What a night! I've been to Atlantic City, Madison Square Garden and Las Vegas and I will have to say that Saturday night, September 8th, was by far the most memorable concert I have ever attended. While the others were special in their own way, this night was magical. A moment of Manilow magic frozen in time, in my heart and in my memory for a lifetime.
Upon entering the arena, we snatched up our copies of the Greatest Songs of the 70's for future listening. Yes! We were all excited about being the first ones to hear the new entry into the Manilow collection We had seats on the 6th row, dead center and up close and personal with the action. There was magic in the air and as we sat down, we realized there would be a full orchestra. In open view was a magnificent harp. The stage was set up for the opening act: Brian Culbertson. What an amazing jazz musician this young man was. And as an added treat, one his guitar players toured with Earth Wind and Fire, so we got two amazing songs that brought all of us down memory lane. The place was rockin'!
Then "right here, right now" began and the place was on its feet. The stage parts and out walks the Shadowman himself. He launches into the usual opening numbers and received his first standing ovation of the evening. There would be many more to come and they would give us a glimpse of just how much Barry had opened his heart to his fans that night. The dance was magical as always to Moonlight Serenade. Then he began singing I Made It Through the Rain with the Granpa Joe story. It seemed different this time, more personal, more poignant. And yet another standing ovation.
One of the highlights of the evening was the full orchestral version of Could It Be Magic which was the most powerful moment of the evening. Another standing ovation and Barry was moved to tears. At one point he stood there was his jaw open in awe and took his hand and comically closed it after almost five minutes of applause.
The next moment was during What the World Needs Now...the audience was on its feet standing with arms around each other and swaying to the song. When the music ended...another standing ovation that seemed to last forever.
There were comical moments as well: his funny cigarette was not lit so he had to call someone for help; his earpieces kept falling out and at one point required tweezers to remove one of them; he mentioned the only drug he was on was Lipitor during the 60's segment. He was joking continuously with the fans and seemed the happiest he has seemed in a very long time. There was something different about him. He had an obvious joy and also an openness with his emotions that blew me away.
At the end of Copacabana he turned this back to the audience and shook his touche back and forth for several minutes...while we cheered, whistled and applauded. After Dancin in the Streets he came back out on stage. Obviously moved by the crowd's response and began singing "hey old friends. What do you say old friends...:" and then walked onto center stage to end with "Forever and a Day". As the applause roared, he paused for a moment, almost as if to say, "wow" and we actually thought he was going to launch into another song. But he disappeared backstage and the show ended.
Were we disappointed there were no 70's songs? Did we wish it was longer? Did we wish he had sung "One Voice"? Absolutely. But when we got into the car and put that 70's CD in the car stereo, all our disappointment disappeared. With each song...we were wowed by his genius. And we realized, we should be grateful for every moment and hoped this magic would last forever.