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Author Topic: Tracie & Gregg's Florida Celebration shows  (Read 1897 times)
Tracie
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« on: March 15, 2020, 11:22:31 PM »

Gregg and I took a Florida vacation and attended five of the first six Celebration shows.  We had been wanting to attend opening night of the tour so that we could be as spoiler-free as possible, going into the show without knowing the setlist or the new dresses.  We absolutely loved being surprised like that, so I think opening night will continue to happen for us as much as possible.  The shows in Florida are also in very close proximity to one another, allowing us to see five shows for the cost of just one flight and one rental vehicle.  Going to Florida also had the unexpected perks of getting to meet Meav, who I would assume only attends a handful of shows at the beginning of each tour, and actually getting to see five shows before the coronavirus caused the rest of the tour to be postponed.  The only things we didn't get were to see Susan, which we had scheduled for the end of March, and we didn't get an official meet and greet for photos with the ladies in their gorgeous new dresses, which we had two purchased for later in the tour.  One meet and greet would have been with Susan at the end of March and the other with Chloe at the end of May.  But we are so lucky that we did get to see the new Celebration show and I feel very sad for those who were wanting to see it.  Hopefully the rescheduled tour dates work out for everybody when they come out.  In the meantime, here's my Celebration show write-up song by song, along with some notes from our stage door and lobby meetings.  The setlist stayed the same for all five shows we went to.  It's an incredibly gorgeous show, filled with multiple jaw-droppers.  As always, we loved the show more than we could ever fully put into words!

Homecoming Lament - the show begins with a curtain down at the front, making it so the audience can't see the stage design or the band.  The music starts and spotlights on the curtains create shadows of Darragh playing the uillean pipe.  The curtain stays down for the entire song and when the song ends, there's a dramatic long pause and then the curtain quickly drops to reveal the four ladies on stage starting Mo Ghile Mear.  This is an absolutely stunning start to the show and I hope they keep it.  Tara asked me what I thought of the curtain drop and I told her it's so cool and I loved it!

Mo Ghile Mear - this is the Homecoming version of the song with the extended Tara solo parts.  Some of the choreography was the same or similar to what they had done in the Voices of Angels and Homecoming tours and some was new.  This was one of the songs that I had been hoping would return and I was thrilled to hear it live again.

Follow Me - they go straight into Follow Me before talking to the audience, again with some of the same or similar choreography to what they had done in the Ancient Land tour and some new.  I like how they have three male dancers/choir members to go with the three lead singers.  According to what Ronan told us in the lobby on opening night, they were originally going to have just Carl and Colm, but they called him to join about a month before the tour started.  It was interesting in Follow Me that it was the only choreographed song in which Mairead was not paired with Ronan.  Also interesting in our third show to see that they changed the choreography to Follow Me a bit, removing a part in which the guys and ladies stand back to back and then spin around each other.  Love this song, glad they brought it back from Ancient Land.

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears (Chloe solo) - after Follow Me, Mairead introduces Chloe, saying that they are thrilled to share the stage with her and once a Celtic Woman, always a Celtic Woman.  Chloe then introduces the song, saying that she loves songs like this that tell a good story.  She also tells us that she has gotten her permanent resident green card and jokes that she should sing the national anthem.  Towards the end of the song, she requests that the audience sing along, which got decent response at each of the shows we went to.  Beautifully performed song.

Dulaman (Mairead solo) - Mairead's crystal clear voice is on full display in this song and I always love hearing them sing in Gaelic.  The part where Mairead is lifted off the step and onto the stage is even more epic in this tour, with the guys lifting her even higher up than they used to and carrying her all the way to the front of the stage.  She flies!

I See Fire (Megan solo) - Megan coming on stage on opening night and singing the first few words of I See Fire was probably the biggest surprise of the entire show to me.  I had been hoping for this song to return, but never thought someone other than Mairead would sing it.  Megan gives a beautiful performance.  There is one line where the words are changed from "watch the flames climb high for the last time" to "raise a glass of wine for the last time".  It was very cool the way they had images of flames going up on the screen each time the words "I see fire" were sung.

Across The World (Tara solo) - this song is as playful and fun as ever, with the audience clapping along as Tara dances around the stage.  Always love this one!

Isle of Innisfree (Mairead & Tara duet) - Mairead tells the story behind this song and then she and Tara give a gorgeous performance.  The song is only Mairead's voice and Tara's harp, which is so beautiful.  I really hope they record this duet for an album, I loved it!

Amazing Grace - this is one of just two songs that has been in every show I have attended.  Going into opening night, we were curious as to who would begin the vocals in the song.  It's still Megan starting this one, with Chloe joining in second and then Mairead and Tara.  On opening night, we told John about the box seats that we had for night two and said he should come play Amazing Grace up there.  He didn't, but told us afterwards that he checked it out and parts of the audience wouldn't have been able to see him there.  Bummer, that would have been cool!

Over The Rainbow (Mairead & Megan duet) - after Isle of Innisfree, I was then expecting a Megan & Chloe duet, so this one surprised me.  Megan introduces the song saying that she watched the Slane Castle performance of it and it's a dream come true for her to now get to perform it.  It's the same jaw-dropping stunner that we first heard at Johnstown Castle and is still as gorgeous as ever.

Three’s Company (drums & dancers) – this one begins with Caitriona and Kieran, then John joins in, then Carl and Colm.  It’s still a lot of fun and they kept the part from Ancient Land’s Tip Tap Toe where Carl and Colm do handstands.  The audience always loves this one and claps and cheers along with the dancing.

The Kesh Inn (Tara & band) – they changed The Kesh Inn a bit on this tour, having only Tara on stage of the four ladies, plus the entire band on a whole variety of instruments.  Tara is in her ceili dress for this one.  This is another one that’s always an audience pleaser, with people clapping along and cheering at the dancing.  At the very end of the song, Tara does some fun dance moves.  She and I even did it together at one of the stage doors (not that I knew what I was doing, lol) when I was telling her I enjoyed her dance moves, so that was super fun too!

Teir Abhaile Riu – a very fun ceili song to end the first act.  I had been hoping to see the Believe version of this song live and this was the Voices of Angels version, but I still love it!  The choreography to this one was such a joy to watch and includes a part where the guys pick up the ladies and spin them around a couple of times.  Tara is also doing the choreography along with them while also playing violin, which was quite impressive to watch.  I really enjoyed this song as the first act closer.

Orinoco Flow – I love this song as the second act opener!  It’s the Ancient Land version with almost all new choreography.  It’s funny though, even though I’ve seen Celebration the most recently, I still see the Ancient Land choreography in my mind when I listen to the song.  Tara uses her pink violin bow (Pinky!) during this song, which I actually didn’t catch until she asked me at a stage door if I had noticed it.  She then told me to look for it in Orinoco Flow and in the next show we were sitting front row and I pointed out to her that I saw it, which got a big smile from her and she turned the bow so I could see even more of it.  Interaction like that is one of the huge draws to the front row seats that Gregg & I love so much!

When You Believe (Chloe solo) – this song seems to have even more meaning now “in this time of fear” with the coronavirus.  Chloe sang it gorgeously and it kicked off the multiple second act songs that left us in stunned awe.

Nella Fantasia (Mairead solo) – Mairead’s stunningly gorgeous classical voice is perfection.  I watch this one with my jaw on the floor every time, even when I already know she’s going to make my jaw drop.  Sensational!  I also told her at a stage door how incredibly gorgeous it was and she had a very shy look on her face.  I truly mean it Mairead, you’re amazing!

The Voice (Megan solo) – yet another jaw-dropping stunner.  Megan absolutely owned this song.  We told her at a stage door how much we loved it and she said she loves it too and loves the vocal depth in the song.  It’s incredible!

Skyrim (Tara solo) – this is another one that surprised me, because at this point in the show I was expecting Tara’s next solo to be one of her gorgeous slow songs (I had been hoping For The Love Of A Princess would be on this tour).  Skyrim was great and I like Ronan’s backing vocals in it, but Tara’s incredible ability to move me to tears of joy with her amazing slow songs is one thing I really missed in Celebration.

May It Be (Mairead, Megan & Chloe) – let me start off by saying, WOW! This song is so incredibly beautiful and moving beyond anything I can put into words.  Another one that sent our jaws to the floor, plus it put tears in our eyes.  Most of the song is sung acapella, with some instrumental added late in the song.  Parts of it have Mairead singing a stunning note behind the vocals that Megan and Chloe are singing.  It honestly is difficult to even put into words how gorgeous it was.  When we were walking out of the venue from opening night, Gregg, Tom & I all said that this was our favorite song of the show and that it had cracked all of our top five favorite ever Celtic Woman songs lists.  Here’s a really interesting note though – between the three of us chatting with different people, we told Mairead, Megan, Meav and Ronan how much we loved this one and they all responded by saying things such as that they didn’t think we would like it and that they didn’t think they had it nailed down yet.  Is it even possible to make this one more amazing and perfect!?  Please record this one ladies!   

Sive – this one’s always fun and I love the Gaelic.  After the song, Tara explains that it’s about a fisherman who is trying to impress the lady he fancies by showing off his strength and his “mad skills”.  Hahaha, fabulous!

Danny Boy – this is the second of the two songs that has been in every show I have attended.  After attending many shows with Mairead introducing this song by saying that the Muppets sing it better (I still get a kick out of that), they changed it up for Celebration by having Tara introduce it, saying that they look forward to performing it every night and that the performance comes from their hearts and souls.  Yes, it absolutely does.  Gorgeous as always.

The Enchanted Way (Tara & dancers) – this one is so much fun and I’m really glad they kept it from Ancient Land.  Another crowd pleaser that gets the audience clapping along.  The Celebration show has an amazing mix of fun clap-along songs like this combined with gorgeous jaw-droppers.

You Raise Me Up – it’s been awhile since I had seen this one live and it returns in stunning fashion.  Absolutely gorgeous.  The first couple of nights, they played a tribute video in the background that shows pictures throughout the years of Celtic Woman (this tribute video is played at the start of the new Best of Celtic Woman PBS special as well).  After a couple of shows, they reduced the length of it to only play at the very end of the song.  From what I’ve heard, it later got removed entirely.  I’m not sure why, because it had great emotional impact seeing it play while the song was performed to perfection.  This song got much deserved massive standing ovations in a few of the shows we were at (should have been all of them, but a couple of the crowds were kind of dull).

The Parting Glass – of course the show finale is The Parting Glass.  This song is so beautiful, yet hearing it means we’ve reached the end of an amazing night.  Afterwards, the ladies briefly leave the stage and then come back out to introduce the band.  Then on the first night, a recording played to introduce the ladies, but starting on the second night, they removed the recording and had Ronan introduce them instead.  I like that they brought back these introductions that they had removed from Ancient Land so they can take their much deserved bows.

So that’s the phenomenal Celebration show that I hope you all get a chance to see at some point!  I will certainly go see it again and already have tickets for five more shows whenever they get rescheduled.  We loved it in Florida, plus we had two amazing nights at the stage doors in Fort Myers and Sarasota!  Some of the additional stage door highlights that I didn’t already put in the show description were Megan telling us at the first one that they are lucky to have us as fans (awwww!) and at the second one that they appreciate all the support we give them so much.  I had pretty lengthy conversations with Tara both nights, including her asking lots of questions about what we liked in the new show and her wanting to know about my job, which I think is very cool that she wanted to know more personal things about me.  Mairead told me for the third time how much she likes my hair (I must have great hair!) and she remembered that we live in Minnesota.  Once we had met Chloe for the first time, at the very next show she was smiling and waving to us in the audience and then calling us by name at the next stage door.  She also told us that she loves how much we are obviously enjoying ourselves in the audience and that when they see it from the stage, it makes them more energized.  We unexpectedly met Meav and got to tell her that we’ve listened to the music for many years, how much we love it, and how amazing the ladies are.  Caitriona told us that with how many shows we go to, we may as well just ride on the bus with them.  Ummmm ok, not gonna turn that down!  Lol!  We talked quite a bit to both Ronan and Carl in the lobbies throughout the five shows.  It was so sweet how Ronan told us how happy he was to be on the road with Mairead and to get to dance with her every night.  The night we had box seats, both Megan and Chloe waved up to us.  I did have one show where I sat in the balcony to see the choreography from up there, which I like doing every once in awhile, but Gregg doesn’t.  Ronan told me he spotted Gregg in his 4th row seat that night and was fascinated by my explanation of why Gregg and I sit separately sometimes.  I’ll continue to get a balcony seat probably once per tour, but nothing compares to sitting where they can see us, smile at us, wave to us, and interact with us throughout the show.  Love it so much!   

Other than the shows, we also enjoyed going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios (that place is amazing!), seeing our team the Minnesota Twins play a spring training baseball game against the Red Sox, walking the Tampa Riverwalk, and visiting with my cousin, who lives in Fort Myers and went to that show with us.  So glad we went on this Celebration vacation!
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dbbii
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« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2020, 01:02:26 PM »

Great Review!

I've lived in Florida for over 20 years.  One very positive reason is because it's fairly easy to see a number of shows.  You can drive to all of them.  In this case, I went to Lakeland, Fort Myers and St Pete.

The only thing I would have liked to see is The Ballroom of Romance as the end of the first act.  I like it better than TAR


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