A Night To Remember

On May 15 the Belgian Fanclub ElvisMatters brought together Joe Guercio, a 75 piece orchestra and Mondo Carne’s Jenson Bloomer and Tony Smith in Mol. Soon it turned out to be a smart move. Appropriately the show began with a few classics. Impressive versions of “America The Beautiful”, “What Now My Love” and “My Way” were “only” the starters for the main event, but they did warm up the audience for sure. Joe Guercio took over from the orchestra’s conductor and with “Zarathustra” the fireworks began. Beautiful versions of “I Just Can’t Help Believin’”, “Just Pretend” and “My Boy”, but also some rockers made the crowd go crazy, giving the artists more than one standing ovation. After a great version of “Suspicious Minds” it was time for a needed – the audience had to catch their breath – intermission. After the break the show got even better “Johnny B.”, “An American Trilogy”, “Hurt” and many more brought the fantastic orchestra, Jenson, Tony and of course Joe Guercio standing ovation after standing ovation, and no, the seats weren’t removed during the break. The tradition of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” as closer was broken, since the audience simply demanded an encore, which became an extended version of “Suspicious Minds”. Beforehand we knew Tony is a great guitarist (not for nothing he replaced James Burton during Elvis The Concert once) and Jenson one of the few singers in the circuit that really can carry an Elvis tune. We didn’t know what to expect from Joe Guercio and the orchestra. Jenson Bloomer told us it was a bit weird experience, because there is no place for improvisation with an orchestra, but like the audience he thought the result was marvelous, and we can only underline that. The orchestra’s wall of sound, together with Jenson’s strong voice and Tony’s guitar licks gave us and 500 others a wonderful evening. We consider ourselves lucky to witness this great event, without doubt one of the greatest Elvis events we ever attended. If you have the time, you should try to go to tonight’s show (there are a few tickets left we were told). Thanks Steve for the pictures!