Mohegan Sun's Wolf Den

I hate casinos. The smoke, the incessant noise, the sad collection of sad people..., ah, but that's another post sometime. Let me start over.

The good thing about doing a review for a blog entitled "what's up with chad & jeremy" is that it is safe for me to assume a) you know whom I'm talking about and know that they didn't record World Without Love, b) you are probably familiar by now with their origins, discovery by John Barry, their bad experiences with record companies, their TV performances, etc., and c) while you may not have seen them perform recently, you do know that they are, in fact, performing still. As well as recording. We can cut to the chase right now.

So, yesterday afternoon the wife & I drove up to the Mohegan Sun casino for Chad & Jeremy's 7PM show at the Wolf Den. This was a free show, and as such at Mohegan Sun, while somewhat enclosed by man made "natural" looking barriers, is open to the smoke, incessant noise and general bustle of the casino. More on that later.

We arrived at the Wolf Den at about 5:30, to find a very long line of folks waiting to be seated. By nature, I freak out at times like this, and feared we'd be turned away. I calmed down, waited a bit, spoke with a person in line from somewhere near Wooster, MA who had come with some friends for the show, and we did eventually get in. As it turns out, sad to say, there were empty booths roped off, and a scattering of empty seats elsewhere, so again I was nervous for nothing. (most of the non-booth seats filled in as show time approached). We were seated to the far right, a level above the floor, on Jeremy's side.

Before I continue, the set list:

Don't Look Back (from their '83 In Concert CD)
Hey Baby
Apache
What Do You Want With Me
Before & After
When & If I Can
All the Harvests
Yesterday's Gone
Willow Weep For Me
Dog House Blues
If I Had a Hummer
Distant Shores
September in the Rain
I'll Be Back
Purple Haze
Homeward Bound
Everyone's Gone To the Moon
Generation Rumble (also from the '83 CD)
Zanzibar Sunset
Summer Song
You Need Feet

I only have last year with which to compare this, but noticeably missing, among others, were concert faves Avocado, Tell Me Something Else, and You Are She. My thoughts are that newer songs were added to take advantage of the bassist and drummer, Doug Garing and Beau Stuart, and that not only makes sense but also serves to showcase what was missing in the shows I saw last year, which is their harder, rock and roll, edge. They had an awful lot of ballad hits back in the day, but their LP's hinted at more, as they added not only some great cover versions of hit songs of the day, but also some harder rocking songs as well. Yes, they're funny, talented, extremely personable, and can rock too :).

The thing I noticed most about this show is that the energy levels of the guys seemed to be really ramped up for this one. The show was very well paced, the between song stories cut back just a bit, and the sense was, at least to me, that they kept things louder to be sure their music truly embraced the audience (see above re: casino noise). And, as I said, this not only gave us some great "newer" songs, but also added some new energy to the mix. And, come to think of it, the extra instrumentation blended extremely well into the amp'd acoustic guitar sound that we're family with from their "solo" shows.

The crowd, I think, was not made up of a majority of C&J dyed in the wool fans. The first couple who sat at our table had them initially confused with Peter & Gordon, and there wasn't the sense of recognition from the crowd of certain songs, like Zanzibar Sunset, so that I'll bet that a lot of the folk were first timers. They knew the hits, but weren't collecting the CD or LP's. The meet and greet was another wonderful experience, at least for my wife and I :), as we got a couple of photos autographed. I was again surprised and very much flattered that Chad remembered me (and my daughter's CD) from last year, and yes, we would have remained fans forever even without that :).

Ok, great show, about 75 minutes long, and to my ears the voices and harmonies are stronger still this year. I hope we eventually get some kind of live record of these tours, because there is just some incredible music there to be captured. Their shows go well beyond simple nostalgia and memories; they have successfully worked to rebuild and embellish a very tasteful, warm and sometimes insightful musical catalog, and look like they are enjoying the heck out of it, too. And so am I.

I'll be looking forward to the show in LI this coming Saturday, and I'm anxious to see if there are new songs in that mix as well. Either way, no doubts that there will be another most enjoyable time, and hopefully several beers somewhere along the way.