Originally Posted by
VAisForEagleLovers
First I would like to apologize to Boston Steve and Flojo for not meeting up with them. Boston Steve, I'm not sure how I missed you, it's not like there were a lot of people at the VIP dinner! Flojo, I saw you in the front row, and as I said in an email, as we were trying to get out of there, I looked away and when I looked back, you were gone! I really did want to meet both of you. Roey, it would have been nice to meet you, too.
The trip to NYC was great, great weather, and I flew first class for the first time in a long time, and that helped. Seeing HH for the first time since January was great, and we had a blast!
As has been noted by Boston Steve, the VIP dinner was rather lame. Since you get your tickets in NYC ahead of time, some blew off the dinner altogether, and of course, most sold their tickets on StubHub (or elsewhere). There were 20 people at the dinner, which meant I had a much better shot of winning something in the raffle (and I did win a t-shirt with the dates of this tour leg on it).
The twenty of us in VIP didn't get a kazoo, but we did get to our seats in time to hear the great kazoo-off. JD brought some special guests onto the stage for it. John McEnroe, Henrik Lundquist, and two other guys. Judging from their height, I assume they were members of the NY Knicks. Lundquist is the goalie for the Rangers. Joe came out with them, and it was a good thing as the others seemed pretty uncomfortable at first.
I was in row 7, and directly behind a rather large man, both wide and tall. So when I got the offer to switch closer to the middle, I took it. Only to find I was behind an even taller man. He slouched in his seat, and while that probably helped those behind me, it didn't help me at all. Directly in front of him was a tall man, and so when we stood, I couldn't see anything, because leaning around one meant still having the other block my view. The women on either side of me didn't seem to appreciate me leaning to the side to see around them, and so the first set was a bit frustrating for me. I could lean and see individual members occasionally, but never all of them at once.
The lady to my left couldn't have made it more obvious that she'd rather be anywhere else. She was with a guy in the row ahead of us and they left at intermission, which made me very happy! I stayed in my seat, but could lean all I want, and so then had a great view of all of them except Joe.
The guys did a great job, and put on a great show. I noticed at the end of the second set, the last two or three songs, there was a guy in the next section that was up with everyone else and dancing. He was in his eighties, and he was having a blast. It was great to see.
As noted by others, Joe did a great job on ITC again. Like in Omaha, as the song progressed, the crowd got more into it. As Joe hit the home stretch, I heard gasps and 'ohhs' of appreciation, and could see the awe on the faces of a lot of people. Since it was hard for me to see Joe, I looked at people in the audience, and it was nice to see the appreciation.
At the beginning of TITTL, Don must not have thought the crowd was singing loud enough as he gestured for us to sing along.
As always, when they play the Reprise, the crowd cheers when they hear the strains of Desperado, and they did Thursday night as well. When they sang the word 'Desperado' and moved into those incredible harmonies on that song I heard gasps and sounds of appreciation from those around me. When the song was over, I heard a guy seated to my left say, "Wow, these guys are absolutely incredible, this is amazing." Indeed.