BRAVO!! Paul kids the audience after a standing ovation for his first song by taking a bow, thanking the crowd and heading off stage. Just like him, I could write that one word and this blog could be complete. Although it won’t really end there, you know it could because that all that NEEDS to be said in this blog. The same could be said for Paul’s exit after the 1st song. Hearing “This Is The Moment” sung by Paul while watching his face, so full of joy, would be worth the price of admission if he didn’t sing another note. However, like most things, more is even better. As far as this blog is concerned I feel compelled to write more than one word just for my own benefit if not for others. So it follows that in the case of a Paul Byrom concert, more is certainly better.
Hearing Paul sing song after song, all the while peppering his audience with anecdotes both funny and poignant never gets old and I think I’m a good judge of that since I managed to attend 3 of his shows in the space of 12 days, 2 of which were back to back. Of course the stories are a bit more familiar, and the set list doesn’t change a great deal. However, the power and passion of Paul’s performance NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, becomes so familiar that you aren’t completely astounded by it even if you see it a hundred times. In fact almost the opposite is true. The more you see him perform, the more you see what he brings to the stage time after time, regardless of how tired he is or how bad a day he might have had. Paul sings with emotional abandon and that is why it doesn’t get old. Everything in his performance resonates with the passion he feels when he’s singing a song, especially after hearing why he chose to sing it at the show or why it’s on his album. You see, the whole show is a culmination of the influences in Paul’s life up to now, and that’s pretty heady stuff to share with a roomful of people, especially people that paid to come see you.
So now let’s get to the actual performances that I’m here to talk about, B.B. King’s in New York, (yup, NEW YORK CITY, THE BIG APPLE), and the Soundstage in Baltimore. Both of these venues were very much alike, and couldn’t have been more different from the Sheldon in St. Louis. Both are basically night clubs that serve food and beverages while the guy on stage sings. Both cram twice the number of people into tables than they should reasonably hold and yet nobody complains. You see, we don’t really care how crowded we are for dinner, our main goal is to have the food gone so we can watch the show, and once the show starts nobody cares how close you’re sitting to your neighbor because you’re all focused only on the stage.
Joining me for my adventure at BB King’s were my partners in crime, Steph, Jen, Keebs, and Barun. We met outside the club around 5pm and believe me it was such a rush to see Paul’s name up in lights on the marquee. I mean we’re talking 42nd Street in New York City folks. That’s surreal. This is a guy I’ve been a fan of for several years. A guy I’ve talked to personally on multiple occasions, and who I tweet back and forth to. Really, how did this happen? Well I’ll tell you. It happened through hard work, persistence, and most of all TALENT!! That’s right, Paul Byrom has the goods and people are taking notice. Ok, I know I digressed again, but it’s hard not to when I get to thinking about Paul.
Once we all got together we waited in the bar until the showroom opened. Fortunately for me and Steph the bar stocked one of our favorite brands of champagne so we knew we were set for the night. Of course our pocketbooks are a little worse for wear, but it was worth it. As we were heading into the showroom we ran into a lady that was waiting for a friend and started chatting with it. We knew we would have more people put at our table and she seemed really nice so we invited her to be in our group. She was thrilled because she would have had seats much further back. We weren’t on the 1st row of tables but we did have great seats and a great view of all the action. I have to say the food at BB King’s was excellent. This is a New York establishment and it’s not cheap, but that’s ok if you’re getting quality food and we certainly did. The seating staff, the wait staff, and everyone else we encountered in the venue were top notch. Finally we were all finished with our food just in time for the lights to go down and the music to commence. Just as in St Louis, Dave Cooke came on first with Paul following close behind, and without any introduction other than the notes from the piano, Paul launches into the title song “This Is The Moment” and you can see it truly is. Paul seemed completely at home in one of the coolest venues he’s played, that also happens to be in one of the coolest cities in the world, and of course the SOLD OUT crowd showed their appreciation.
All night long, with every song and every story, Paul took everyone in attendance on an emotional journey through his songs. One of the funniest lines had to be when he remarked that he doubted Ave Maria had ever been heard in BB King’s before and I’m sure he’s correct. The crowd was with him all night and he definitely fed off of it, and again there was always that interaction when someone would shout out from the audience. By the end of the night there wasn’t a single person in the room that wasn’t sold on Paul Byrom. I did manage to keep a set list this time and after a few comments on the Baltimore show I’m going to add that at the end with a few notes on at least some of them.
Once the show was over, Paul again took to the merchandise table and signed and took pictures until everyone in the line was taken care of. I’m nearly always near the end so I took the opportunity to introduce myself to Dominique since she had commented on my first blog. Dom is a very lovely person I really appreciated the time she took to chat with me. I’m guessing she’s not used to all the attention she’s getting now that Paul is on his own, but she’s handling it well, and Paul is a lucky man to have her in his life. I know it has to be such a relief to him to have her handling the merchandise and just being with him as he travels. Finally, the line was almost at an end so I went upstairs to wait for the last few people to get through so I could get my picture from St Louis and another CD signed. I forgot to mention earlier I had a pretty long list of merchandise to pick up for friends, and was now about the business of getting some of the items signed. Anyway while I was waiting a lady tripped on a barrier and fell right in front of the table. I thought Paul was going to have a heart attack and that was right after I did. Fortunately she was ok, and after a few of us got her up, I managed to get a couple of things signed and another picture with Paul. He was clearly tired, but gracious as always. I didn’t chat too much but did remind him I’d see him the next night in Baltimore. Our little gang then made our way through Times Square to Junior’s for some late night cupcake desserts. Steph, Jen, and I finally said our goodbyes to Keebs and Barun and headed to the hotel. We had to pack to catch a train to Baltimore the next day.
More to come in part 2,
Ciao for now
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