A few words about the venue: on the site of Bethlehem Steel's Bethlehem Works, out of the steel-making business since the 1980s, various redevelopment projects have begun to transform a rusty industrial graveyard into a destination, with a Sands Casino and hotel, restaurants, and now the great musical spaces of Steelstacks. The Musikfest Cafe faces the old blast furnaces with a wall of windows, and as the sun drops below the horizon, blue accent lights begin to outline the old steelmaking structures. No seat is further than 60 feet from the stage. Here's hoping the Mavericks will return soon (and fine-tune the sound a little bit, I have to say).
Here's a shot of the band on stage and an idea of the venue:
In passing, I'll share a little bit of the advance publicity that appeared in the Allentown paper with an interview featuring Paul Deakin:
http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/music/mc-mavericks-musikfest-cafe-bethlehem-20130404,0,7300772.story?page=1
The show rocked! There, how's that for a review? What, more details? OK.
Two and a half hours of the old Mavericks energy, with new songs, old songs, the typical Raul acoustic solo break in the middle of the show, an encore with more new and more old and some innovations on old covers. No Spanish song, at least not that I recall. Jerry Dale dancing... Everyone but Paul and the trumpet and sax man singing on certain songs. Eddie sings pretty good harmony in addition to his blazing guitar work. Hearing him sing what was once Trisha Yearwood's duet part on "Something Stupid" was kind of a mind-bender :)
Having seen the band last August when they were first starting to tour together, I can say that they are tighter than ever, and having fun with it. Oh yeah. The UK fans are in for a treat come May.
Here's my attempt at recreating a setlist from memory, a dangerous thing, but I think I have everything listed, if not necessarily in the correct order. In the acoustic break, it was a special thing to hear Raul do great justice to Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams".
Setlist, rough
Back In Your Arms Again (Tried to insert a little bit of a video clip here without success but find it here on Youtube: http://youtu.be/ytQVed-tndA )
Lies
Born To Be Blue
All Over Again
Amsterdam Moon
That's Not My Name
Fall Apart
Every Little Thing About You
Pretend
Dance The Night Away
Oh What A Crying Shame
Something Stupid
Oh What A Thrill
There Goes My Heart
I've Got This Feeling
I Said I Love You
Acoustic - Raul
Here Comes The Rain
Sweet Dreams
Encore
Dance In The Moonlight
As Long As There's Loving Tonight
Guantanamera, band intros, and smooth segue into a rollicking Twist And Shout
All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down
All That Heaven Will Allow
Come Unto Me
What a show. Everyone was up and dancing by the end and it just really channeled the old Mavs shows perfectly for me.
"Guantanamera"
