Thanks Dinozzzo.
For people who don't want to have to click on an extra link, here is the review itself, I was about to post it here in the forum now anyway:
And so begins another tour. And, if Nashville is any indication, then this tour will be the best ever.
Roy and I flew out of Houston Intercontinental in the morning and arrived in Nashville in early afternoon. We joined up with the others who had already arrived... Mike, Starman, Tony, Moscapoet, Neil, Thomas, and Jim Allen. Later we were joined by Dwight, Donna, Daniel, Ron and his wife, Eric, and Lu. We ate dinner at Puckett's in downtown Nashville. We didn't spend much time on preliminaries, and after eating headed on over to the venue.
The Tennessee Performing Arts Theater is a theater, set into an office building. You would think this leads to me describing some old relic place that has been restored to original condition to look like a grand old theater of old, but this is not so. In this case they modernized the place. It resembled more the Kravitz Center in WPB than the Shea PAC in Buffalo. All the amenities, including the bathrooms, the lights, the doors, are all modern. The balcony was set in tiers, with the upper tier descending down to a level even with the lower tier at the edges. Typical for a theater in an old office building, the place towered probably 6 or more stories high in the back of the balconies. The stage was about average width, but was very deep allowing plenty of space for cast maneuvering. The stage also seemed slightly lower than some theaters I have seen. The monitors on the stage edge appear to be getting smaller and smaller with every tour. On the stage itself, the inevitable dais was about four feet high, but the steps appeared to be very steep with probably a 45 degree angle. At the center of the dais they had an arch very reminiscent of the Atlanta Believe arch. The backdrop looked like a huge sheet of tinfoil, but textured like stonework, lit from above with purple light. Indeed the entire lighting motif to the preshow was purple. Although not a beautiful theater, the place is hardly unattractive; and it's a very functional venue, with plenty of lobby space for mingling, space for merchandise tables, and loads and loads of bathroom facilities. Overall a very good place to see a show.
For those keeping score at home, the merchandise table had three styles of tshirts available, including a woman's v-neck in a raspberry color, a purple tee, and a dark grey tee. They also had the solo CDs as you might expect, and the new Believe CD and DVD. They also had programs... which have GORGEOUS new pics of all four current girls. Interestingly, there were TWO merchandise tables tonight; the extra table could help alleviate long delays getting your gear. Hopefully they will continue this through the tour.
After chatting with other fans (including Melissa who I very much wanted to see again) I headed to my seat, orchestra row A, just a couple seats to piano side from direct center. I had Jim on one side and Roy on the other. We had about 10 of us in the front row mostly on the piano side, with more in the second row. There would be plenty of forum interaction tonight! Roy and I had been talking and decided we both had a primary mission tonight... to make new member Susan McFadden feel welcome. We intended to do just that. For me this would be my tenth tour watching Celtic Woman, and I had faith that if David Downes thinks this new girl will work then he must be right; after all, he always is.
Speaking of David Downes, he came out after Scott Porter to speak briefly to us. Both told us that production issues might come up since this was the very first show. David even joked that if Brian fell asleep at the piano, that one of us should of course jump up on stage and take over the piano haha. Then without further ado, the time to BELIEVE had finally come.
Choir member included Craig Ashurst, Colm keegan, Dermot Kiernan, Mairead Maguire, Andrea Delaney, and Kate Donohoe. Among the ladies, Mairead was the veteran; she had been at the Atlanta taping (and had been very charming for us to talk to after the first night there); the other two girls were new and I am not sure which one is which at this writing. Among the gents, Craig was the new guy but was also the one who would be charged with the irish dance routines. Colm and Dermot are certainly well remembered by fans of the tours. The musician lineup was the same as at the Believe taping.
First out into the darkness came Mairead to the top of the dais, beneath the arch, very much reminiscent of the opening to Sky Dawn Sun. But this was "Awakening" and it played out just as you saw it from Believe. Susan has a fantastic voice, although personally I don't think her voice resembles Lisa Kelly's; to me she sounds somewhat similar to Chloe. The sound on this first song wasn't the crashing thunder that I was expecting, it just seemed to be a bit subdued. But from the first few minutes it was clear to me the lighting has been vastly improved now. We all gave a standing ovation for the first song.
The crowd was ok, nothing to write home about. Infact the crowd wasn't even complete, there were a number of empty seats even in the orchestra. Perhaps seventy percent of the place was occupied.
Next up: "Dulaman"!! Yes, they kept Dulaman, and Lil Lambe made it as great as ever, with Dermot providing the male part... "Nocturne" was Chloe and Mairead combining grace and beauty... "The Foxhunter" began slowly but when the tempo quickened, the whole audience suddenly animated and clapped along. The girls were definitely interacting with the front rows!... "Sailing" began VERY differently from the DVD; Tommy Martin played the whistle in place of the bagpipes for the beginning of the song, but by now any audio problems that they had at the beginning were totally corrected and the crescendo of the song smashed through us... "A Woman's Heart" was announced as being special tonight because the songwriter herself (Eleanor McEvoy, an excellent Irish singer that I've been listening to since the mid-90s) was in the house; the girls sang it with hand-held mics as they did on several other songs in this first act... "Follow On" was Susan's first solo; I had come to like Lisa's version, but thankfully I didn't hear it as a Lisa song as Susan sang it; Susan has a unique accent of her own when she sings, at times it sounds clearly Irish but at other times it's not even noticeable; we all gave her a raving ovation, well deserved for a lady who took a big assignment and met it's first test beautifully... "TAR" (as some have come to abbreviate it, also known to some informally as "the ceili dance number" haha) also began very differently; we heard singing but couldn't tell from where it was coming until we noticed Lisa and Chloe on either far stage wing, singing across the audience at eachother, and then joined by Susan in the center as all three converged on the center front of the stage; this intro to the song was part banter, part satire, and part singing; the combination was absolutely the most hilarious thing I've ever seen Celtic Woman do; then the song goes to the usual TAR territory and plays out just as you remember from the DVD, including Craig's dancing and having the guys spinning the girls in a circle which the crowd absolutely loved... "Granuaile's Dance" was back!!! For a few minutes it's like A New Journey all over again as Mairead whoops the crowd into a frenzy... "Danny Boy" was done much as it was on the Symphony Tour, with piano accompaniment; this is not the way I prefer it but I know a lot of people love it this way; it's still really good... "Mo Ghile Mear"!!!!!!! From the very first note many of us forum people can be heard giving approving utterances that this song remains in the setlist, and you'll get no complaint from me at all. What a first half!!
The consensus during intermission was that this is an excellent show. Not surprisingly the girls were nervous to start with and David Downes had admitted that at the beginning; but the girls had been performing amazingly and Susan's performances had been well done.
Second Act: "Amazing Grace" starts things off, with Anthony beginning again out in the audience and working his way onto the stage until the girls begin their parts; fantastic as always, and I really hadn't expected them to keep this song, but maybe I should have: "How precious did that grace appear/The hour I first believed"... "Green Grow the Rushes" most of us of course knew how to sing this but Chloe and Lisa Lambe worked each side of the audience to get us to sing loud enough; I'm glad that the fun of Atlanta with this song apparently will continue through this new tour... "Spaceman Came Traveling"!!!! I had hoped Lisa would sing this one and she provided all the moves that you've come to love on the DVD... "Songs From the Heart" was uhhhh, I don't want to call it fixed, but it was placed back into it's original order, with Chloe and Susan doing "Walking the Night" cuing into Tommy's pipes, then Chloe and Lisa starting "The World Falls Away" with all three of them finishing it; just one word describes it: fantastic!!... "The Water Is Wide" was Susan's second solo, and I had been anticipating this song ever since the end of the Atlanta recording session; this was my favorite song from Atlanta, and Lisa had done wonders with it; none of the new Believe songs reaches into me more than this one does and Susan's delivery tugged my heart; I started the song as Scott and ended the song as a Susan fan... "Tribute to Broadway" was retained!!!! Susan began "I Dreamed A Dream" until the tigers' coming brought Chloe to the stage; "Circle Of Life" was everything I loved in Atlanta all over again, with Lisa Lambe soon joined by Susan and Chloe, and Anthony (yes, ANTHONY) playing a big bongo drum!... Believe wouldn't be complete without "Ave Maria" and Chloe didn't disappoint; there was no children's choir but the song still worked magnificently as the high notes got hit in the way only Chloe Agnew knows how to... "You'll Never Walk Alone" was the dramatic piece as shown on the DVD, again no children's choir but somehow I think this was even better than Atlanta... "Women Of Ireland" was again a near-straight rendition of the two-part song with Mairead and Craig trading off the second half of the piece with dance and fiddle... The only thing missing from the "The Parting Glass" was the Atlanta confetti bomb; the song got a massive standing ovation from the crowd.
I had been crossing my fingers up until now, and as the girls went off stage I saw that the choir had stayed. I began to hope, and hope was turning to anticipation... then the massive beat of Ray's drum told me it was time again for "Encore Finale"!!!!!!! My favorite Celtic Woman song came to life again as Mairead performed The Jimi Hendrix Suite, followed again by the band members having their own little solos, but then came Craig out to do about a full minute of dance again, with tons of yells and screams from the floor; then it was Mairead, Susan, Lisa, and Chloe; I was on my feet before Mairead was even down the first step; at that point the place was as alive as any audience ever; this was followed by the tiny "At the Ceili" reprise as the girls waved while making their way up the dais and back behind the stage. The first Believe Tour show was in the books.
The consensus had become conclusion: this was a fantastic show. I dared to call it their best ever, which is very strong talk for an Isle of Hope fan. And, this was only the first night with more tweaking yet to come!
Those of us with M&G made our way to the area in the lobby that had been set up for it. Dustin and Bubba had charge of the meets again, and tonight would be Lisa and Chloe, as most of us thought it might be. It was great seeing Chloe again after not seeing her for almost 2 years, since Roanoke 2010. Of course I told the girls that I loved the show. I also made sure to tell Rachel Davis to please tell Susan that we loved her performance tonight, as I knew I was speaking for everyone in saying that.
Many of us made our way out for dinner at a late-night Italian restaurant. I spent part of my time on the phone with the Kipper elf and texting back to people who had inquiries about the show - and there were many. And of course we sat and talked about the show; we ended up closing the place up and on the way out talked briefly with Andy and Anthony who were standing around outside their hotel as we walked to our respective hotels.
An amazing night. I knew I'd love the new tour but I wasn't sure how this first night would work out, but all my fears were unfounded. It was a very positive evening and an augury for the upcoming shows in the year, including my show for tomorrow night here in Nashville again. I've said it before, but I'll repeat it again: there never has been... never is... and never will be... anything in this world like Celtic Woman!