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What a day! Oh, that's exactly how I started my last report on a trip to New Orleans to see Elliott in concert back in October. Actually, it was quite a week as I watched the weather forecast for Saturday deteriorate from a predicted high of 70 with a slight chance of showers to a predicted high of 55 with rain. For those of you who have never experienced 55 and rain in the South, I can assure you that most people I know would rather endure 30 and snow in the North. There's something about January rain that saps your energy and leaves you chilled and miserable. By Friday, I had decided that if Elliott was going to be in New Orleans on Saturday, then I would be there too. Fortunately, Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits were giving a concert immediately following Elliott's and both my friend Stella and I really liked their concert we attended a few years ago. By the time we left for New Orleans, the heavy rain had tapered off to a drizzle and finally to a mist as we arrived in New Orleans.
We arrived in New Orleans shortly after 11 AM and after a quick call to Jean, who was already in her spot at the railing near the front of the stage, we decided to walk around the mall for a while before having lunch. Fortunately, Family Gras was being held in a grassy area, now covered with black tarp that quished with each footstep placed upon it, directly across from the mall. We found Jean and Grover, her husband, shortly before 1 PM and within a short time met up with two other fans (LovingEphraim and kindviet, whose first names I either never got or don't remember--I'll correct that later) and a friend (Mallory) of one of them.
My friend Stella agreed to take the still shots while I bumbled around trying to capture video. The crowd was relatively small at this time so we were able to secure a good spot in the center and far enough from the stage to get a good view without directly blocking anyone. I tried desperately to get Elliott's attention as he was hanging out on the stage while the instruments were being set up, but I never succeeded. I have a video of the opening on the home page of this site and I will just leave it there for the time being. I'm not a great photographer, but I have a good camera which can zoom in fairly close. In retrospect, I should have settled for less zoom as Elliott moves a lot and when I was zoomed in closely I kept losing Elliott!! I would have to lessen the zoom to find him again. That's why the video contains so many shots of the fluttering curtain with that irritating rippling pattern.
Elliott's set was similar, if not the same, as the set during his Fall concert tour. He opened with Alright, which was fantastic; he followed with Find a Way, which was fantastic. I think there was a bit of a mixup for the 3rd song as Elliott appeared ready to sing "Free" and then went over to the side and said "Let's go with that." and began singing I'm in Love with You Forever. When he introduced the next song, he explained that it was the song he had told us about before the previous song. He then sang Free, which was.....oh nevermind. LOL Then came Sharing the Night Together and Train Wreck.
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Elliott introduced One Word as his current single and got a nice response from the crowd with his signature gestures during this song. He followed immediately with Wait for You which, naturally, got the biggest response of the afternoon. Quite a few people standing near me were singing along. He turned it over to the audience three times and seemed to be having a ball doing it. It is so obvious that he loves what he doing. I was fumbling with my camera when he introduced Little Ghetto Boy, so I missed what he said about it, but I believe he mentioned Donny Hathaway.
Elliott closed his set with Movin' On and then exited the stage. I would guess that probably close to half of the people there were either not familar with Elliott or were only vaguely familiar with him before this concert. I quickly went over to where Jean and the others were standing and we tried to rouse up enough response for an encore but realized rather quickly that it wasn't going to happen.
Jean and the others stayed where they were in case they would be able to see Elliott as he was departing the venue and boarding a nearby bus (which they thought might be his means of transportation), but I was satisfied that I had already met Elliott on two different occaisions. Besides, there was a Starbucks across the street. HA! While they waited and eventually got to talk to Sway and, I think but I'm not sure, Joonie, Stella and I went for a cup of coffee and got back in time to enjoy most of the Hermits' set.
The crowd had been steadily growing throughout the afternoon, but was probably still far below what if would have been in nicer weather. Peter Noone is a great entertainer and it certainly helped that so many of his songs were familiar to a lot of the folks there. I have a video which I might add at some later time. I still had some room left on my memory card when he got to the biggest crowd pleasers (Henry the 8th and Mrs. Brown You've got a Lovely Daughter) but by that time I was too tired and too cold to be motivated to capture either of them.
The weather was less than great, but the day was great and Elliott was, er, FANTASTIC. |
