Last Friday evening, August 28, my mother and I had the great pleasure of attending Elton's only Chicago-area appearance this tour. Living smack in the middle of Illinois, it's not too much a stretch for me to travel around the Midwest to attend EJ concerts in towns like Indy, St. Louis (thanks to Dan) or even Michigan. But for my elderly Mom it's difficult to travel outside of Chicago where she lives. So this was her first opportunity to attend a show in three years. Last time, in 1995 for the Made In England tour, my father was still living but we all kind of had a feeling that it would be his last chance to see EJ and it was. So in some ways, especially for my mom, Friday's show was a rather melancholy event.
The New World Music Theatre in southwest suburban Tinley Park is definitely not the best venue in the Tri-State region. On of these reasons is the terrible traffic access. What is normally an hour drive, extended into a close-to three hour drive with the last three miles to the venue taking close to two hours. The acoustics in The New World, a so called "shed venue," are not the greatest owing to the fact that structure is made of steel. Tri-State area EJ fans always miss the late, great wooden shed, Poplar Creek which was torn down since The New World, Polar Creek and Alpine Valley came under the same management and could not both draw sufficient concert crowds to support all three.
As a result of the traffic problems we arrived in the middle of Circle of Life which, while obviously a new EJ classic, is not not my personal cup-of-tea. Elton looked much happier and gave a solid performance that was much more assured and consistent than when I saw him last January in St. Louis. At St. Louis, I felt his performances were adequate but my sense was that Elton was going through a routine. Last Friday, Elton had his heart in giving a very professional show. It was well-performed, and if indeed the show was routine for Elton, it was a routine he seemed to enjoy this particular night, rather than seemingly drudging through last January in St. Louis. Elton and the band played superbly. Elton's voice was in excellent form. Yes, as I have said so often, I prefer the deeper, more soulful voice of today's Elton. While his voice has less range, I feel his vocals have more power, increased subtlety and nuances, and, IMHO, better phrasing.
Those of you who have read the most recent Digest all know the set list so I will skip all of that. Like a number of long-time fans, I appreciate that Elton's greatest hits are classics that are so well woven into today's pop-culture, many people know the songs even if by rare chance they do not know that Elton sings these hits. At the same time, I prefer the lesser known songs that when performed live, provide me with some new insights into Elton as a performer, songwriter and musician. For me, these new flashes of insight were the most rewarding parts of Friday's concert.
So it should come as no surprise that I found I'm Going To Be A Teenage Idol and Roy Rogers to be very interesting and enjoyable. Having never heard an alternate version of Teenage Idol, I was especially intrigued at the subtly new transition between the verses and the refrain, right after lines like "Turn my old guitar into a tommy gun...", minus the leslie piano that is heard on the original album recording and with Elton's lower voice.
As discussed in other SPOILERs, there is a segment of the show where Elton performs several songs solo, not unlike the first solo half of the intimate EJ and Ray shows we die-hards rave so much about. For me, the centerpiece of this solo section was his rendition of Recover Your Soul which truly demonstrated that the composition can stand on its own in intimacy without the need for the soothing, percolating synth that drives the album version. (Not that there is anything wrong with the soothing, percolating synth that drives the album version; it's quite apropos.)
Contrasting the solo section were two others highlights for me: Simple Life and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. The delightfully funked-up version of Simple Life, would, IMHO, have made a better opening to the show, but I am glad that it wasn't this time as I would have missed part of it. I believe this the credit for the extra funkiness goes to bassist Bob Birch and new drummer Jack Bruno who especially shined on this one. I had not heard Elton play Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds live in many years, As many of you know, I am an ardent Dead Head, and Lucy... was also in their [The Grateful Dead] repertoire of encores. But having not heard Elton's version live since at least the early 80s, I kept pondering the similarities and differences between the Elton's and The Dead's versions during Friday's encore. (Since Jerry Garcia died, The Dead now play under the name The Other Ones.) The video screen visuals Friday night made the Lucy/Elton/Dead comparison even more interesting.
As for the band, they were in great form. Mahon obviously doesn't have the stage presence that Ray Cooper does but as someone argued, that isn't necessarily bad. Good or bad, his contribution to the band comes across as relatively vague during the performance. I'm sure Mahon is a superb percussionist or Davey and Elton wouldn't have him up there. At the same time, as he was positioned in the band as whole, I'm not certain that the show would have been that much different.
I contrast this with John Jorgenson who has added a whole extra dimension to the band. He brings a certain chemistry with Davey which really is greater than Davey and John separately. I was glad John was around when he played mandolin and sax. I feel like Davey is having much more fun with John around.
Until Friday, I hadn't been able to sort out my mixed reaction to Billy Trudel's role on stage. What it is is The Look. On the one hand, most of these arrangements lend themselves to having a backing vocal that of a pop/soul mix and Billy handles that perfectly. Great! On the other hand, Billy has a strong, energetic presence on stage that, IMHO, needs to be directed in a way that is less distracting. On stage, he visually appears to me to almost like a die-hard fan who was singing in the audience but couldn't help himself and snuck up on stage. And, damn it!, we want to be that person. So with his hands waving all over and that hair flying side to side, he really sticks out visually. Maybe he needs some congas to stand behind so he looks like he more than just someone singing along. Or maybe go all out and get two more Billy clones: While perhaps a bit over-the-top, three of "them" would make an interesting visual impact not unlike the duplicate guitarists backing Bennie in the illustration for Bennie and The Jets on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album. IMHO, Billy's a great vocalist but the look seems wrong to me where I am at in the audience.
As for this whole business of the audience singing, standing up or dancing, I have to regretfully resign myself to the fact that unless you are in the front rows, this is not appreciated by other fans. I did sit the entire concert, and in fact I didn't even get up as I hate distracting folks. I noticed that since I just sat instead of danced, I was much more sensitive and much more easily annoyed by others shouting, dancing or screaming. It is an interesting irony. Of course, Elton wishes we would all get up and dance and sing. I observed a number of fans getting up to dance and then quickly "getting a grip on themselves" and sitting down, the over all social norm of an EJ show is to sit and listen. Part of it is inhibition and part of it is that some folks (like my elderly mother) can't get up and dance. So I've resigned myself to the fact the best place to dance and sing at a show is the Grateful Dead/Other Ones and Phish where this is totally acceptable.
There were two audience behaviors that I hope others refrain from in the future. One annoyance was folks bringing pocket laser pointers and distractingly waving them all over the video screen. What's the point? Another annoyance was folks shouting at folks passing in the main cross aisle to sit down so they could see. Yes, it was annoying that people got up for potty breaks and whatever, but the shouted requests couldn't be heard by those people -- but now I couldn't hear Elton as well as see Elton.
The audience reaction to the performance of Teenage Idol, Roy Rogers, and Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters also helped me close the book on an issue I have complained about for years. As a die-hard fan, I love to hear the rarities, and I sometime get a bit tired of hearing basically the "Hits 1" album all of the time in concert. (Rocket Man is still about eight minutes too long in my book, meaning that a one-second version would suffice for me. I very appreciative that Elton made an effort to work in some rarities and did the mini solo section for us hard cores. But the audience reaction made it perfectly clear why Elton doesn't do more of this. Teenage Idol, Roy Rogers, and Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters are, of all of Elton's non-singles, amongst the best known -- after all they are from his best selling albums. I loved it. Still, when Elton played these, there was a mass exodus to the potty, concessions, and points beyond. Obviously, Elton was losing a portion of the audience who cared most of all for the hits I personally have worn out. I think we sould accept that Elton's going to have to play a lot of hits we know too well.
It was a very revealing evening.
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