Dionne Warwick came to town this week for a rare concert appearance. I could not have been happier. Some of you may be saying at this point, "have I reached the wrong blog?" No you have not. My taste in music varies greatly. We had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Warwick for the first time about six years ago. Her concert appearance back then was at a venue in Galveston. The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston is a great place to see concerts since it's a very small theatre allowing for great views wherever you sit. Our tickets back then were included with a package deal that included several opera recitals and a Greater Tuna show. BTW, the Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston is THE place to see Greater Tuna shows. Anyway, six years ago we went to see Ms. Warwick not really expecting too much. Boy were we mistaken. This lady can work a crowd. So when we saw that she was playing a concert date last week in nearby Stafford Texas (I won't even go into all I could say about Stafford, only to say if you didn't see the sign saying you were leaving Houston you would not know you have crossed over into Stafford). The concert was on a Thursday night (work nights are not the greatest for going out) so we did not immediately buy tickets since we had looked online and seen that there were plenty of seats left about a week prior to the show (such a shame, those tickets should have been snapped up when they went on sale). We waited to see how tired we were on Thursday after work. As it turned out we were both feeling pretty good so we ate a quick dinner and drove the 30 minutes to the Stafford Centre and bought tickets right before show time.
What a fantastic night! The show actually started with a singing impersonator. At first I was saying to myself "oh God this is going to be cheesy". He actually turned out to very good, with his best impression being that of Frank Sinatra signing New York New York. What made it so good was he sang it as if the song were being played in a jukebox and the record kept skipping. I swear this guy sounded exactly like a skipping record. The whole cheesy aspect of the impersonator added to the already 60s feel to the evening. I was being transported back to 1960s Vegas via song.
Dionne came out after a brief intermission. She was accompanied by two keyboardists, a pianist, base player, drummer and a percussionist who played a variety of instruments from bongo drums to tambourines. Her set included songs from her heyday in the 60s, a few Brazilian numbers (she lives in Brazil) and a gospel tune. Everything was flawless. She sounded perfect, her voice taking the audience back to a simpler time when the world just needed Love, Sweet Love. My favorites included Walk On By, Do you Know The Way To San Jose, and I'll Never Love This Way Again. By the end of the concert we were fully involved in the moment, signing along as encouraged by her and tapping toes to the beat. This was one classy evening and a great escape from the work week. I would encourage anyone to leave your preconceived notions at home and go see her if you ever get a chance.
