First, let me say that American Music Theater is a pretty cushy venue. Nice comfortable seats, good views from most, which compensated for the 90 minute drive. But heck, I would do that to see the Mav Reincarnation in a standing-room-only venue with floors sticky with spilled Coors Light, so...
The crowd had a hefty sprinkling of folks way too old, (in my humble opinion :) ) to have been Mavericks fans so I suspected that the AMT has a group of subscribers who attend many or all of the shows in a season without being rabid fans of any one group. My feeling was confirmed a few minutes later, when the clock ticked past the 7 pm start time (what? Early Bird Specials for music, too?) and a bunch of the oldsters got a little rowdy, with booing and rude shouts about refunds and the like. The Mavs walked onstage in the dark and the booing came again in a new wave. Raul and co. just ignored it, said "Hi!" and launched right into "Born to be Blue". All the rude geezers shut up and listened, at least, and were pretty well behaved from then on.
I was doing a pretty good job of recording short video clips to remind me of the set list so that I could blog it later, when one of the crankiest seniors yelled in my ear that my "camera" (iphone, Pops :) was blocking his view. So much for that. Having been raised well by people about as old as him, I obligingly quit recording. All I can say is that they did a nice mix of new songs from the upcoming Sept. 25 album release, and old Mavs standards. Raul had a two song acoustic interlude with his ukulele, doing "Stardust" and something else I've forgotten, before the band came back to launch into "Guantanamera".
Everyone on stage looked to be having a great time and on many songs there were five or six vocalists taking part. The show went into two encores and wrapped up after two hours, leaving me happy that the Mavs are back, and thinking about how I can manage another show in a few weeks.
See them if you get a chance!
Actually, you are mistaken when you say the crowd was booing. We were sitting in the last row of the downstairs and we didn't hear boos -- it was people shouting "Ra-ul", which can sound like boos. (On a side note, there is a player for the Philadelphia Flyers named Giroux, and when people shout his name at games, it sounds like booing). Also, I didn't hear anyone shout about refunds either, but people near us were shouting "play some good music" (they were playing the Beatles and I guess she is not a Beatles fan - whatever). Overall, people were getting impatient for the show to begin, as it was a 7:00 showtime, and it was now 7:30 and the show had not started yet. I will agree with you that it was an older crowd, probably attributable to the fact that many of them are subscribers, like you said. Overall, it was an amazing show - I've seen the Mavericks 3 times before and this was probably the best I've seen them - very high energy performance and they seemed to really be enjoying playing together again, especially on the new songs. And, we chose our seats wisely, picking the last row so that we would be able to stand up and dance for most of the show without any complaints from people behind us. ;) I can't wait for another show either, and am hoping the new album brings a tour with more venues closer to the Philly area.
ReplyDeleteChristine Brearey
Philadelphia, PA
I hope you're right! Based on the rude noises and grumblings around me, and I did hear the sounds of "Ra-ooooool!" from the back of the room, this sounded different and I figured it was continued rudeness from subscription holders. I will say that by the end of the night it looked as if everyone had been won over by the musicianship. What I missed from old Mavs shows was the mass dancing in the aisles, so I'm glad you were able to do that in the last row. And then many more got up in front for the final number. It was a great show!
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ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention the age range of the concert goers... Last year I was at the same venue to see my friend Eddie play (formerly with Dwight Yoakam, now back with the Mavericks)when he was with Dwight, and my friends and I were taken aback by the number of wheelchairs and walkers. We figured just what you did, that they must have been season ticket holders and they attend any function held there, whether they are a fan or not... I saw The Mavericks play in Alexandria just two days before their Lancaster event, and I jokingly reminded Eddie about how quiet the crowd was... They were probably not overly surprised about that! We laughed about it before it even happened... lol Glad that there were some serious Mavs fans there to help break up the silence. Wish I could have attended that one too, but I was unable to... Can't wait for them to return to this area!
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