Mother Nature stepped in last night and gave us yet another memory to revisit as we went both backward and forward in a musical event that meshed days gone by and words and music to live by that are filled with love, hope, and optimism for the future.
The Moody Blues played to a sold-out… you couldn’t put someone else in the venue with a shoe-horn…crowd.
As usual The Moodies did not disappoint.
Here is Justin Hayward and John Lodge working out the final details of the last song of the first set… The Story in Your Eyes.
As soon as this song was finished and it was announced that the band would take their customary 20 minute repose before finishing the second half of the show, an official from the The Fraze Pavilion stepped onstage and told us all to clear the amphitheater. There was lightning near and we needed to take cover. We did just that.
My dear wife, Carrie, and I found shelter without having to resort to walking to our car.
In the midst of the mass of humanity we were “subjected” to in these close quarters, we were relegated to confusion, slight aggravation, and a hint of agony.
Carrie and I could see each other. She was on one side of a room and I was on the other. We made eye contact frequently and I so missed having her by my side for the time we stood there…dry…thankfully…but listening to dialogue that came out of rejected episodes of Seinfeld or some other show I could not stand and have failed to make it through a complete episode of.
Some guy knew he was the Earth’s gift to women and must have been hard of hearing because he was filling all of us in on his ways of wooing women. He was not being nasty mind you. He was just annoying. Just know this…the guys around him were laughing at him…they were not taking notes.
One guy standing behind me was downright loud as he felt compelled to shout into his cell phone as if that was really going to make his voice project that much louder than if he would have moved the cell phone closer to his mouth-part.
When Carrie and I finally got together after we were given the all clear to return to our seats for the second half of the show…which I thought may have been in doubt…we were very glad to see each other as usual. She had her stories about the characters around her and I had my stories about the characters around me and we both decided we could have done without either experience. But guess what? It will be there to reflect on….and as a reference point to further appreciate each other all the more.
It was mid-June 1992 when I saw The Moody Blues at Deer Creek just northeast of Indianapolis when a bad cloud came up and wreaked havoc on the show that was a double-bill with our guys and Chicago. The Moodies were supposed to play first that night. I was ready for the band to hit the stage and suddenly their roadies broke down their equipment and set up Chicago to play instead.
Ironically, as Chicago…the group…was playing in place of the Moodies, the Moodies were on a grounded plane in Chicago…the city… trying to get to Indy. They finally showed up. Man it was late. I will never forget the clap of thunder that punctuated the final note of Nights in White Satin. The weather got worse in a hurry and the boys ended the show two songs shy of their ordinary finish. I drove home on I-65 South that night/morning and I have said this before, but I have never typed it. I drove home that night on I-65 in a fierce storm. I did not see another headlight going north or south from the Franklin exit down to the Henryville exit. That was rock and roll! The natural light show I saw that night was better than anything I ever saw from Pink Floyd.
It was good to see The Moody Blues last night. More so, it was even better to HEAR them last night. A live performance is special. The Moody Blues know that. That is why they are still at it…I think that is a case of…speaking the rights.
Danny Johnson
Go Herd!