Fan reviews 2006-06-15 Vienna
General comments from pophead2k - We arrived early enough to hear the soundcheck and listened as EC and AT worked out the horn arrangments for Clubland and That Day is Done. Truly amazing- I probably heard 3 full and 3 partial renditions of TDID, with the horns adding more and more each time and Elvis in full vocal mode. The subtleties they labored over for Clubland (especially during the bridge) made me appreciate the whole swinging version later.
- Excellent, full attendance. Even at 2 1/2 hours plus, a great majority of folk were there until the bitter end. The sound was horrendous on the opener but dynamite by the middle of Monkey to Man and superb from there on out.
-After That Day is Done, EC's speaking voice was a little raspy to my ears, but his singing was the best I've heard.
- The backing vocals from Davey (and sometimes Allen) just made the whole thing great. Songs like 'Tears Before Bedtime' (which sounded just like the recording, with EC taking the low part on the chorus and Davey the falsetto) would not have been nearly as good without this newly added element to EC's live show.
- The horns, the horns, the horns, the horns. There on every song save the opener, with charts mostly by AT (with a few by EC), I felt these enhanced every single song, especially Dust, That Day is Done, Watching the Detectives and Clubland. The chart for Alison (by EC) got a little muzaky, but still gave an old warhorse new legs. And that was the thing- usually WTD is my bathroom break, but this time it was just thrilling. The charts for Clubland and WTD retained elements of the 'My Flame Burns Blue' versions, but instead of getting swirly and unrecognizable, they just added to the 'oomph' of the original arrangements. Lots of solos on WTD by the horn players and SN.
- Steve, Steve, Steve. Sounded and looked terrific. Davey looks to have lost some serious weight! And Pete looked like he was loving every minute of it- singing along and just bashing on the new stuff.
- The crowd gave lots of love to AT and the horns and AB, and they all deserved it. EC didn't have as much to say about the administration as I thought he would, give the proximity to the White House. There was a reference to 'numbskulls' and 'jackasses' at one point which got wildly enthusiastic response. He also appeared to have a GWB action figure, which he claimed had a 'life-size' brain.
- Elvis is clearly having a ball doing this tour. He's like a kid up there, and he's singing and playing his ass off. Dust was just unbelievable with the horns, as was Bedlam, showing how these two late - period album tracks sit beautifully with some of the classics. He clearly loved conducting the horn section, as he did several times, and finally being a swinging band leader on his own terms, sans tuxedo.
