Rock a Little Tour

[DashingDan]

There's been so much terrific video from the RAL tour made available lately (big thank you to the content providers, so kind of you to share) that I can't let it go by without commenting on the tour itself.

Having seen 3 RAL shows personally, it's been wonderful to have these documents available. Both sets of videos (Iowa and Jones) are a much better representation of the tour than Red Rocks Video.

As I relive my RAL shows (Hartford, Worcester night 1, and Mansfield) through these videos I can't help but STILL think that the RAL tour was a real turning point for her as a singer and performer. The power and control of her instrument is at times is absolutely thrilling and at times cringe-inducing and the riffing and variations on melody are at times truly inspired and at times annoying...yet, we've only seen glimpses of both extremes since then.

Some thoughts:
For those of you who were not fans back then for whatever reason, please know that there wasn't the ever-present use of video during concerts as there is now. You saw what you saw and that was it. No screens flanking the stage to help the folks in the 'cheap seats'. Watching these far-shot RAL videos is fun because that's how I remember the shows and remember her, as a shape or form. It's that shape created by the super blond, super long, super shagged out hair and the drapes of cloth that continued the shape that started with the hair that bring the visceral memories back for me. I know that may sound weird, but to a visual thinker, like me, it's how I remember things.

Bobbye Hall and Ms. Wright, how I miss you. Jennifer Condos and Bobby Martin, how I do not (just never got into them). I used to think her RAL band was her best band, but I don't think that any more. They could be too much, and too sloppy, at times. She's had one or two better band line-ups in my opinion.

She did move around more back then, didn't she?

People around me, at all three shows, commented on her weight, even back then (EVEN from 40 rows back). People around me, at all three shows, commented on her voice not being as good as it was 5 years before, even back then...some things never change.

I like the Iowa "Has Anyone ever written..." version. It's how I like that song sung best (it plods a bit less in my opinion) and it's how I remember she sung it at the Hartford show. Even by Mansfield it had changed to it's more current, or recognizable, phrasing.

Sorry if I bored you with this, folks. It's been a pleasure watching these vids. Thank you again.