Concert review: Tony Orlando
Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 9:36 pm
Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Wilkes-Barre, PA
You're thinking what I was thinking as we took our seats in the Grand Ballroom: this is going to be like watching an episode of Lawrence Welk. Tony will come out and sing his squeaky-clean songs and everyone will song along. His band will be a bunch of dweeb musicians who should be playing weddings and bar mitzvahs between gigs.
Well, we were all dead wrong.
We went to this as part of our 25th wedding anniversary celebration (last month) because TO is one of my wife's faves and we rarely get away by ourselves (remember: happy wife = happy life). The concert was at 8 and we got there at 7 to check the place out. We don't gamble and we chose not to drink beforehand (party animals, I know) so we watched as the crowd gathered in front of the Grand Ballroom doors. Early observation: at 54 and 52, we were way below the average age of this crowd. Most were retired. Many had canes and several arrived in wheelchairs. Hey, that's cool. Tony has been around and has a vast, "experienced" crowd base. There was a "meet and greet" for a select few (not us) just before the concert. They all went into a back room for pictures and autographs. Lucky folks!
The show started just after 8 and 70-year old Tony took the stage. He's has gone mostly gray but still has most of his hair. Sure enough, he starts out with Tie a Yellow Ribbon and the crowd claps and cheers. Tony is a veteran performer and really knows how to work the crowd. Next came Candida and Knock Three Times. Hold me back!
As expected, these were safe, mid-volume songs to which everyone sang and clapped. His voice is still strong (surprisingly) and he rolled into another old fave, He Don't Love You (Like I Love You) and Sweet Gypsy Rose. I love the 70's.
I'm not a huge TO fan, but I was a serious radio listener in the early to mid-70s so I knew every word to every song he sang up until then.
The Lawrence Welk crowd was happy, too.
After this, he let his band pretty much take over the concert. This was no wedding band, to be sure. One of the keyboard players and sole female back up was none other than Toni Wine, a "Brill Building" singer/songwriter who wrote Candida, A Groovy Kind of Love and Sugar, Sugar. She did a few of her songs and could still bring it at the ripe old age of 66. Nice, but not a show stopper.
His next set was a bunch of songs he did on broadway, like Stand By Me and Spanish Harlem. Crowd-pleasers all.
The keyboard player prided himself on being able to mimic any singer and, sure enough, went through an impressive set of songs by James Taylor and even Cher. He was quite talented. The guitarist did a mean Neil Young during Heart of Gold.
Then something weird happened. While the band played some background music, Tony engaged with an audience member and said "No, we can't play Whole Lotta Love. We're not Led Zeppelin. I'm Tony Orlando, you know. Tie a Yellow Ribbon and all that fun stuff." Seemingly as a joke, the lead guitarist played the intro the to Whole Lotta Love and the keyboard player did a near-perfect Robert Plant version of the intro verse:
You need coolin', baby, I'm not foolin',
I'm gonna send you back to schoolin',
Way down inside honey, you need it,
I'm gonna give you my love,
I'm gonna give you my love
I figured they would stop, but here come the drums and bass and the sound went from 5 to 11. The place was just rockin'! They did nearly the entire song while Tony kept saying "We don't do this," to the audience. Then they launched into Purple Rain and he brought down the guitarist to center stage and dude just shredded a guitar solo. The crowd was stunned. I thought the blue hairs were going to have a heart attack. This was awesome!
The volume stayed up as they did a Beatles set, including Can't Buy Me Love, Something and a cranked version of Ob La Di Ob La Da. I'm looking around and some of the folks were really confused. Several walked out.
He saluted veterans with a spirited version of Neil Diamond's America and it was easy to tell his voice was starting to go. That would explain why he let's his band take over for so much of it. Smart move.
He ended with short medley of songs then called it quits.
My overall thoughts: Way to go, Tony! Way to rock the senior crowd! Way to rock us! My wife thought it was too loud, but not me. He was great. See him if you get a chance and bring your cane!
You're thinking what I was thinking as we took our seats in the Grand Ballroom: this is going to be like watching an episode of Lawrence Welk. Tony will come out and sing his squeaky-clean songs and everyone will song along. His band will be a bunch of dweeb musicians who should be playing weddings and bar mitzvahs between gigs.
Well, we were all dead wrong.
We went to this as part of our 25th wedding anniversary celebration (last month) because TO is one of my wife's faves and we rarely get away by ourselves (remember: happy wife = happy life). The concert was at 8 and we got there at 7 to check the place out. We don't gamble and we chose not to drink beforehand (party animals, I know) so we watched as the crowd gathered in front of the Grand Ballroom doors. Early observation: at 54 and 52, we were way below the average age of this crowd. Most were retired. Many had canes and several arrived in wheelchairs. Hey, that's cool. Tony has been around and has a vast, "experienced" crowd base. There was a "meet and greet" for a select few (not us) just before the concert. They all went into a back room for pictures and autographs. Lucky folks!
The show started just after 8 and 70-year old Tony took the stage. He's has gone mostly gray but still has most of his hair. Sure enough, he starts out with Tie a Yellow Ribbon and the crowd claps and cheers. Tony is a veteran performer and really knows how to work the crowd. Next came Candida and Knock Three Times. Hold me back!
As expected, these were safe, mid-volume songs to which everyone sang and clapped. His voice is still strong (surprisingly) and he rolled into another old fave, He Don't Love You (Like I Love You) and Sweet Gypsy Rose. I love the 70's.
I'm not a huge TO fan, but I was a serious radio listener in the early to mid-70s so I knew every word to every song he sang up until then.
The Lawrence Welk crowd was happy, too.
After this, he let his band pretty much take over the concert. This was no wedding band, to be sure. One of the keyboard players and sole female back up was none other than Toni Wine, a "Brill Building" singer/songwriter who wrote Candida, A Groovy Kind of Love and Sugar, Sugar. She did a few of her songs and could still bring it at the ripe old age of 66. Nice, but not a show stopper.
His next set was a bunch of songs he did on broadway, like Stand By Me and Spanish Harlem. Crowd-pleasers all.
The keyboard player prided himself on being able to mimic any singer and, sure enough, went through an impressive set of songs by James Taylor and even Cher. He was quite talented. The guitarist did a mean Neil Young during Heart of Gold.
Then something weird happened. While the band played some background music, Tony engaged with an audience member and said "No, we can't play Whole Lotta Love. We're not Led Zeppelin. I'm Tony Orlando, you know. Tie a Yellow Ribbon and all that fun stuff." Seemingly as a joke, the lead guitarist played the intro the to Whole Lotta Love and the keyboard player did a near-perfect Robert Plant version of the intro verse:
You need coolin', baby, I'm not foolin',
I'm gonna send you back to schoolin',
Way down inside honey, you need it,
I'm gonna give you my love,
I'm gonna give you my love
I figured they would stop, but here come the drums and bass and the sound went from 5 to 11. The place was just rockin'! They did nearly the entire song while Tony kept saying "We don't do this," to the audience. Then they launched into Purple Rain and he brought down the guitarist to center stage and dude just shredded a guitar solo. The crowd was stunned. I thought the blue hairs were going to have a heart attack. This was awesome!
The volume stayed up as they did a Beatles set, including Can't Buy Me Love, Something and a cranked version of Ob La Di Ob La Da. I'm looking around and some of the folks were really confused. Several walked out.
He saluted veterans with a spirited version of Neil Diamond's America and it was easy to tell his voice was starting to go. That would explain why he let's his band take over for so much of it. Smart move.
He ended with short medley of songs then called it quits.
My overall thoughts: Way to go, Tony! Way to rock the senior crowd! Way to rock us! My wife thought it was too loud, but not me. He was great. See him if you get a chance and bring your cane!
