Woodinville, WA
July 10, 1999
Review #1
submitted by Ivy Ng
Since the concert was held at the winery, it was an outdoors,
amphitheatre-ish event. With general admission tickets and the seating
arrangement generic, my father and I got there 2 1/2 hours early to get a
good seat on the lawn. However, over half of the people were already there,
and it took awhile to get a place to sit. I heard some stories of how
people came at two o'clock to sit as close as possible (the concert started
at 8:00).
As I said, this was an outdoors concert, and there were a few consequences
due to this: When the Ned Goold trio came out everyone was obviously
waiting for Harry, but were quite rude by talking over the music. They
played for half an hour or so, and when Harry finally came out the crowd
went crazy. He started off with "Charade".
I don't remember the order of the songs, but it was similar of those from
other concerts. It was quite a show. Girls kept screaming, "I love you
Harry!" and he would just wave and laugh. This woman on the third or fourth
row had a sign that read "I'm only a single woman for 21 days. Let's just
kiss!" Harry read the sign, and said, "what the hell", and the woman went
up to the stage and they kissed. Then Harry laughed and said, "your
fiance's gonna kick my ass!" He was the funniest. During "Cry Me a River"
this woman was leaving the her seat. Harry saw her and cried, "Baby, you
can't go now! I'm in the middle of a song here." and he went off the stage
and kissed her. He was cracking jokes about that later, saying, "that woman
stuck her tongue in my mouth" and things like that.
Later, he felt like playing a little Cole Porter so he had the band start
off "In the Still of the Night". the band must have not done it before,
because it took them several tries to get the introduction right, in which
after the second try Harry turned around and said, "We suck! We really,
really SUCK at this song!" Of course there were other wonderful moments...
Harry ended one song on the piano, and went straight to the beginning of
another song, but Ben Wolfe (the bassist) already put down the bass and
started walking off. Harry said, "What the hell are you doing? You think
that the concert was over?" He encored with a big-band arrangement of "MInd
over Matter", and it was great. While Leroy Jones (trumpet) did his solo
Harry and the trombone player (his name is Lucien Babarien?) were dancing on
the piano.
Unfortunately, since it was an outdoors event, a lot of people brought
cameras (although the Winery asked not to) and even when they annonced that
nothing should be recorded or photographed, people took pictures anyway. I
think this was the reason why no one got to get an autograph of Harry. I
waited for a while, and the band came out, then the Bassist and drummer, but
I didn't see Harry. By then this woman went to all the people waiting and
told them that they had to clear the area. If this was the reason why Harry
didn't give out autographs, I would like to say that it's unfair to the
people like me who did follow the rules and waited (for an autograph) but
didn't get one.
That was the only disappointment, however. I can say so much more about the
concert, but the only way for anyone to feel the way I felt about it is to
go grab some tickets and go to one yourself! You'll definetely get you
money's worth, and even more.
Review #2
submitted by Anonymous
This was my very first Harry concert and I can definitely say it wont be
my last! He is definitely one of the best performers I have ever seen!
The show was held at the local winery outdoor amphitheatre and which is a
lovely setting though it was very crowded. Harry started the show with
"Charade", I don't remember all the songs in order as I was just so
excited by the whole event though I can say he convered most of the
Come by Me album as well as "Hear me in the Harmony" from
Star
Turtle. Leroy Jones did an amazing rendition of "It's a Wonderful
World" -- I am now a fan for life. Harry was so entertaining and had a
lot of fun with the audience. There was a girl who was getting married
in 21 days and wanted a kiss and he gave her one. He also sat down next
to people in the front rows, and made jokes about one of the girls in
the audience sticking her tongue in his mouth. He was so funny! The
show lasted quite a while - again I was just amazed at what an
incredible performer he is! They came out for an encore during which
Harry stood on top of his piano dancing during Leroy Jones solo. The
encore was "Come by Me" and "Mind on the Matter" set to a big band
beat. It was just great!
As I had heard that he is really good about signing autographs my cousin
and I waited & waited & waited, we heard he wasn't signing because people
had brought cameras in and that is strictly against policy and pretty rude
if you ask me. I left my camera at home as I had read Harry doesn't
like pictures being taken. During our waiting period, Leroy Jones
happened to pass so we got his autograph and talked for a moment - it
turns out he was from Houma, LA which is where my Aunt was born and very
near where I lived as a child. He was absolutely charming and so
approachable - thanks Leroy!! Anyway, after waiting for about and hour
we trudged up to the entrance of the winery since we had missed every
shuttle back to the parking area. We (my cousin & I) knew that my Aunt
would eventually come back to the winery looking for us so as luck would
have it while we were waiting for my Aunt, the tour buses came through
and Harry was in one - we basically begged him to come out and autograph
our posters (for the record I have NEVER done anything like this in my
life, I don't know what came over me). Harry being the wonderful,
wonderful person that he is stopped the bus and got off and signed for us
- I will be forever grateful for this. Sadly, another girl who had been
standing with my cousin & I asked him for a picture, he was very polite
and said he would rather not & the subject was dropped. So, Harry if
you ever happen to read this I have to say thank you for indulging my
one groupie type experience. You are an incredible performer & as far
as I could tell and incredible person!