Roger Hodgson At Twin River Casino August 17, 2012
Words by Tim Lewis.
Chris had been bugging me about going to see Roger Hodgson with a full band in Rhode Island. Wow, did I really want to travel that far? Wow, Fool’s Overture live with a band. He talked me into it. I took Friday and Saturday off. We were set to leave at 11am on Friday and were out the door at 11:10. The drive down was pretty smooth. We hit a bit of traffic on I-95 but once we made the turn towards Providence it was clear sailing. We found the hotel, grabbed a bit of food, then it was off to the Casino. An expensive cab ride brought us to the correct entrance to the massive compound. We went right in to the convention room that was to be used as a concert hall. We found our third row center seats, thanks Chris, and it was 10 minutes to showtime.
They started a few minutes late, as waiters brought drinks to some in the audience, but soon enough, Roger Hodgson and band took the stage. Roger had a keyboard set, a grand piano, and the acoustic 12 string guitar. Behind him, on the left was another keyboard player, on his right was a keyboard set up, but the guy mostly played percussion, sax, and other horns. The bass player hung towards the back and the drummer was encased behind what Roger called bullet proof glass, for our protection, on the right. They opened with a perfect version of Take the Long Way Home. His voice was right on and the band hit every note. It was obviously going to be a great evening. School followed and was magnificent. In Jeopardy had a great bounce to it, and was tons of fun. After the song he asked how many people knew it. He was very happy that most of us had. He stayed on the solo album track with a newish song called The More I Look. It sounded nice, but did not have the fun interplay that many of his songs have. Next up he had the audience wrapt with a double shot of Sister Moonshine, then Breakfast in America. Cest le Bon followed and was pretty cool, but the chorus just kept repeating forever. A Soapbox Opera kicked up the energy level and everyone stayed ecstatic for the Logical Song. Afterwards he made a comment about his girlfriend not liking that song. Another solo song, Death and A Zoo followed. It was good, and sounded nice, and the end section with the jungle sounds was nice, but overall it wasn’t as great as most of the songs played that night. Lord is it Mine had Roger pleading with beauty, and Child of Vision had fantastic keyboard interplay. They did a powerhouse verson of that great song. Next up was what I had been waiting for. Fool’s Overture was played perfectly and made my heart soar. That point, a ways in, where the song builds and builds and builds, then eases off for a second, before dropping in that crushing note, was brought to perfection by Roger and his band. It just exploded. As the song cruised through the end section, I was blissful. He followed with a fun version of Dreamer and said good night.
There was a couple in back of us who were having an anniversary and had a sign saying Two of Us. Roger and band played a beautiful version of it. Next up Give A Little Bit had everyone singing and set the stage for the perfect end to a wonderful show.
We caught the cab back to the hotel and both crashed pretty quickly. We were up early and hit the road by 9:30. We pulled into Burlington at 1:45. What can you say? A smooth trip both ways, and a wonderful show.
This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.