Finally, more about the concert

We left Sunday morning on a four hour drive to Tulsa. Our pal Disco came along for the ride. We were very excited about the concert, but because it was outside we were a little worried about the predicted thunderstorms. We arrived at the park a little after 3:00 and were very happy to learn that the concert had been moved to an indoor venue. And not just any theatre, but the Brady theatre. It is said to be the last place that Enrico Caruso sang before he died. His ghost haunts the theatre to this day. It seems he "caught his death" during a carriage ride in Tulsa. I didn't notice him lurking about, but check out the piectures below. Maybe he snuck into one of them.

Here I am with LT waiting in line for the doors to open. We had a pretty good spot in line thanks to our early arrival. That was important due to the general admission seating.


Here's our view of the stage from our seats. The theatre only seats about 2,600 and it is very well designed. There really are no bad seats as far as I could tell. I had to use my cellphone cam for these pics. I didn't bring my good camera because I thought we were going to be outside in the rain.



Here's Ben Folds conducting the audience in a little three part harmony at the end of Not the Same. We also got to sing along on a tune by Dr. Dre (whose title I dare not mention here). This pic is from the Rufus Wainwright message board. Thanks to whoever got all hot and sweaty in the pit to take the photo.


And here's Rufus at the piano. It's also from the RW message board. I was absolutely amazed by Rufus. I think that he has to be one of the greatest musicians I have ever seen in performance. His phrasing, his timing, his songs...everything is incredible.


It's always great to see performers who are actually better in concert than on their recordings. These guys can't seem to write a bad song, which means they can't do all of their great songs on every concert. That means a few of the favorites have to be left out. Still, I'm sure no one was disappointed. If nothing else, everyone got to hear Ben and Rufus do a duet version of Careless Whisper. I hope that someone got it on tape. You won't believe how good it was until you hear it for yourself.

Ben Lee played a short (but wonderful) set to open the concert. I was only familiar with him through his collaboration with Ben Folds, but I'll be checking out some of his solo work now.

I was so pumped up after the concert that the drive home was no problem at all. We had about fifteen minutes of incredibly hard rain but after that things were mostly clear. We pulled in to Conway around 3:20 AM. I got a few hours sleep before getting up and going to work on the piece I've been writing, which, by the way, I finished today.

Blake