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Madison, Wisconsin
October 10, 1996
submitted by Brenda Popp
Attending the first concert of Harry's tour was really an
experience. We enthusiastically found our seventh-row seats, since things
were scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm. We patiently waited twenty minutes for
Harry to appear on stage wearing a black one-pocket tee, black leather
pants, and black leather boots. The first number they jammed, with Harry
introducing all the funk band members. It at first appeared that Harry was
cranky, and we were really disappointed. He kept on motioning and mouthing
something to someone backstage. As it turned out, the sound on his electric
keyboard was turned off and eventually Harry left the stage to take care of
the sound problem himself. When he came back with full sound from his
keyboard, our Harry was back to normal. Next when they played "Reason To
Believe" everyone in the audience was sitting down. My friends and I were
dancing in our seats, but everyone else was sitting back with their arms
folded. Before the next song, "Hear Me In The Harmony", Harry let us know
that we were allowed to stand up and dance during the concert, which
everyone did. My friends and I left our seats briefly to get closer to
Harry, we were standing in the aisle at about the second row vicinity. The
only other song they performed from Star Turtle was "Eye Of The Seeker"
which was very different from the CD version. Harry was jamming on the
guitar and it was more like hard rock than jazz. It was incredible! Harry
explained that with the new album Star Turtle, his style wasn't changing
(and he's not satanic), because funk is a type of music he's been playing
for awhile. I had seen him at his free concert in Chicago on July 6th, and
was excited there was greater variety of musical styles in this concert.
Harry also interluded with a couple comedy routines. The first one he talked
about going to Australia where he was introduced to an instrument he called
"a long stick hollowed out" and told us about his new laugh "sss, sss, sss,
sss, sss, sss". In his second comedy routine, he talked about being a football
fan and how he liked watching the Packers and that the Saints sucked. This
went over terrifically with the crowd! He went on and on about Brett Favre,
his powerful throwing arm, and how they were both the same, Southern white
trash. He also mentioned that if he could be one thing for a day, he'd be a
professional football player, a tight end. He even acted out how it would
be to receive a pass from Brett. They played a Dr. John song, did a
beautiful rendition of "America The Beautiful", redid a well-known love
ballad, and performed "(I Could Only) Whisper Her Name" from She. Harry
also soloed on the piano and ended up doing one of his famous feet stomping
and leg clapping routines. One of the highlights was when Harry was playing
the bass and he went into the audience, up the other aisle and down our
aisle to stop a row ahead of ours to jam. We were a few seats down from the
aisle, but it was still great to see him so close, really getting into his
music. When he first said goodbye, he left us cheering, clapping, and
chanting "Harry" for five minutes until he came back for his encore, a
popular 70's song of which I was unfortunately not familiar with. I enjoyed
all two hours and twenty minutes of the concert, with the only problem being
it was so loud that my ears didn't stop ringing until 36 hours later. But it
worth it, being able to see Harry up close and personal.
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