The Aladdin ~ Las Vegas, Nevada
June 29, 2002
I waited hoping someone else would send you a review of this show that
might have a better opinion of it than my own. You know my admiration for
Dan as an artist is as true as the sky is blue (even when covered by clouds
and hidden from us). I like to keep that high opinion of this artist at all
times, and my review couldn't possibly be as good as I would like it to be.
I almost went to The Grove show instead of Vegas, especially after learning
of John Entwistle passing away. Then on a last minute whim, I made a pledge
to myself to always see him in Vegas (my second home town) if he appears. I
didn't fudge on that pledge. I took off the morning of the show, 109
degree's that day, and hit Vegas 3 hours before the show was to start. I had
to shower, change, gamble, and make my way to the show. There's nothing
better than seeing one of those huge lighted advertising monsters out in
front of the casino with a GFTW video playing on it with Dan's name in
lights, except for actually seeing the concert.
I think I was one of the first one's there. It was a huge theater and had
wonderful staff taking each person to their seat. I didn't believe there
was any way it would fill up, but when the opening act hit the stage, the
theater had about 2000 people in a 7 or 8 thousand seat theater. This was
hard on sound quality, and obviously someone hit the volume knob on the
bassists amp, or the Equalizer bass end, because all during this concert
every time the bass player hit an E string note of any kind up or down the
neck, the entire rest of the band was drowned out by distortion of a massive
amount. I don't blame Dan for the problem at all, it's the problem of the
people adjusting the sound while he's on stage. I was shocked at how many
people actually stayed with the sound being as horrible as it was. I would
almost bet money not a single band member knew it was that bad, (if you've
played with monitors, you know they are on a totally different level setting
than the speakers for the crowd, and so you don't really hear anything but
what you want/need to hear while playing on stage. Anyway, all this
complaining isn't what a review is about. Dan was again dealing with
something he had to overcome, and did it like the pro he is. Just seconds
before starting The Reach, his tech and he were exchanging guitars, and
hooking up cables, when Dan was attacked by a guitar, it took a cheap shot at
him while his guard was down and gave him a real whoppin' right above his
right eye. The Reach was played with blood rolling down his face, yet it was
played flawlessly. The knot above his right eye was seen growing before our
very eyes, and so off stage he was ushered where he was OK'd to continue by
his cut doctor (who did a great job at stopping the bleeding, getting him in
another shirt, and back on stage. I know how at times you just don't want to
be somewhere when you aren't on top of your game, like hurling in a bucket
backstage from the flu while playing Stairway To Heaven, (which is Ironic in
a way only warped musicians find it to be). Dan cut 3 or 4 songs out of the
show, which didn't help out my attitude concerning the lousy sound set up for
the bass. His solo piano playing (which did not include To The Morning) was
quite beautiful and sounded as great as I've ever heard a piano he's played
in concerts I've seen. His solo songs on acoustic were good, his voice was
great, and yet, I can't put my finger on what was missing. I will do my best
to see Dan in Vegas every time he goes, I just hope that should he play the
Aladdin again he go out to section 106 Row "S" and sit and listen to what the
bass levels do to the sound system out there. I'm sure had he my seat in the
concert that night, he would have got up and left the show. I'm glad to have
seen Dan this tour, I loved his leads on guitar, the drummer was great, hell,
the bassist was great, but someone should have clued the sound people in on
how distorted it was sounding on the bass players side of the theater. I
didn't meet up with any of the Dan fans, it was a rush there rush home
situation for me, so I needed sleep and an early start the next day to keep a
promise to my grandmother who has terminal Cancer (without ever having smoked
a day in her life). Anyway, Dan hopefully will enjoy the rest after such a
long schedule, and find the energy to polish that album on the shelf up to
his standards, and let it shine real soon. I'll be looking forward to the
next time he goes out on the road, because I have never been one that
believes one bad show makes an artist not worth seeing again. No one is
above having an off show, not even Dan, luckily this was my first one after
all these years. I have no reason to complain, and still appreciate the
effort this great artist did put forth that a lot of stars wouldn't have done
after getting the injury he did above that eye.
Rick Nolan
