submitted by Jeff Jewell
Everything I've ever heard or read about Philadelphia's South Street uses
the word funky at least once, so this made the perfect venue for Harry's
Star Turtle concert. The Theatre of Living Arts sits on a street lined
with body piercing and tattoo studios as well as dozens of great
restaurants and clothing stores. The TLA (as it's commonly called) was
packed with a general admission crowd of no more than 1000 people, all
standing because there aren't any seats. As Harry pointed out during the
concert, the place is dripping with Funk. He said that if the three
tenors had been there they'd be doing funk because that's all you could
do in a place like that.
The three hour concert was incredible, filled with most of the stuff from
Star Turtle and then a bunch of other New Orleans stuff. The whole show
seemed to be played almost from the hip, with obvious surprises to even
the band members. At one point Harry was bragging about Raymond's (the
drummer) great knowledge of R&B music and dared anyone in the audience to
name an R&B tune that he didn't know. This led to a couple of great
numbers and some good laughs when Raymond forgot the words to the third
verse of a song and Harry nearly feel off his stool laughing.
Harry's sense of humor was obviously in full swing as he joked about
everything from the effects of the beans he and the band had for dinner
to Michael Bolton's hair. The place really rocked and since nobody was
sitting down there was a lot of dancing going on. During the encore
Harry (playing bass) and the other two guitarists came out and walked
through the crowd playing and jamming.
For my wife and I, both huge Harry Connick Jr. fans, it was a great
experience. It was our first time to see Harry in concert and it
couldn't have been a better show. Harry is an incredible musician and a
born entertainer. He really puts on a great show.
