Wednesday, January 23, 2019

The Moody Wings - A concert review

Photo taken by Coral Schmidt 


On January 19, 2019 I saw Denny Laine with the "Moody Wings" in concert at the Wildly Theater in Edwardsville, Illinois.     This is a little theater that is very close to where I live.   Over the past few years more and more bands that I have been interested in have been performing there, so that is nice.


Denny Laine is now in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame for being one of the founding members of The Moody Blue, and so he starts off this show with quite a few of the Moody Blues songs that he sang with them.   He includes some of the songs the Moody Blues did in Paris in the 1960's as well as Laine's classic solo number "Go Now."    He finished the first set with a few Wings numbers including one of my favorites, Mull of Kintyre.     Mull is a sing-along song without a doubt.  Sadly, I don't think very many people in this audience knew the words to the song!    Denny kept trying to get people to sing along, but they can't sing if they don't know the song.  I tried to carry it all myself, but one Wings fan can only do so much...

After a short break, they came back and did the most amazing thing.   Denny and the rest of the band performed the ENTIRE Band on the Run album.    They did each song in order with Denny trading off the lead vocals with the other band members for every other song.    After playing the entire album, they weren't done yet.   A few more Wings songs were performed as well as an encore.   It was quite a concert!

I really loved hearing Band on the Run in its entirety.   That album just flows so well and I was able to hear songs that I thought I would NEVER hear live, such as Mamunia and Bluebird (well I actually heard Paul do Bluebird during the soundcheck in 2013, but still....).     But you know what I missed?   The female voice.    Wings will forever and always be in my mind the harmonies of Linda and Denny.   That is what made the Wings sound what it is.   Several of the men in the group sang the harmonies that Linda originally did, but it just didn't sound right.   It sounded good, but I think it would have been better to actually have a female sing those harmonies.   


But besides that one little complaint, I really can't think of anything else to say that is negative about this show.   It was really a lot of fun.   Denny Laine and the Moody Wings are touring all over the United States right now with many more dates.   If they come to your area, do yourself a favor and go check out this show!




4 comments:

  1. I was hoping to see a review. I live about two blocks from the Wildey, but didn't get to the concert. Saw Roger McGuinn there (twice), and Chris Hillman.

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  2. can't help it - Denny Laine will be the Moody Blues to me despite the time he was with Paul

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    1. know what you mean as go now is still fresh in my head

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  3. Denny Laine has passed away. He was a fantastic performer and will be missed.

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