A weird Elvis experience. The festival he played at was free, the
weather
absolutely perfect. Sounds from the stage next door bled over a bit but
not
too troublesome. Free candy bars, bungee jumping going on in the
background. It was two-year old Ian Declan's first Elvis show! Elvis
came
on right around Ian's bedtime at about 7:50pm so we weren't sure what
to
expect from him. Ian was a champ and sat enjoying the park for an hour
-up
until Elvis came on. Then, he wanted to run of course. We weren't
anywhere
near the stage but they did have a big screen up that we could watch
from
when not running after aforementioned two-year old. Elvis looked dapper
as
always in a dark suit and bright pink shirt (unbuttoned on top). His
voice
didn't sound bad but there was a point where he was struggling to hit a
high note during "You Really Got a Hold on Me". Typical festival
setlist
but still fun. I was just happy to be seeing/hearing Elvis again
. At
one point, Elvis was trying to shoot something from a spray bottle into
his
throat but threw it aside in disgust when it appeared that he wasn't
getting anything out of it. It was nice to hear the entire "You Really
Got
a Hold on Me." There was also a bit of something else in (I think) Pump
It
Up and he did a longer version of "I Feel Pretty" on guitar than he
used
to. These aren't anything new since I recall reading about these things
during other shows but still new to me. There was a big marquee above
the
stage that was listing the songs but quite often it was wrong. We did
get
an encore of "I Want You". At a weird moment during one of the quieter
moments of his set, one of the bungee jumpers decided to back out so
the
crowd erupted with a loud 'cheer' of disgust which seemed a bit
distracting. Ian did get to hear one of his favorite songs, Monkey To
Man, which was fun. I guess he could have handled going with me to the
Chicago show afterall instead of sleeping at my parents
.I have to wonder a bit why Elvis would do this show. It was pleasant
enough
being there but you're still playing a bunch of old hits mainly to a
drunk,
stoned, and otherwise distracted crowd. I have to say that it was an
enjoyable show but it helped that, despite estimates of 350,000 people
expected, the trip there and back was a breeze and we found great
parking.
Joyce
