LOL, we went to go watch Ritchie Blackmore and his new "Renaissance" band at Westbury. I don't think
I have laughed so hard recently as on that night. We showed up and discovered it was a Renaissance
Fair style concert. All these freaky people came dressed up in costume, hundreds of them. We sat
there and watched them and laughed until our sides hurt. Some of the costumes were quite ridiculous.
I was expecting something like this on Halloween night, not at a Ritchie Blackmore concert.
Well, the offset was that all the non-Renaissance, metal headbanging, Deep Purple/Rainbow fans also
showed up, thinking it was going to be a hardrocking, headbanging concert. They were sadly mistaken.
The show started off with a couple of bagpipers playing some kind of Irish jig and walking around
the arena blasting their offkey bagpipes in everyone's ears. Then a Renaissance trio band took the
stage. A flutist, a celloist and a lute player who also sang. We could have sworn it was Jethro Tull
on stage, the music was exactly the same. They were pretty good.
Then Ritchie took the stage with his band. Let me tell you, they looked like a bunch clowns up
there. The flutist was a direct resemblance of Austin Powers, the bassist looked like Larry from
Three's Company, the lead singer (a woman from Long Island) was the biggest phony blonde I've ever
set my eyes on. Then the man came on stage. He looked so fried and old that I thought he was going
to pass out and fall off stage within the first 10 minutes. The music was sickening. Ritchie
Blackmore, the man, had stooped so low in his career that he was now playing renaissance music with
a lute and a hurdy gurdy. Jim and I sat there and laughed for the whole thing, 2 1/2 hours of
non-stop laughter. He played a couple of songs from his days with Deep Purple and Rainbow, all in
renaissance style. The heavy metal heads were disgusted at the whole thing, they got up and left.
The Renaissance fans were all having a grand ole' time. Jim and I continued to sit there and laugh,
laugh, laugh.
We walked out of there before the encore so we could avoid the Renaissance people and their
Hyundai's.
Oh gawd, don't let me have to live through something like that again...
- CA-G
Can-Am Girls Kick Ass!