Leonard started off by saying '...friends this is the last concert in europe,I don't think we'll be back' ....adding after a pause 'for a while'. He also repeated the line about knowing where the hook for his 'boxing gloves' is. A new line for me was ,after the familiar lines about 'high and low places '.......infact its such a hassel to leave your house what with parking and walking and the general hassels and abrasive qualities of human life that I deeply thank you for just getting here at all'! Perhaps this sounds like a man who is looking forward to spending some time at home
Anyway we all knew the possibility that this might be the last ever European concert and this added a little intensity and poignancy to the experience.
A Great show followed and I particularly loved hey there no way to say goodbye in the first half with 2 very beautiful violin breaks. Javier's intro to who by fire seemed,incredibly,greater than ever
It was of course great too that the first half ended with anthem.
The forum had secret plans for this show involving interval singing of 'the guests'. A lack of confidence in the rendition led to a spontaneous change to 'passing through',but alas security made us stop before Leonard came back on stage . Still the second half began with an appreciated rendition of happy birthday , and at times in the second half red roses were thrown on stage and also a toy monkey just at the right time in first we take Manhattan.The 'happy birthday' version of Tower of song deserves to become a 'classic'.
The final European songs were .........I tried to leave you , then i've got a little secret ,finally save the last dance.The entire crew joined Leonard and the band on stage at this point .
A great European swan song, though personally I feel sure it is Leonard's destiny to perform on stage well into his 80s,perhaps staying away from the huge arenas and returning to large ,and some smaller , concert halls.
It looks like this will be a well documented show judging by the good video already uploaded -i will add to that in a superfluous way in time.
I have a very good quality audio of the whole show which i will put on drop box in a few days . The audio is straightforwardly good until halfway through take this waltz at which point,for reasons forum concert goers will appreciate, it becomes more 'atmospheric'...but it was the atmosphere at this show that made it perhaps just that bit more special.I listened to it all again this morning while walking through the very busy city of Amsterdam,and it certainly helped me cope with any 'abrasiveness' to be experienced in a crowded city.
Thanks too for the pre and post show meet ups, and the splendid t shirts saying 'Closing Time...NoNon'.The obvious message was reinforced during the song as every time Leonard sang 'closing time' we sang 'no no no'.This was noticed by those on stage.
PM me in a few days
if you want the audio download link. More than happy to supply it,and downloading the whole show is easy .
David