The show opened with the Ned Goold Trio. They were very talented and musically proficient, but it was clear that everyone was there for Harry. After a 30 minute break to prepare the set, the lights dimmed and Harry walked out. He kicked off the show with "Charade" from the new album. It was quite amazing, and the big band was ON. Right after "Charade," Harry said, "Here's a song I wrote a few years ago, I hope you enjoy it." With that, the band broke into "We Are In Love."

The physical set was very impressive. It was a large, sprawling set that looked almost aquatic. Each musician had his own little "pod" to sit in, and each musician had his own computer monitor in front of him. Harry later explained that he writes all of his music on a computer, and this way there's no sheet music to mess with.

Harry was, of course, his own chatty self. He laughed a lot, and did a lot of storytelling and joking around. The sold-out crowd ate it up. Harry and the band played for approximately 2 hours, and Leroy Jones and Lucien Barbarin stole the show. Here's the set list:

1. Charade
2. We Are in Love
3. A Moment With Me
4. Nowhere With Love
5. Time After Time
6. Love For Sale
7. [Instrumental that I wasn't familiar with]
8. It Had to Be You
9. Change Partners (excellent duet with just Harry and the bass player)
10. Piano solo [didn't know the title...amazing]
11. To See You
12. Easy To Love
13. Cry Me A River
14. Cocktails For Two [brand new arrangement, according to Harry]
15. [another song I wasn't familiar with...had a lyric: "If you ever come to New Orleans"]
16. Come By Me

    ENCORE

17. Danny Boy
18. Next Door Blues

The Bad: From time to time it became obvious that this was the first show of the tour. The band sounded great, but Harry joked repeatedly about not remembering lyrics, and how they were still working the bugs out. For example, there are a couple of points in the show where the band is supposed to stand. Harry had to wave them up both times... and even then, there were usually a couple of guys who didn't seem to notice for a few seconds. Also, Harry didn't introduce any of the band members unless they soloed. Being a trumpet fanatic, I would've liked to have known who was sitting in the trumpet section besides Leroy Jones. (I recognized Dan Miller from his Maynard Ferguson days and his previous Harry work).

The Good: Everything else. The sound system was great...it really let you hear the screaming trumpets and the growling bones. The talent was TOP RATE. These are the cream of the crop in the jazz world, folks. You just don't get section people like this every day. And of course, Harry is the complete entertainer. Funny and suave, he keeps your attention throughout the entire show.

June 10th finally came, and I drove the three hours back to school, battling a huge storm the whole way. That didn't phase me, I knew Harry's show would be well worth it. My girlfriend and I arrived at the auditorium right at 7:30 PM to see the Ned Goold trio open for Harry. Ned is an amazing saxophonist and he showed us his many talents for about 45 minutes. When they were finished the excitement to hear Harry was at its peak. After five minutes, the stage was cleared, the lights dimmed and out came Harry.

Harry and his 16-piece band opened up with "Charade" and showed no signs of the first night jitters. Their notes were crisp and tight, as Harry would occasionally direct while he was signing. Then went into "We are in Love" and "Nowhere with Love". They were blowing us away with their powerful notes and tunes. Harry then sat down at his piano and began playing songs and calling various band members for solos. "Time after Time", "Love for Sale", and "It had to be You" were just a few of the great songs that ensued. Harry even admitted that it was the first time in over a year they had played "Love for Sale" and he couldn't remember the first verse to "It had to be You"!

The whole time Harry would break off into conversation with the audience, speaking about how first shows go, his tour bus, and the coolest thing; his band's set. He went on to tell the audience that he was tired of having to deal with the band members having to turn pages while they were playing, so he invested in some new technology where each band member have their own computer monitor in front of them that shows them their music. That to me is truly amazing; isn't technology wonderful?

Harry then closed his show by playing two unreleased big band songs that were really good, along with "Change Partners" with just him and the bass player, "Cry me a River", and several others. Some songs and solos brought people to their feet, they were that amazing. Harry left the stage to a deafening applause and came back for and encore of "Danny Boy" and "Next Door Blues". Simply amazing!

The best part, however, was after the show. My girlfriend and I noticed a line of people waiting for autographs, so we thought we would see how lucky we could get. We waited in line for about 20 minutes, the whole time noticing the lighting in the distance. As soon as Harry came out, the sky opened. We were only about 25 people deep into the line, so we waited through the heavy rain where Harry was kind enough to stand out in the rain with us and sign every autograph. What a nice guy! I left that evening thoroughly entertained and impressed with the man. Like I said before, ISU loves you Harry! Come back any time!

Since this was my first Harry concert (not my last, I'll tell you that), I was unaware of how nice he is to his fans! I, too, saw the line, and my husband was kind enough to tolerate my 20 minutes of waiting for Harry. He even brought me my umbrella when it started to rain (Thanks, Robert!). I met Harry, all too briefly, but I did meet him. He was very polite and ever so gorgeous! He was flanked by several people with umbrellas so he could sign out in the rain. Talk about being devoted to your fans!

I enjoyed the concert fully, and my husband (who was tired and not wanting to go) was bouncing around during the concert and said that he wanted to get more of his CDs! You won us over Harry! Thanks for an awesome show!