Premier entertainment palace...Yes I can see where the title comes from. A truly beautiful theatre as the picture below confirms.
A little history....Site acquisitions, costing $1.9 million, began on March 29, 1926. Groundbreaking for construction began on March 15, 1927. Construction took eleven months and three days, involved more than 300 workers and cost $1.4 million. The theatre was advertised as “the last word in theatrical ornateness and luxuriousness" and it's not difficult to see why. As so often is the case with theatres such as this, over the years, especially in the 60's, 70's and 80's the venue fell into disrepair but recently local, state, and federal governments, foundations, and corporations have responded to funding pleas. Once more the theatre is becoming a venue for stage events and seems to be growing in stature each year. It's heartwarming to come across places like these across America.


Pic Roger De Muth - http://www.mrpanoramaman.com -  http://www.demuthdesign.com

Backstage wasn't up to much though as it obviously hasn't seen quite the same refurbishment as the public areas, understandably I suppose. Not a word of complaint from the crew though, just the occasional humourous comment about the cramped working areas side-of stage and the rather sad catering arrangements.. The band walked on stage in single file tonight nas there wasn't enough room to swing  your arms.  All of this  pales into insignificance  as soon as we take to the stage of course. Another tremendous audience who just seem to lap up every single note. The gig was  a bit of a tired one for a few band members and some of us had to 'dig deep' but as always with this band, you'd really never know.






Look what I found in a disused cupboard, side-of stage. A couple of Amcron (aka Crown) amps.



I have to mention our delayed flight out of Boston this afternoon. We witnessed the mother of all thunderstorms just before we left the city centre but once again we were lucky not to have been delayed more than the 20 minutes that we sat on the tarmac waiting for the backlog of flights to clear. Our pilot told us that the airport practically evacuated as the lightening storm went right overhead and actually struck the GA terminal and all the lights were flashing.



We flew after-show on to New York city but no after Tim had the brainwave of ordering a couple of huge bags of take-away Dinosour Ribs! These originate from Syracuse and I have to announce we haven't had ribs quite as good on any tour I've ever done. Phenominal, along with chicken wings in a chipotle sauce.

A little after the event......


Robbo Robertson, Jason Vrobel, Dave Hall and TC.

TC (Tom Calcaterra) sent me this just now and titled the e-mail 'a real day off'. No prizes for guessing why, it's not often on this tour that the guys have had a chance to really enjoy a day without a show and last week in Nashville they did. They arrived in Nashville early enough in the day to enjoy a round of golf. Some of the boys went fishing on one of the many lakes in the Nashville area too.