I had been a mild fan of Dire Straits for many years, and recently fell in love with Knopfler's "solo" albums, so when I heard that he was playing the US, there was no way that I would miss it. I had to coordinate a massive trip involving rides from friends, trains, and lots of mooching (since I am unemployed) to be able to see him in Philadelphia. All this traveling, in addition to the 2-hour gridlock on I-95 North that made us arrive at the venue half an hour after the posted beginning of the show made the anticipation unbearable. I will forever thank Bap Kennedy for taking the stage long enough for us to arrive five minutes prior to the beginning of the show--just long enough to go to the bathroom and find incredible seats dead center in the front row of the lawn section (apparently, people with lawn tickets were unaware that they could sit on the green seats). As I took the first bite of the great macaroni salad that my friend Megan prepared, "Why Aye, Man" started. I probably took 10 more bites out of the food I had in my plate because I was starving--I had to stop because I didn't want my chewing to interfere with the sound. The sound crew was exceptional. Though we could tell that the musicians' performance was dead on, "Why Aye" did not sound very good from where I was sitting, but the sound crew managed to work all the kinks and the sound was incredibly crisp the remainder of the evening. When the "Walk of Life" began, I thought to myself, "unbelieveable, I am at a Dire Straits concert." I must say that I like bands that are very technical, and none were as tight as this group. In terms of guitarrists, I have seen Billy Gibbons, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Alex Lifeson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Ted Nugent (ok, I included him as joke, he's not really good), but none were as great as Knopfler--he really floored me. The crowd was subdued for the most part, I was kind of disappointed that the people didn't stand through the concert. There was a connection with "Sailing to Philadelphia" for obvious reasons, but nothing really spectacular. Didn't seem to deter the band as they went through flawless versions of "Romeo and Juliet," "Sultans" with a somehow improved guitar solo, and other tunes. I was amazed at how the pulled off "Done With Bonaparte" the way they did--their performance made the song rise to be one of my favorites off the "Golden Heart" album. The highlight of the show, however, in my humble opinion, was the ending of "Speedway in Nazareth." I always had a soft spot for that song, and I freaked out when I heard it beginning in the show. Yet, in the concert the band somehow kept adding momentum to it, and I don't know how Danny Cummings could beat on the drums so hard for so long. It became a deafening roar of virtuosity, on the verge of hurting my years, but it was just beautiful and moving. My tickets cost a trivial $20. At that point I felt like leaving the venue and paying for another ticket, because I felt indebted to the band. To cap it off, they went ahead and played "The Telegraph Road," my favorite Dire Straits song, as the culmination of their setlist. It was amazing. The band bowed after that song, and Americans, cursed with the desire to get to places fast, started to pour out of the venue before the encore. It was disheartening to me to see that people were leaving in the middle of a Mark Knopfler song. It was a gorgeous night, we were being treated to a splendid show, and about a quarter of the crowd was just abandoning the band. They deserved better. Once "Brothers in Arms" started playing, however, people realized the mistake they had made, and many return. They played a powerful, soul-cleansing rendition of that song, and I actually got misty-eyed. My friend Joe didn't make fun of me though, since he actually had cried during "Romeo and Juliet" (memories of lost love, he claims). Finally they closed with "Money for Nothing" and "So Far Way," which got me up and dancing like a buffoon. It was a fantastic night with great friends and great music. Through the entire night the light that reflected off Knopfler's guitar (especially the resonator) went directly to me and my friends. We felt chosen to listen to such beautiful music, and I vow to go to every Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits concert I can get to until I can't move anymore.

What a great evening. My friend T.R. and I drove up from just northeast of Baltimore for the show, which we'd both been looking forward to for a couple of months. T.R. had never seen an MK or Dire Straits show, so I was anxious to show him what he'd been missing for 25 years. I last saw Mark at the Tower theater by myself, pigeonholed in the very last row of the balcony, in the very last seat to the right of the stage next to the wall, and directly behind a Jehovah's witness, and next two a young French couple. Despite not being able or wanting (in the case of the Jehovah's witness) to share my feelings about the show on that occasion, and the huge gap of space between myself and the stage, the show on that night was quite incredible. In fact, when he leapt into "So far away" during the encores that night, I knew that Mark was playing for me. Enough background. We ended up with seats in the second row of the balcony behind the balcony boxes - the cheapest seats in the house. After moving over two seats to avoid a disturbing horizontal railing that impeded our view of the band, the seats were just fine. The crowd up there was fairly docile, which you'd expect for the age range showing up for MK shows these days. I though Bap Kennedy did a great job of getting us all in the mood – Jim, his guitarist has obviously been exposed to Mark’s music and played very well. To my ear, I thought Mark was having a little trouble getting going with his vocals up until Romeo and Juliet, but the rest of the show was absolutely astounding from a musical perspective. Having read the reviews to date, I knew what songs to expect, but the little tweaks that were thrown in for songs like Bonaparte and Song for Sonny Liston were really delightful. Boom Like That was really special, and I thought Richard’s work with the Telecaster on that song was spot on. Matt’s work on piano on that amazing version of Telegraph Road and the accordion for Brothers in Arms were really moving bits of instrumentalism. It’s really tough singling out people in this band – they are all so competent and professional. Well done, all of you. Even though the venue wasn’t full, the show had a pretty relaxed and spirited feel. There were a couple of people yelling “Free Ireland!” and some other indiscernible items. When it got pretty bad at one point, Mark leaned over into the mic, paused, and said “I love you, too….” I lobbied pretty hard for “Shangri-La” after the third encore song – I’ve been dying to hear that live, but as Guy reported, the curfew got us. Nonetheless, smiles all around as we left the venue – another great show by the master of great shows. Thank you very much. T.R. was quite astounded by the whole proceedings, I think, and came away with a greater respect for Mark and his music. Telegraph Road was his highlight, as it is his favorite MK/DS song. The attention to details in that song was stupendous and Danny’s work in the last 6 minutes of that song was phenomenal. I told T.R., that seeing only that song would have easily been worth the price of admission.

Thanks to Mark, the band, and crew for a wonderful evening. With such a large and diverse repertoire, it must be difficult to select the music to play for a two hour concert. I'm sounding like Ralphie in A Christmas Story when asked by his father; "Did you get everything you wanted from Santa ? Ralphie replies, " Yea almost..." I missed Shangri-La, Back to Tupelo, Everybody Pays. I'll have to keep coming to any future gigs to hear live the Wild Theme / Going Home from my favorite soundtrack. Thanks again and keep going with this great music. GP

On a hot, sultry night, Mark and the band performed to their usual amazing abilities. The sound in the venue was crisp and the show astounding. I wish they could play for at least 3 hours, but understand the limitations. My only regret was that they did not play Shangri-La. Guy explained thae reason why. I will be seeing the Boston show, and I implore the band to play it there. Thanks for another wonderful evening, and see you all in Boston.

We were lucky enough to get 3rd row pit seats for this show in Philadelphia. These were the best seats I've ever had for a show, and it was wonderful. Venue The picture of the venue on Guy's site doesn't really show that the dark area above the wooden ceiling contains balcony seating. The show wasn't nearly sold out. I'd estimate that over 1000 seats were empty. All the green seats in Guy's picture were empty as well as some of the red ones near the back and sides. Still it was a large crowd. I've seen 14,000 listed as the capacity, but I would question that figure as being much too high. I was looking forward to a pleasant evening, weather wise, since the week had been so mild, but Saturday brought some very warm and humid weather. There was a breeze in the evening, however, even though it was an outdoor venue, much of the inside is covered with a permanent wooden roof which kept the breeze from getting near the stage. As we passed through security at the entrance, we overheard them getting a change in instructions that hand held video cameras were now allowed to be brought in. I doubt they all received the same instructions, since the security inside the pit even stopped a woman in front of me from taking a single still picture. Show I was really hoping that there might be change to the set list, being that they had a week off, and this was a new leg of the tour, but it was very much the "usual" setlist, minus Shangri-La. I thought the omission might have had to do with the temperature, as it had to be warm on stage, but reading Guy's page, I learned that it was due to the 23:00 curfew. For the full set list, see the Naples show, it was the exact same list and order. MK wore a dark Tshirt and Levi's. Some moments during the show: As MK was sipping his tea, he made a little joke as to how the American cup and saucers weren't up to his usual standards. At the start of Bonaparte, MK started the rhythm, and as he played asked Richard if he liked it, and just as Richard was about to join in, MK suddenly yelled "boo" at Richard. A funny little moment. In general they seemed to be having fun on stage, and inspired. As mentioned on Guy's page in the past, there are monitors for the pit audience, right on the stage. To me, the sound quality in these seats was as good or better than any seats for any artist or show I've ever seen. MK's guitar was so incredibly clear, as well as his voice. His voice was better than on any of the downloads of prior shows that I've heard. Better than the last tour too. Probably the week off gave his voice a well needed rest. I didn't bring any recording equipment, but if anyone did, I would expect this to be one of the best quality shows of the tour, sound and voice wise. I'd love to have a copy (hint hint). The only exception was in Speedway. I'm not sure if it was the mix, or the sound level of the guitars, but the organ was so distorted that it was almost impossible to hear it. Danny was fine on drums, and I listened with an open mind, but sorry, I really missed hearing Chad. The Audience. The crowd seemed into the show, enthusiastic, but not overly so. There were a few standing ovations, but I couldn't tell if that was just us in the pit, or it was the whole crowd too. I kept waiting to move to the front of the stage, but didn't want to be the first one. It turned out that no one moved up until after TRoad had finished, and once they did we got right up in front. We were about 4 feet from MK, and the stage wasn't very high, maybe 4 feet high. During Money for Nothing he came up even closer to the crowd and made eye contact with each person in the front with a little smile as he was playing. In the pit there was an interesting guy in the front row. He had about 10 gold bracelets on one wrist. Throughout the show and shortly after it ended, he badgered the crew, and the band (Richard especially, even in the middle of the show), for guitar picks, drum sticks, and set lists. I thought it was quite annoying. The best part was that there were 2 boys in the second row about 8-10 years old, with their parents. Before the show, Richard's guitar tech explicitly came to the edge of the stage, called them over, and gave them each a guitar pick. After the show, one of the crew gave the same two boys two drum sticks each, and this was right near the guy who had been badgering them for the sticks. I enjoyed that moment...lol On to Newark Tuesday!