DENNIS IN NASHVILLE
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:20 amA quick review...
Great show but I really miss Dennis playing the keyboards. I know he needs to fill the front man position but it just didn't feel right.
Anyway minor gripe aside it was a fun night, I was pleased to hear Pieces of 8 live for the first time as well as Desert Moon and to me the big suprise of the night was Black Wall from the Back to the world album done with the childrens chiors, I had chills as this has always been my favorite of Dennis's solo material.
Mike Eldred sang back up on every song and performed 2 songs from Hunchback - Ave Maria and a second piece that I can't remember the name of but it was a trio with Mike, Dennis and a female singer.
From stage Dennis commented that there were a bunch of problems surrounding the nights performance...
His normal sound guy was stuck in Paris so the sound man was mixing never having heard the show before.
His lighting guy was in the hospital in Chicago so they had a fill in there.
And his normal female backup singer was batteling larengitas (SP) so they had to bring in a fill in for the Trio, I wish I could remember her name because she was marvelous!
and to top it off, the most unstaged moment of the night came when after leaving the stage for a moment Dennis triped over the guitar players cord and unplugged him just as he started the solo to Desert Moon, after a scramble to re-plug him he finished the song in fine style.
A few side comments...
The guitar player is very good and handled the parts just fine but DAMN I miss seeing Tommy and JY up there, It just didn't feel right!
I was very impressed by his Drummer and Bass player both brought a lot to the songs and seemed to really be enjoying themselves.
Dennis's Keyboard player just had too big a set of shoes to feel. He played the parts flawlessly but he wasn't Dennis and even if you play all the note perfectly you can't copy style. Dennis needs to hang up dancing and get back behing the keys, I don't think the show would have suffered in the least if he had handled the keyboard parts himself. (I say the same thing about Gowan in the band now, he is probably as good as if not technically a better player than Dennis but he can't match the style of Dennis's playing on the original tracks)
But with all that said it was a great show and Dennis sounded in fine form and seemed to really be having a great time.
Would I go again, don't take this wrong but probably not, at least not to another symphony show. I would go see Dennis again and again if it were just him and the band, I like what the symphony brought to the music but it dampens the raw rock-n-roll feel of the music. So come on Dennis come back to Nashville but this time leave the horns at home.
That's it from Nashville for now I hope to read some more reviews from so of the others of you that were there.
Great show but I really miss Dennis playing the keyboards. I know he needs to fill the front man position but it just didn't feel right.
Anyway minor gripe aside it was a fun night, I was pleased to hear Pieces of 8 live for the first time as well as Desert Moon and to me the big suprise of the night was Black Wall from the Back to the world album done with the childrens chiors, I had chills as this has always been my favorite of Dennis's solo material.
Mike Eldred sang back up on every song and performed 2 songs from Hunchback - Ave Maria and a second piece that I can't remember the name of but it was a trio with Mike, Dennis and a female singer.
From stage Dennis commented that there were a bunch of problems surrounding the nights performance...
His normal sound guy was stuck in Paris so the sound man was mixing never having heard the show before.
His lighting guy was in the hospital in Chicago so they had a fill in there.
And his normal female backup singer was batteling larengitas (SP) so they had to bring in a fill in for the Trio, I wish I could remember her name because she was marvelous!
and to top it off, the most unstaged moment of the night came when after leaving the stage for a moment Dennis triped over the guitar players cord and unplugged him just as he started the solo to Desert Moon, after a scramble to re-plug him he finished the song in fine style.
A few side comments...
The guitar player is very good and handled the parts just fine but DAMN I miss seeing Tommy and JY up there, It just didn't feel right!
I was very impressed by his Drummer and Bass player both brought a lot to the songs and seemed to really be enjoying themselves.
Dennis's Keyboard player just had too big a set of shoes to feel. He played the parts flawlessly but he wasn't Dennis and even if you play all the note perfectly you can't copy style. Dennis needs to hang up dancing and get back behing the keys, I don't think the show would have suffered in the least if he had handled the keyboard parts himself. (I say the same thing about Gowan in the band now, he is probably as good as if not technically a better player than Dennis but he can't match the style of Dennis's playing on the original tracks)
But with all that said it was a great show and Dennis sounded in fine form and seemed to really be having a great time.
Would I go again, don't take this wrong but probably not, at least not to another symphony show. I would go see Dennis again and again if it were just him and the band, I like what the symphony brought to the music but it dampens the raw rock-n-roll feel of the music. So come on Dennis come back to Nashville but this time leave the horns at home.
That's it from Nashville for now I hope to read some more reviews from so of the others of you that were there.
Hopefully we'll hear from Ash and Sterling too 
