Driving through sleepy Florence, IN, minutes after Mine that Bird's miraculous victory, and turning around the bend along the river to see the towering Belterra casino (obviously a big local employer) was something of a shock. We rushed in to get tickets before the 7 p.m. show (early so people could gamble afterwards) and quickly noticed that Louisville and Jeffersonville's indoor smoking ban did not apply to some parts of Southern IN. We shifted just in time to a smallish casino concert hall. Twenty years earlier I'd seen Eddie Money (singer of late 70s hits like "Two Tickets to Paradise" and "Take Me Home Tonight" and the early 1980s MTV revolution era hits "I Wanna Go Back" and also my favorite, "Shakin'," in the famous Palladium theater. This theater - off of Union Square and scene of Club MTV - which my apartmentmate Belinda and her boyfriend danced in - for a couple of years. Although Money had been a NYC police officer before he became a rock star in the late 1970s, he and his Mr. Entertainer banter (complete with loads of mediocre jokes) seemed a tad out of place in the hip club. Although the Belterra's audience was older and spread somewhat thinly through the concert hall, he almost seemed more at ease in the casino. He talked up gambling there and had apparently played there three years earlier (when we were nearby in Louisville - this was our first trip to any of these IN casinos. I had only been in a casino some 15 years ago when I stopped in Vegas to visit with my cousin Scott and his family and they showed me around the town). (After the Grand Excursion, Stephanie and her friend Jo and two others had also been to another river casino - the one in Fort Madison, Iowa, along the Mississippi River. Stephanie had also visited a river casino boat on a trip to St. Louis with her friend Rita some 14 years ago.) I didn't really manage to get any good pictures of Eddie Money or the casino. Money performed most of his hits, a few new songs, and a Motown song from a new cover album. He talked up gifts he was selling to raise money for care for HIV-infected children. Money, 60, was backed up on vocals by his daughter, Jessi, who also sang three songs herself. His band, which I suspect had changed personnel in 20 years, was solid.
With a waitress's encouragement, we moved up closer to the front as soon as the show started. Because I didn't know if we would make it, because I wanted to avoid the Ticketmaster extra charges, and because I was told on the phone that the show was unlikely to sell out, we waited and got tickets at the box office as we arrived. But we quickly left our back-row seats (still - it was so small - there were no bad seats). But we weren't right up front and we didn't join the mainly women my age or older dancing up front - which would have positioned us to get better pictures. We chatted a little with the women who moved up near us, including one who bemoaned Money leaving out a hit from his set list.
Money periodically played saxophone in the show.
I haven't been able to find any video of this exact show on YouTube.
But here's a performance of "Shakin'" at a casino in Connecticut from the same tour - two months before we saw Money and his band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDP3PGdP2Rc
Here, from a week after we saw him, is Money performing the 1980s hit "I Wanna Go Back." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF9XEub8mDM
By the time he'd got the crowd going more at the end, Money said: "I don't do this for the money - I do this for you." - even though he'd joked earlier about money. "I sold 37 million records, but I don't know what happend to all of that money. . . . Who knew?" he asked, suggested that he had spent like he thought he was going to keep selling millions of records forever. Speaking of money: After the concert, we walked over into the casino, which shifts effortlessly to the boat. Again, Stephanie discouraged me from taking pictures, and I got no good ones. Apparently there was a vantage point from which you can look out on the river, but we missed it. Stephanie knew some of the tricks. There were lots of slot machines and then blackjack tables, including those with $100 minimums. Early on we walked through a quiet, smoke free back room where people were playing poker, and this was kind of cool to see. I've seen much more of casinos in movies (like in "Casino Royale" and "Ocean's Eleven") than in person. This definitely wasn't Vegas or even Atlantic City, but it was interesting to see nonetheless (plus this slice of Kentuckiana broadly construed - We hadn't been able to consider taking Vincent because the whole facility is apparently age 21 and up - because of the gambling.) I wasn't tempted to try gambling - though Stephanie had tried it in Fort Madison (she broke even, she said). I joked that I didn't recognize anyone from the Creation Museum at the casino and that I definitely would not expect to see anyone from our church at either of these locales. As we walked out, some people - dressed up, including women with hats somewhat like the one that Stephanie had bought for Derby but didn't get a chance to wear - were arriving on a shuttle from Churchill Downs and the race. (I had developed a whole elaborate plan to board the dog - if we had decided not to try to go to the concert but only to the mall and the museum - but we ended up leaving late neough that I thought we'd get back in time.) As it turns out, Vincent surprised us by going back home from his girlfriend's (where he'd spent the previous night) at 8:30 p.m. and so he was there to rescue the dog (and - eventually - talk with Stephanie). We headed across the street to retrieve our car and drove off to do a little more exploring (in Vevay, Madison, and Bedford). Furthest below is video I took of Money (not his real family name, I bet) and his sax solo from "I Wanna Go Back." Click on play to watch and hear.
-- Perry
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