A Moody-ful Day

Five times now I have seen the Moody Blues. Five. And they are better every time.

For spring break we took a little ride to Asheville to the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium to enjoy a Moody Blues evening. The weather was horrible -- fog, rain, cool. I had to pull off the road once just to breathe into a paper bag to calm down. But, it was worth it.

The Thomas Wolfe Auditorium is an intimate venue and we enjoy going there. We saw Lorena McKinnett there two years ago and loved the entire experience. Fabulous. The Moody's were no less pleasurable.

In the past I have seen them with orchestras, but this performance was just the band. The light show, sound, and performance were all topnotch. My goodness, Grahame reciting the intoduction to "Nights In White Satin" while a mirror ball filled the auditorium with "pinprick holes in a colourless sky" was magnificant! Starting the programme with a "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" and ending with "Ride My See-Saw" showed that being "dinosaurs" is not a bad thing. Grahame even managed a wonderful Irish jig in the interlude of "Higher and Higher." Justin was in very fine voice as demonstrated in "Driftwood" and, of course, "Nights in White Satin." Whilst Norah Mulligan is a fabulous flautist, Ray was missed terribly.

Probably the saddest comment of the night was when we pulled into the parking lot and I commented to Don: "Look at all the gray heads! Man, there are some old folks here." And then I realized, we're old, too. Sigh. While Miss Matty can still dance most of the night, many folks sat with their eyes closed, perhaps remembering those wonderful nights of "our youth." The one thing that surprised me was the amount of wine and beer served. We are tee-totalers, so our strongest beverage is the house wine of the South -- sweet tea. Not surprisingly, as the night wore on, more folks were willing to shake their groove thing.

Probably the funniest comment of the evening was when Grahamm held up his two fingers and remarked rather waggishly: "This used to mean 'peace.' Now it means Viagra! Either way, it is 'sex, drinks, and rock-and-roll!'" Yeah.

Although spring break started out being grown-up and responsible, folks, it is somehow heartening to know that I can still rock-and-roll all night long. Yeah. Just don't ask how I felt the next morning..... Pass the aspirin, won't you?