Denver, June 3.
WOW.
The most dominant aspect of last night's concert was how much fun everyone seemed to have. I don't know who had more fun, the band or the crowd. It was just like what you would expect; a bunch of old friends who had a magical time many years ago hoping that the magic hasn't gone away. Very early on everyone in the room realized that it's still there.
Chick fought with 2 of his keyboards for the first 10 minutes. The tech was all over the place fixing things then Chick was up and running. He got a big grin on his face, the band started relaxing, and everyone got right into the set.
The sound was great. You could clearly hear every little thing. Everyone's tone was beautiful. Stanley played his Alembic for the first set and the encores. I saw what I think was the Spellbinder, but it stayed on its stand all night. The second set was more mellow. Lenny used brushes, Al played his Ovation, Stanley on upright. He didn't seem to like what he heard with the bow. Sometimes he played only a few notes and switched back to picking.
Each member had a solo section for at least 6 or 8 minutes. The musicianship and technical ability of each left the crowd in awe. It was not the Hey, everyone, look what I can do. thing. It was a bunch of great musicians playing great music. For the most part they stayed with the original arrangements.
After the second set a lot of people crowded around the stage to shake hands and get autographs. The band's looks, shakes, and thank-yous to each of us at the edge of the stage were very genuine. Everyone really had soooo much fun seeing all this happening again.
My 14 year old son (a keyboardist) loved the show. When we went up to the front, Chick autographed his ticket and thanked him for coming to the show. He was thrilled.
I am really excited for all of you who are going to the upcoming shows. If you have half as much fun as we did, you are in for a great time.
Rich
