The Egg
Albany, NY
August 5, 2005
Review By: Cole
When my sister dropped me off at the airport in Nashville on Thursday at 5:00 in the morning...I had NO clue what I was in for! I checked in quite rapidly- and sat at my gate for about an hour before they started boarding my plane. I had an "ok" flight, and while we were landing in Charlotte, NC (I had a slight layover), they started rattling off the gates for other flights. I listened carefully and heard "C7" for Providence, RI, and when I got off the plane, headed to C7. When I got there...it didn't say ANYTHING about Providence. Thinking "wtf" in my head...I went over to check the departing flights screen- and saw "PROVIDENCE, RI: CANCELLED" on the screen. I was
livid! After arguing with Customer Service, they put me on a flight to Washington D.C. about an hour later- and then from THERE I would fly to Providence. All in all, it set me back about 2 hours or so. Not too bad, but I was really annoyed! When I arrived in Providence, I was so pleased to ride in a
ONE car!
The morning of the Albany show, Bob and I took a ride on the Harley as I'd never been on one before. Their nice, but nothing I could get too caught up in- I didn't like the way my hair was in the helmet. After we got back, we headed up to Albany, to the best we could. Barbara blames it on Mapquest- but we got lost on the way to finding our hotel. New York is crazy...And then upon finding our hotel...the nicest thing that I can say about it is the staff gave us menus after the concert for places to eat!
Prior to the show, a group of us went to some Italian restaurant to eat, where a "small platter" doesn't exsist. I spent forever trying to figure out what the heck I could eat without having too much food. (I don't normally eat prior to her shows!) Didn't work! I took a couple bites and didn't eat the rest- wasted a HUGE bowl, lol. After dinner, we headed towards the venue and stood outside, checking out some of the gorgeous buildings that surround it! However, in the category of "gorgeous buildings"- you will not see "The Egg" listed! This had to be the ugliest venue I've ever seen. It was shaped like some sort of weird spaceship.
The inside was entirely different, however- it was really small and amazing! It had a really intimate feel to it-- it had the first six rows down in the front of the stage- and the rest of the rows (only 16 other rows) went up an incline- it was cool, and really small! It seats 982.
Bob, Barbara, Mike and Miles sat in front of Tammie and I. A couple friends of ours skipped out on us, so we had two extra seats next to Tammie and I. For the first part of the show, they remained empty, but after intermission, we had a girl come sit in one of them- full of energy and screaming, singing along. We were glad the seat didn't go to complete waste!
I wont post the full set list, since Barbara went into detail of each song in her review, so I'll just make a few comments...
I thought the crowd, although small, was a wonderful one. Everyone was really respectful (minus a couple), and really sat and took in all the ballads, just amazed. The uptempos & "crowd participation" songs- they went crazy over! "Elvis" & "Blame" were two of the highlights of the night for this crowd. When one girl sat next to me, she leaned over and said "Is she going to sing that Elvis song?" and I said "Most likely yes, if she does an Encore"...and she was so excited- she had a couple girls with her that ALL seemed to enjoy Elvis! The ballads went over quite well too- a lot of folks gave standing ovations after A LOT of songs!
Troy Engle is one of the best musicians that Patty has ever hired, in my opinion! Tammie and I have been Troy Fans from the beginning, so we shouted our support for him this night, and had quite a few other folks doing the same...prompting Patty to say "This feels like the Troy Engle Show!", making Troy blush. He's got tremendous talent- I hope we get to keep him in the band for awhile! He and Patty sound great on "Someone I Used to Know",- the crowd seemed to love Troy's solo line!
Patty sang 10 songs before saying "Before intermission, we'd like to do one more!". I had no clue they were doing intermission- LOL I guess we don't have that at very many venues down here! Anyhow, she let Guthrie loose into his intro to "Halfway Down". Patty was rockin'- she was dancing and I heard Tammie say "GO PATTY!", she was really getting into it- unfortunately too much! When she walked offstage after the song- she walked backwards a couple steps and tripped over the Amp onstage. Luckily, Jimmy was right there, so she didn't fall.
After a brief intermission, Patty came out and sang 13 more songs- totalling 24 songs that show! Been awhile since I've been to a single show where she sang 24 songs! A few "extras" in the set list included "Halfway Down" and "I'm That Kind of Girl"- a couple tunes she hasnt been doing in *every* show this year. The encore included "Nothin' But the Wheel" this show- which was nice to hear since it was one I hadn't heard this year yet...and as wonderful as it sounded, I really missed the keyboards on it! Pete did a fantastic intro to it, however. I will say that while I am very vocal about missing the keys (that's the best part of Elvis!), everyone has been doing a killer job filling in for them! Pete's intro to "Wheel" is spectacular- and Guthrie's guitar in "Elvis" sounds really awesome!
And like I've said in every other review I've done this year- I
LOVE "My Old Friend the Blues"! That is one of the highlights of every show for me..I love how she opens the acoustic set with it, and I just can't get over how great she sounds on it. I used to think that "Harlan" was the best ballad for me in her acoustic, but "My Old Friend" has replaced that- it gets so completely silent and all you hear is her voice- and
no one else's!
During the second half of the show, Patty had another graceful moment that we just couldn't help but giggle at. Deanie, Kylie and Guthrie were gathered near eachother, playing- and Patty didn't pay attention as she walked backwards a step or so- and walked right into Guthrie's guitar. We all had a laugh...and Patty didn't take any steps "bacK" the rest of the night!
Albany marked my 19th "Patty Anniversary", so I celebrated by going backstage so I could have my photo to add to the collection. I took Bob with me this trip back, since he'd never had a photo taken with her. The meet and greet at the Egg was relatively small, but we kept our conversations brief- since she'd just given her all in a 24 song show! We got our photos, I got my hug, and we told her we'd see her again on Sunday and headed off to find where the heck they sent Tammie and Barbara!
When we got back to the hotel, I had a splitting headache, so Tammie and I called the front desk to see if a pizza place delivered at all. I figured since I'd barely ate that day, my headache would go away if I ate something. The girls at the front desk not only answered our questions, but gave us menus! Score one for the hotel- it was the only nice thing I could say about it! We finally settled on a place and I gave them my picky order of a Cheesesteak with nothing but steak, cheese and mayo. We were told 45 minutes. An hour later, my head pounding, I was ticked off, and called them. Did anyone answer? Of course not- so I called back a few times and then came a knock at the door! I told Tammie I thought only one guy was answering phones, cooking, and delivering! But in any event, my head hurt so bad I didn't care- the food was here! Tammie had ordered a pizza and something else, and I opened my sandwich to find a LOADED cheesesteak- with tons and tons of onions! Where did it go? Straight into the garbage- I'm majorly allergic to onions! What a waste of money- and an hour long wait!
The venue was absolutely fabulous, and it might be enough for me to return to see her...but I'm not too sure yet:)
