I love live performances and enjoy just about any opportunity to see a show live and on stage. There was a time in my life when I would see a half-dozen to a dozen live performances a year, while in more recent times, I may have only gotten to see one or two shows per year. Matter of fact, there was actually a dry spell when I didn't see any plays, concerts, comedy shows, or anything live. Ironically, even though 2009 was such a turbulant year for me and has already paved a rough path for 2010, I was lucky in the sense that I got to see a few live performances. Sure, there were the various choir concerts before the holidays that I got to see and enjoy, and I count them in with the other live shows I saw. There was the RI Philharmonic's Pop Concert, too, that I saw at the end of the summer and already wrote about. And, of course, there was A Chorus Line, which Edie and I went to see earlier in the year and STILL talk about. I not only wroteabout that, but also about Cabaret, which we went to see right after the summer. However, I/we attended three other live events last year, all in the month of November.




Going to the Providence Performing Arts Center to see RENT was our anniversary gift to each other and it was as tremendous a show as we had anticipated. For those who may not have seen it or are not familiar with the story, RENT is one of the most influential and popular Broadway plays in recent history that was later made into a movie. The Tony Award-winning musical is actually based on Puccini's La Boheme, but "modernized" as it tells of the lives of artists struggling to survive and create in New York's lower East Side. Despite all the tragedy the characters endure, the story emphasizes the importance of community, family, friendship and love. We had wonderful seats, just slightly to the side of center stage and about sixteen rows back, so we could see and hear everything so well. And, what a thrill it was to see original Broadway cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp in the lead roles.






Two nights later, we went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. The tickets were an early Christmas present from my brother. As you can tell from the pictures (sorry that they're a little blurry, but the videos came out perfectly clear) and the limited number of heads in the way, we had excellent seats. This show, this concert was so good that neither Edie or I could come up with any word that describes the whole experience, except for the way-too-over-used word "awesome"...but, in this case, we really, really, really were in awe. The music, the lights, the effects, the various moods that were set, the interaction with the audience, the perfect crowd, the immense intensity of the experience were awesome. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO), which originated in NYC, by the way, is by far one of the most elaborate concert bands in the world, known for incorporatingprogressiverock,symphonicmetal, heavy metal, and classical music influences in a full light and pyrotechnic show that is synchronized with the music.



And, then there was that late November Sunday afternoon...Edie and I went to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, to see the New England Patriots play the New York Jets. The tickets were given to us by a friend who was going to be out of town and unable to attend the game. It was a bit chilly, but far from being cold, and the roundtrip walk between where we parked the car and the stadium seemed to take almost as long as the game. We had a great time munching hotdogs and drinking beer, seeing all the lights and screens, eyeing the cheerleaders every now and then, and, of course, watching the game. The Patriots and the Jets are true rivals, so the game had an added level of excitement and, I'm happy to say, the Patriots won the game, 31-14.

Wow! What a month! Two shows, two different stages, and football!