The Lord of the Rings Symphony @ Newark Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ
Live Reviews | Dec 4th, 2004
Date: December 4th 2004
Venue: Newark Performing Arts Center, Newark NJ
I didn’t know if I was going to go see this concert again but friends wanted to go, so I wasn’t going to turn this down. Though this time the seats weren’t as good as the ones in Hartford.
The concert took place at Newark Performing Arts Center and I went there once before to see Monty Python’s Eric Idle perform. Newark was really bonkers, and trying to get into the city wasn’t fun. NPAC is absolutely incredible and really fancy. The place was also really crowded inside, and it looked like it was going to be a sold out show again. My friends got the cheap-o seats and I was busting their humps about it for weeks haha. Our seats were in the 3rd row from the top and I was seriously getting dizzy from walking up that high. Some of the jokes I said to them were: “I wonder if it’s a 5 second delay when the band plays since we’re so far away,” “Did we get the free bleacher seats?” “I think we’re in another atmosphere” “Did we get the special seats outside on the roof?” “Ouch, I think I just hit my head on the Moon” etc etc. The list goes on. In all fairness to my friends, the seats weren’t really that bad. Any seat in the place would have been sufficient but it’s fun to annoy my friends with stuff sometimes. I don’t think they seemed to appreciate the jokes though.
As we got situated with the seats, and the jokes stopped, I noticed someone two rows down from us. I could be wrong, but Sledge from the Toasters was there. I said, sort of out loud, Sledge?! But he didn’t say anything. I’m pretty sure it was him though. But anyway, the concert got underway and the show was amazing again. There was a different conductor this time, plus different singers. Well except Susan Egan who sung at the other LOTR Symphony concerts. She sings really well, and has been in a few things, acting wise as well. Check out her IMDB profile here. My general feelings with this concert was the symphony performed better. The singing was better, especially the little kid who didn’t appear to be nervous like the other singer at Hartford. The choir also seemed a lot louder, passionate and just better. Plus, some of the female choir singers were actually really hot and I was checking them out in the binoculars. I still get goosebumps, and choked up for certain songs like for “Concerning Hobbits,” “The Breaking of the Fellowship” “Isengard Unleashed” “The King Of The Golden Hall,” ” The White Tree” and “Into the West.” I still wished the Black Rider theme was focused on more though. You only hear it briefly in “Black Rider” and then you don’t hear it anymore. That theme is really a prominent theme in Fellowship of the Ring and should have been performed more. PLUS, it sounds excellent live. The whole choir is chanting it really loud and it’s one of my favorite motifs of all the scores.
If you haven’t seen this concert, well I think you missed the boat on it for now. Who knows, maybe this symphony will keep touring every year, and it still will continue to sell out theaters and concert halls. I think my experience was better at Hartford since the seats were better and hearing the music live for the first time made the experience one that I won’t forget. But I think the symphony was better here, and the concert hall was ten times nicer than the Hartford hall. Now bring on that 10 CD disc Lord of the Rings score already!
