sunshine
01-20-2012, 01:58 AM
Excellent concert tonight, as always. Two highlights were Make Way for the Lady and Restless. The audience recognized both as intricate pieces that showcase the band's ability to perform diverse styles of music and they applauded and cheered accordingly. There were lots of Canadian snowbirds in the audience tonight and their enthusiasm made for a very positive vibe throughout. Two pieces of information that I was not aware of are that Gordon says there is a rumor that he will be on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in April, then he said so write in to request it, but I think that was a joke, then he said so watch for it in April. Secondly, Gordon said that there will be a Rhino offering comprised of the best musical selections he could find over the period of the last five years and it will be called Massey Hall Moments. I think he said that would be available this spring. One disruptive moment in the concert tonight was that a very authorative female security person with an attitude and the large print words "security" emblazoned on her front and back came down the center aisle to the 6th row during A Painter Passing Through and just stood there glaring at certain people for the duration of the song. It was so distracting that several rows of patrons in the vicinity started talking, wondering, getting nervous, asking her to move, missing the whole song. Gordon and the band were playing but noticing. When the song was over and she still just stood in the middle of the aisle, Gordon beckoned her forward to the stage at the same time that audience members were telling her to move and that she was freaking Gordon out. She retreated but toward the end of the first half, a male security guard did the same thing to the same row of people, just stood and glared, didn't really do or even say anything. Some people were concerned that there was danger. At the intermission, an usher told us that Gordon had requested that there be no camera use and that security was simply honoring his wishes. Later as I was leaving the auditorium after the encore, the band started playing a second encore so I stood at the back to listen and was surprised at the number of cameras and recording devices in use. They were everywhere and highly visible, nobody was enforcing anything at that point, lots of people got lots of footage tonight. Clearwater tomorrow.