The Moody Blues Transcend Years – Concert Review
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When I went to go see the Moody Blues for the first time this past Friday, I quickly learned two important things about the band. One, as the dearth of parking at the NYCB Theater at Westbury – a theater that one does not often have difficulty finding parking at – suggested, the Moody Blues are pretty popular. Perhaps this speaks to the shows I usually see at the former tent in Westbury, but I have never seen the house more crowded than it was on Friday. Second, and most importantly, the Moody Blues effortleslly demonstrates the adage that you’re only as old as you feel; the band is lithe and youthful featuring potent instrumentation and billowy vocals. A product of additional band members? Sure, that does not hurt; however, Graeme Edge, John Lodge, Justin Hayward are just as ardent and inspired by music as I assume they were in 1967 when the uber-successful, gold record Days of Future Passed was released. And isn’t that just amazing? The band, which is celebrating its 51st anniversary this year, is still running on high and does not show any signs of stopping.
So, as stated in the last paragraph, my father and I stepped into a jam-packed theater with a mixed crowd of mostly older women and men, who, when the Moody Blues walked down onto the revolving stage, all erupted and transformed into their younger selves. Sometimes when you see a classic band – and trust me I’ve seen a whole lot – the crowd of older individuals who grew up with the band, well, kind-of reflect their age. Terrible for me to say, but true. On the contrary in this show, the crowd reflected the Moody Blues, who played each song with intensity and soaked up the applause like a sponge, growing in size until almost spilling out with joy on songs like “Question,” “Nights in White Satin” and “Ride My See-Saw,” which the band concluded the night with. This was almost magical, a weird ethereal ambiance that lasted for the entire show and then faded as people left – if only for one brief concert, people were able to transform into their youthful selves and party with the Moody Blues – dancing with the tunes, yelling laudations at the band, and, in general, having fun, which the Moody Blues was doing as well!
The Moody Blues are a forerunner of the classical music blend of progressive rock, a style in-part pioneered by the Blues, mixed with contemporaries like The Beatles, Procol Harum, and The Beach Boys (not too shabby). The airy, spacey sounds of “Nights in White Satin,” which blends orchestral sounds (part Mellotron, part London Festival Orchestra) with rock – and a wonderful poem (“Late Lament”), which was penned by Edge and read by keyboardist Mike Pinder, inspired so many progressive rock bands – Pink Floyd and King Crimson to name two. The band’s seminal 1967 album is always cited as one of the most influential albums of the 60s. The Moody Blues’ musical success ranges throughout the 70s and the 80s, where the band released “Your Wildest Dreams” in 1986 and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” in 1988. It is pretty impressive that the Moody Blues had hits in three decades, as not many bands can say that it had this success.
All in all, the concert was a lot of fun and it was a joy experiencing The Moody Blues’ transcendent music with a jam-packed theater of fans of great music !