Segunda-feira 15 Mar 2010, 9h:44
This event was reported in having the backing choir available on Ray's latest, but there was no said chorus whatsoever. That was slightly disappointing as the new album is really good, and I don't like when something is promoted as being one thing, and you get there expecting it, and its not! Thats just misleading… but I was there to see Ray! For whatever reason, this event attracted a lot of drunken morons & rednecks (which I'm still trying to figure out how any of them had the intellectual capacity to interpret Ray's lyrics in the first place), and where I sat, I had the most obnoxious in the audience sitting directly behind me. They were thrown out by cops & security halfway through. So the first half of the show, I could barely hear anything above the cro-mags sitting behind me, which made me want to leave outright… but after the scum was thrown out, the show became much better. When Ray whipped out "Two Sisters", that's when I truly started to enjoy it. I have to say though, the last time I had seen Ray perform, was when he was still touring as The Kinks, with his brother Dave in the early 90s (I was a teenager back then) … so the excitement of hearing Kinks songs played live, but without both brothers was sort of a letdown. They really need to put their differences aside, and get back to business!!! Ray's accompanying guitarist was good… but it wasn't Dave! I miss their harmonies.
The opening group *I believe they were called "the 88"* backed Ray for the last 7-8 songs, which was really good. They were boring as an opening act, but they played off of Ray quite well. The first half seemed too much like a lame acoustic Bob Dylan show, but once I got used to that format, it was good. I felt I was being too over-critical about the excitement factor… thats because mentally I was comparing it to what it was like when I saw The Kinks when I was younger… but thats just it… they were ALSO younger! Ray is no spring-chicken… he's a senior-citizen and has had a heart-attack as well as being the victim of a shooting whilst living in New Orleans. In essence… he's lucky to be still alive, and I am lucky to have gotten to see him at all! But for an old guy, he still has his wits & charisma and he even threw in some big stage jumps at the end! I did feel bad for him when he went to shake someone's hand, and he lost his balance and fell off of the stage. Luckily he didn't seem terribly injured by it.