The 2 Concerts – Part 1

What a night. It’s 4:00 am and I’m wired, so I’m blogging about it, even though I haven’t finished the Dolan house and vigil entries yet.

I had a VIP seat which entitled me to go to this lounge and wait for the concert started. Just before it was to start Todd came in to introduce Priscilla AND Lisa!! They were just there for a minute to thank us for being such loyal fans. That was very cool. And Priscilla autographed over 500 reprints of one of the famous family portraits for us to have. Yikes! My hand hurts just thinking about it! Thank you, Priscilla.

Do you remember how the previous big concerts started out with Elvis’ arrival with motorcycles and limos? This time he came via helicopter. They did a reenactment of an arrival on film. Joe E, Jerry Schilling (in tour jackets) and “Elvis” in costume ready to go to a concert go out to the field at Graceland to get into a waiting helicopter. You see shots in the helicopter – of Joe and Jerry and a profile of “Elvis” looking out the window. Then you see an aerial shot of the Fed Ex Forum. They land and get out. As you hear Elvis’ entry music all of a sudden you see Elvis walk across the stage – sort of. They have Aloha footage of him walking across the stage behind the curtain and it looks like a spotlighted Elvis entering the stage WE are looking at. Very cool. And that’s just for starters.

Knowing that this is the last time we’ll see these shows, I paid more attention to the live musicians than to the filmed Elvis. I’ll always have the DVDs of Elvis, but to see these guys and gals – that’s a finite proposition. So I concentrated on them this time. They are all legends in their own right and I so appreciate their talent and their bodies of work.

The Jordanaires, Stamps and Imperials were part of the show and each had full solo songs, as did the Sweet Inspirations.

The Dempseys played with DJ for the 50’s stuff. I’m really sorry Scotty, for whatever his reasons, decided not to participate. He is missed and I can’t help thinking he has cut off his nose to spite his face (hope you all know that expression!). Considering this is the very last one of these concerts it would have been really nice for him to be there.

They threw in more modern clips of Elvis singing the 50s songs along with the usual 50’s TV footage. You know, like from the ’68 special. That was lots of fun, too.

I think the 60’s “movie songs” section is new. Neither the TCB band or DJ Fontana participated, although the Dempseys and the Jordanaires performed for these for various songs. James came out to play dueling guitars with Bradley Dean Birkedahl of the Dempseys.

Then came the 70s stuff. I can’t be sure, but it looks to me like they added new footage on the side screens. I’m really not sure, but do you remember seeing timing stamping at the bottom of the film? I don’t.

The place was electric and people were on their feet all the time to sing, sway, applaud, wave..

I’ve just hit a wall (sleep-wise) It’s 3:30am and I’ve got to get some sleep. But I had to get started. Later