well and happy people left the Savvis center hoping to see The Moodies again soon in St Louis. The concert was very enjoyable despite our squashed conditions, but the great joy in St Louis was not found in the arena but in the long overdue reunion of three loving friends. We had caught Red just before a bout of pond-hopping and caught up in person, for once not being limited to computer or phone. She's the Spirit of St Louis to us and we miss her jokes and sweet laughter on tour more than we can say. We talked until the wee hours after the concert and experienced again the very best part of being Moody Friends. Red has taken up harmonica of all things, and is learning from a master. It was GREAT being in St Louis! Off to MY hometown, India-no-place! I can't WAIT to see my favorite rock 'n roll band in The Murat. It just proves that if you spend years of praying and are very very good, you'll get your heart's desire. Just what you want to be, you will get in the end! MaggieMay Back home again, in Indiana, And it seems that I can see, The flickering candlelight, Still shining bright, Through the sycamores, for me... Photos courtesy of MaggieMay |
| Indianapolis |
