Our next stop on our Fall roadtrip was Rochester NY. This city is slightly over an hour from the previous show at Syracuse.
Mike [Mr.Peabody] and I set out early on Wednesday morning to reach Rochester in a driving rain. We met up again with Ralph, who took us to see some of the sights of Rochester including my first visit to a planetarium in 30+ years. We had dinner along with Ralph’s sister Connie at a local Olive Garden, and then went to examine the venue.
Rochester’s Auditorium Theater is yet another little theater, but this one is not as old as the one at Syracuse. Built in a mostly 1950s style, the colors of the theater were actually more vibrant, even if the style was more subdued. The balcony was much smaller than the ones at Syracuse and Wallingford, along with a much larger stage. There was a pit Ifor this theater (which is where Mike and I were to sit). Looking at the pit set-up, I shuddered. They had prepared some creaky wooden platforms to place a couple rows of folding chairs to serve as pit seats. I had almost dead-center in the pit row just in front of the pit-railing, high enough to see over the stage unlike those in front of me… positionally, the best seat in the house, without question. On the downside, I had an “aisle seat” which I normally like but which this time concerned me… my chair was literally 3 inches from a 3-foot drop. I could just see myself dropping me or my chair into the open area to my left if I stood too carelessly during an ovation. Fortunately, I was again wrong and would find the tables turned on me as the negative became an absolute positive.
From almost the beginning of “The Sky And the Dawn And the Sun” I was aware of how much better the lighting was tonight, and how great the crowd was. There were virtually no lighting issues, and now the projector was working fine. The crowd was very participatory and enthusiastic.
It seems in these past few months I have been coming to appreciate more and more the songs that I have neglected over the years. Another of these is “Dulaman” which this crowd got really excited with, which of course just fed Ray’s drum-playing all the more. I am going to be quite sad if this song is cut for next year’s tour.
Excellent, excellent rendition of “Granuaile’s Dance.” It was clear that Mairead was happy to be leaping again, which she couldn’t do so easily at Syracuse because of the stage.
How does the harmonic “Danny Boy” keep getting better and better??
As the show played on, I noticed a very unexpected side effect of the pit-platform: it was so rickety that it carried sound! You could feel the bass quite easily through the floorboards, much like the effect in the pit at the Mann Center in Philadelphia. I really noticed it in “Mo Ghile Mear.”
In the second act, “Carolina Rua” was again brought to vivid life by Lynn… lately I have been loving Alex’s “True Colors” solo a lot more, but tonight I swung back over to her “You’ll Be In My Heart” which she sings so perfectly… I gave an unaccustomed standing ovation to “At the Ceili,” it’s obvious that the girls are really enjoying themselves on this Fall tour… great performance of “Sing Out.”
All through the show Mike and I had been getting smiles from the girls, but I was absolutely floored during the standing ovation and applause following “Oh America!” when Chloe waved directly at me and smiled. It was a wonderful feeling, to say the least. Equally amazing, during the applause following “Spanish Lady” (before the short “At the Ceili” reprise) Chloe blew me a kiss. That has to be near the very top of my CW moments.
Finally, during “Spanish Lady,” the crowd started clapping along at the beginning, which had never happened before at my other shows. Best “Spanish Lady” ever.
For the Meet and Greet, it was Lisa and Alex. We filed into the room set aside for it, and of course we were polite and let everyone else go ahead of us! I was the very last to meet them – I had met Alex at the Mohegan Sun signing back in March, and I had met Lisa 3 times previously. Not surprisingly to me, Lisa remembered my name. This was the first time I had met the girls without Mairead being present.
We made our way out, Mike and I had an early start for the next morning, so we returned to the hotel to our rooms, still basking in Celtic Woman.
(This next section does not deal with any live CW concert, so those not interested in hearing a brief travelog, thanks for your time.)
For the next day Mike and I headed down from Rochester NY to The City to check out Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, which I had never seen before. We drove down, with the skies clearing more as we went until finally we had perfect weather for the tour of the islands.
This year has been a year of firsts for me. This was the first time I was in a boat in some 30 years. Before the day was out I had been on 3 boats around the harbor.
For those who don’t know, Ellis Island is the setting for the song “Isle Of Hope, Isle Of Tears” and we got there and saw the many fascinating exhibits. There are few museums that I have ever been to that made me FEEL as well as understand. This was one of those.
We saw a memorial to Annie Moore, the first immigrant to cross Ellis Island’s threshold. Of course the whole time I had the song “Isle Of Hope, Isle Of Tears” playing in my head!
Then it was on to Liberty Island, where we had a magnificent view of New York harbor.
It was time for us to head out. We planned to arrive at the hotel in Connecticut in time for the world premier broadcast of “Songs From the Heart” which was only being carried by CPTV. We got caught in horrific traffic trying to cross New York City – including heavy traffic of people on their way to Game 2 of the World Series in the Bronx. It took much longer than we ever planned. We raced to Mike’s hotel room, turned on the TV, found the local PBS station, and sat back to watch… with 45 seconds to spare, after a 3.5 hour ride!
I won’t go into details about the new show, partly because Mike’s review of it can stand as the best initial review, and partly because I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone else as this review appears in multiple forums. I do want to say that it is very, very beautiful and you will be blown away, especially by the close-ups of the girls! It is in my opinion the best videographic work of the girls to date and it is just begging for screencaps to be made of it for wallpapers and banners. Also, CPTV did some live interviews of the girls for the broadcast (since the girls were in Connecticut for the next-day Mohegan Sun show). It was nice to listen to girls yet again. When the new show is released, GET IT. You won’t be disappointed.
