Review from Linda Madden
The Greatest “Barry Night” EVER!!!!!! - June 5, 2008
What can I say, there are some events that you can’t put
words to and last night was one of them. I took my daughter (17), and son (14)
to their first Manilow concert. I didn’t set my expectations too high and just
hoped that they would come away from the concert having enjoyed an evening of
good music. The reaction I got was more than I had ever imagined. I say that
because our afternoon set off to a bumpy start. A clash of teenager attitudes,
ill-planning and the heat in Montreal
led me to think my evening was doomed.
Once we were in our seats inside the Bell Centre and
settled, it wasn’t long before Brian
Culbertson came on. He and his band were amazing and caught the attention of my
son. They performed a great opening act and got the crowd energized.
Then Barry appeared. He sang his usual opening medley (It’s
A Miracle, Daybreak, etc..) and greeted us with a “Bonjour Montreal”. During
Daybreak, (my daughter’s favourite song) I glanced at her who just smiled wide
as tears streamed down her face. Then came “the Old Songs” and “Looks Like We
Made It” and “Weekend in New England”. He also sang
“Ready to Take a Chance Again” and danced with a beautiful gal named, Priscilla
(I think). I’m not sure of the exact order, so here is as best as I remember.
He sang CSWY and Even Now. Sometime around here he grabbed a stool and said he
wanted to sing something “soft”. We got a beautiful rendition of “Somewhere
Down The Road”. (I lost it at that point.) Then came “Bandstand Boogie” and NYC
Rhythm complete with the piano run-around. He did Brooklyn Blues and Brian came
out and joined him in that. Then we got the full slow version of CIBM. Then
came the “funny cigarette skit” followed by the sixties segment (Can’t Take My
Eyes Off Of You, Baby Love and What The World Needs Now). Then came the Midnight special /Mandy and IWTS. During Copa,
Barry at one point came out following Keely, Monica and Melanie wearing a
Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey. The crowd went crazy at this point. It’s A
Miracle complete with streamers and confetti came next. Barry went off and came
back out for his encore with the crowd still on their feet clapping and
cheering. He stood there for a few minutes and was overwhelmed by the response
says, “Are you sure you aren’t family?” When he did start to sing his final
song, I was totally and emotionally caught off guard. We got a powerful and
awe-inspiring version of “One Voice”. At this point my son looked at me with a
huge smile on his face and said, “See I told you he’d sing this song tonight.”
I smiled back because he had told me earlier in the day we would get “One
Voice”. I told him not to expect it and that he usually sings two other songs
as his encore. I was so glad that he did sing “One Voice”.