Barry Manilow - Van Andel Arena - June 14, 2012

Barry Manilow
Van Andel Arena
Grand Rapids, Michigan
June 14, 2012

Why was I going to a Barry Manilow concert?    Well, going back to the mid-70s, I always had an appreciation for his talent and his songwriting.    Sure, he didn't write all his hit songs, but he has had many that were his own.     So, realizing I needed to see the guy live before he completely retires, I decided this was my chance.

Manilow is 68, and has had a couple hip surgeries in recent years.   It appears to have slowed down his stage movements a bit, but that was to be expected.    What was front-and-center was the music, and there was plenty of great music.    Say what you want about Barry, but he is a very talented musician, vocalist, songwriter, and entertainer.     And for just under 90 minutes, Manilow displayed this to the about 1/3 full arena (no upper bowl seats were sold).

Barry and his 6 piece band with 2 backing vocalists covered most of the hits from throughout his career.   Opening (and closing) with "It's A Miracle", Manilow had a solid band, clean sound mix, and his voice sounded fairly strong.    He seemed in good spirits as he continued with the "club mix" version of "Could This Be The Magic".    The hits continued with "Looks Like We Made It", and he had the entire arena singing along with "Can't Smile Without You".    He made a brief dedication to Dick Clark, before the "American Bandstand" theme song.    He sat at the piano and reflected on the "Even Now" release, before playing the title song.    He had a nice reflection about his grandfather taking him to a "record your voice on vinyl" booth when he was a child, and they played some of the first recording.    This led into "This One's For You".     For me, a long favorite has been the song "Weekend in New England", and this was performed well and still holds up as a great song.     Barry talked about his recent "greatest songs of the..." releases, and went into his version of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", from the 60s release.     He briefly mentioned his support for school music programs and how it influenced his life, while also encouraging the audience to donate any instruments to local school programs.   Next was "Trying To Get The Feeling" which sounded great.    A video from his first performance on "The Midnight Special" was shown, with him performing the song "Mandy".     After the video covered the  first verse and chorus, Barry started singing the rest of the song on stage - I didn't hear a key change in this transition, so if the song had been lowered, the tech crew had managed to lower the pitch on the original Midnight Special video (which is unlikely, but possible).    Manilow began moving towards the end of the show with "Copacabana" and ending with "I Write The Songs", before reprising "It's A Miracle".

 

 



Having seem Roger Water's perform "Pink Floyd's The Wall" last week, I found myself appreciating Barry's show being solely about the music.    No fancy special effects or visuals taking away from the focus on the songs, and I didn't mind that.

Rating:  8 out of 10

Highlight for me:  "Weekend in New England"

Lowpoint:  Started about 20 minutes late, and show was less than 90 minutes.    Maybe this is a result of his last few years performing shows at a residency in Vegas, and the show is simply streamlined to this set of music.    But, considering Elton John and Paul McCartney are doing almost 3 hour shows, Barry could certainly give us more for an arena tour.