Review: San Antonio May 21st

San Antonio has always been special to me. I liked it when I first went there in 2011, had an awesome show and first encountered the Riverwalk. Shows there in 2013 and 2015 just reinforced this for me, so when CW announced in October a San Antonio date, I asked Lester if he wanted to go, and then purchased two tickets.

For awhile it looked like it might just be the two of us, until about a week before the show I noticed that Steve and Linda from California would be attending. We finally coordinated a meeting of them plus the Sidepockets (Mark and Kathy) with myself and Lester, bringing us to a group of six for the show. This would make for a decent little fan gathering.

I woke early on the Sunday of the show, getting a rare reasonable night's sleep before a show. Lester picked me up promptly at 8:45am and we drove the three-plus hours to San Anton. There had been a threat of rain but it had held off so far. We arrived for the 1pm lunch at Market On Houston, across the street from the venue. This place has changed every time that I've been there, now they are on a "healthy local food" menu. I will admit that they had the tastiest cole slaw I've ever eaten. I also disovered, in talking to the others, they none of them had seen the 2017 show yet. But soon enough we had to head over to the venue.

The Majestic Theater is a restored movie palace. In my opinion, it is the crown jewel of theaters in Texas. A Southwestern motif pervades everything. A small front lobby and fairly crowded inner lobby leads to an auditorium with several aisles leading downward to orchestra-level. Fake walls, again in a Spanish Mission style, sit below a sky-blue dome with lightholes serving as stars. The balcony is set at a steep angle, with multiple opera boxes flanking the balcony - one such opera box would be put to use later. The stage is low but plenty deep. Lester and I had row D, fourth row from the front, stage left. Not surprisingly, the other four all had purchased seats directly behind us, so that our dinner group was all in one section. This brought to my mind another Texas CW show from another time: Beaumont, 2011, when the entire fan group was likewise clustered together by chance. And so it began.

The smashing beat at the beginning of the show makes for an ironic counterpoint to the title "Voices Of Angels" but I still like it... I didn't know it until intermission, but CW was taping "Mo Ghile Mear" for their FB page... I will say this for the new "Dulaman": I like what MC does with it, I don't know how I never noticed her sinuous arm movements til this show; I just wish they had tinkered with the arrangement with this song like they did for some of the other "oldies" holdovers... no question, Eabha's "Isle Of Hope, Isle of Tears" is he best I've heard; it was on this song that I noticed how GREAT the sound was at this show, it blew the doors off of both my earlier shows this tour... for "Amazing Grace" Anthony stood in one of the opera boxes near the front, with a spotlight right at him; Mairead's introduction in this song seems to have been corrected, with disjointedness whatsoever; the crowd response on this song was not as spirited as in years past here but still respectable... "She Moved Through the Fair" got a very enthusiastic response from the crowd, including a standing ovation from yours truly; I had spent lunch telling the others to get ready for this song, and Susan and Carl did not disappoint... I've never given the "lads" proper credit for the "pub performance" but it is really good.

The crowd had been okay but nothing to write home about. Lighting was pretty good, especially compared to the earlier Manchester show, but the sound was FANTASTIC, perhaps the best indoor sound I've ever heard at a CW show.

Second act... once again the long note that Mairead holds during the middle of "Orinoco Flow" is gorgeous, I could listen to her do that all night long... speaking of Mairead, standing ovation for "Ave Maria" not only from me but from quite a few patrons... "Walk Beside Me", as I mentioned in my Buffalo review, will always be special to me now... the drum/percussion/dance piece was good as always, but I didn't notice before that the video behind them shows a downward view of the business end of what each performer is doing... I'll never get tired of hearing "The Voice"... with the better sound at this venue, tonight's rendition of "Time To Say Goodbye" was, without question, one of the absolute best song performances I have ever heard; the crowd thought so, too, and gave a massive standing ovation... my associates apparently didn't realize that "The Parting Glass" had been retained, because there was some stirring behind me at the announcement; I really love the acappella chorus near the end.

There was a light rain outside when we exited. We didn't go to PizzaRita's this year, but we did find another place (I had a delicious little bowl of soup). During dinner Steve asked me what my current show total was, and I had only a week before checked to make sure myself, I had actually lost track. Lester and I had a bit of a drive still to do, so we said our farewells to the Maloneys and the Sidepockets, and headed out. I was back home before midnight, a relatively early finish compared to some of these events, which was a good thing considering I had a full day of work coming up.

This was an admittedly short and to-the-point review. There is a massive behemoth coming up that I intend to review extensively, at a location that never fails to satisfy. It's so close now I can almost smell it. Red Rocks is about to begin.