Deb Messling wrote: > ...as shows go it wasn't nearly as good > as the next one I saw, at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium during the Shadows & > Light tour. That was an astonishing show. From my point of view, it was > her dream band, and I loved when she sang with the Persuasions. Despite > the size of the venue, the audience was just rapt. I remember hearing gasps > when she sang Amelia.
I was there, too, my first time seeing Joni. Yes, the audience was completely awed. If they weren't Joni fans, they were fans of someone in her band (and probably most were Joni fans by the end of the concert). My boyfriend at the time wasn't at all interested in going until he heard Pat Metheny would be there, and then nothing would have kept him away. I think everyone there was intensely interested in what was going on. My clearest memory of the show is Joni singing Amelia, in a spotlight all by herself playing her guitar, and how she slowly walked backwards out of the light as she was ending the song. Then there was the empty spotlight and the last few delicate sounds from her guitar floating away. Everyone was mesmerized and it felt like a long time before people came to their senses in order to clap, and then the place went wild. What a great concert that was, on a summer night, outdoors, with an occasional delicate misty rain making halos around the lights and everyone on stage having a grand time! It was magical, even mystical, such a wonderful night. Debra Shea
