Joe Lynn Turner Support Act: Peter Baron's Thunderfarm Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, Pennsylvania, USA May 7, 2017 ![]() I took a break from photographing concerts, just so I could be a fan and enjoy the final performance of Joe Lynn Turner's Spring 2017 US Tour on May 7th, capping off his longest tour as a solo artist on US soil in over a decade. And one I will not soon forget. Here is a musician whose music I have loved, for quite a long time, so much so, that it prompted me to travel across the country, twice during this tour. The first was for one and a half performances (note to self: never fly on the day of the show again) at the Iridium Jazz Club in midtown Manhattan on April 21st and 22nd. Thirteen days later, I flew cross-country again, this time on a red-eye flight, and then drove to the town of Sellersville, Pennsylvania, a place rich in beauty as well as history. Believe me; it was not easy to leave the camera equipment at home. But in choosing to make the trek as I did, all I wanted to do was to show my support of JLT and the current tour. ![]() Just to give you a little background on the place where JLT played his final gig of the Spring 2017 US Tour; the town of Sellersville, Pennsylvania has two main attractions which are the Washington House and the Sellersville Theater next door. The theater was originally the Moyer Livery Stable built on the grounds of the Washington House at the end of the 19th century (1894). It later became a truck garage and in the 1950s, was converted into a movie theater. Once inside the theater, it is adorned with dark burgundy drapes situated on either side of the stage with its ornately designed quilted fabric, in-between pale green pillars with candle wall light fixtures, which lined the theater on either side of the aisles. In front are moveable cabaret-style tables and chairs, and behind them are twenty-one rows of anchored folding seats, going fourteen across, with a small gap of at least six feet separating the back of the tenth row and the beginning of the eleventh row. The sight lines from the vantage point of the stage were fair, but not great. According to one east coast online publication, the movie theater became a live venue hosting both local and national acts to the stage in 2002 and is "renowned for its sound quality and intimate shows." However, that was clearly not the case of what I heard, especially when the opening act, Peter Baron's Thunderfarm, hit the stage to perform their set. In fact, the amplification and sound volume was louder from the stage than what I was accustomed to in hearing. So, to me, the theater lacked the liveness, clarity, and intimacy I was used to hearing in a concert hall setting. Even JLT himself, after singing the second song of his set, "I Surrender," told the crowd, "it's a very dead sound in here, so we got to make a lot of noise" which I am sure he and the band discovered during their soundcheck. And so naturally, I was curious about this and wrote an email to Daniel Faga, Production Manager and Technical Director of Sellersville Theater about this, just a few days after the show. He responded to me and said, “a dead sound refers to the acoustic properties of a room.” And so, from my understanding, if the “sound (in the theater, for example) does not have a naturally occurring reverberation or echo, like in a recording studio,” the only thing JLT and his band could do was to “crank up their volume to fill the space with noise.” So, while my original seat was in the tenth row of the theater; I chose to stand and soon danced my way to the end of the twenty-first row at the back of the theater. From there, the direct sound coming from the stage was still loud, but not as taxing to my ears, so that I could hear the band comfortably and make out JLT's vocals clearly. ![]() A majority of JLT's songbook he would perform on stage that night contained songs from his days of fronting bands such as Rainbow, Deep Purple, and Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force. So, in one instance, I heard hard rock songs like, "Death Alley Driver," "Power," "Spotlight Kid," and "Rising Force." As well as bluesier numbers like Rainbow's "Jealous Lover" and "Blood Money," a song from one of his solo albums. Of course, a Joe Lynn Turner show ought to include at least one, if not both of his Rainbow power ballads, "Stone Cold" and "Street of Dreams." We had the privilege of hearing both in Sellersville. JLT also included two Deep Purple songs (from the Mark II edition) into his set. "Perfect Strangers" was one of them, as the keyboard intro to the song was an excellent vehicle for the keyboardist, Dr. Gary Zappa, to showcase his solo skills. "Lazy" was the other and a perfect interlude to Rainbow's "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll," featuring the powerful solos of bassist, Rob DeMartino, and drummer, Jules Radino. Speaking of the song, "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll," in my humble opinion, I believe that it is one of the quintessential rock anthems of our generation. At the time of publication, it has been seven years since (Ronnie James) Dio's death in May 2010. And for some years now, JLT has paid respects to the late singer's legacy by performing at least one, if not more songs from the first era of Rainbow and incorporate them into his set. And frankly, as a huge fan of all eras of the band, I have never minded it. In fact, it is quite touching to hear his dedication to the late singer. For example, from the stage at the Iridium Jazz Club on 22nd April, JLT said, "Ronnie was the kind of guy…a gentleman of rock…no egos. No bullshit...and he always had a warm hug and a cold beer for you...Every time I met him, he would say, Turner, we're from different camps…but I love ya." JLT continued in saying, "We were from different camps…he wrote about what he wrote…and I wrote about what I wrote…but we respected each other…and that is something very, very fair in this business." ![]() Although I was enjoying the first half of JLT's set, with his vocal sounding incredible throughout, the song of the night for me by him, hands down, was "Dreamin' (Tell Me)" from the Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force album, Odyssey (1988). I shed a tear or two while listening to this song and thought how remarkable and ageless his vocal still is, especially in how he sang this almost thirty-year-old song. And luckily, thanks to an astute audience member who had the wherewithal to capture the performance on YouTube, the moment has been preserved on film, forever, I hope, for all the world to see. And so, if you are a hardcore fan of JLT's music as much as I am, then you know that he has plenty of other songs to choose from for future set lists. We are talking about the material he has from ten solo records, various tribute songs he has guested on, as well as countless projects from years of collaborations with musicians from all over the world! And so, imagine for a moment, after a forty plus year career like he has had, how difficult it must be for a musician of JLT's caliber to pick and choose which songs he could potentially perform while touring here in the States or around the globe for that matter? It is not easy. Case in point, during the final part of the show in Sellersville, an audience member asked JLT, after he finished singing, "Can't Happen Here," if the band could play more. And while he jokingly quipped, "we'll be back tomorrow." He then said to the person who asked the question, "we got so many songs, it's difficult to do them all…so many songs we missed, which is about 397..we're sorry." As far I am concerned, there was nothing JLT had to be sorry about. I am grateful to have gone to this concert in Pennsylvania and heard a total of fourteen and a half (the interlude, remember?) quality songs performed by an amazing band, sung by a phenomenal singer in the final gig of his Spring 2017 US Tour. I had a blast. I treated the night like there was no tomorrow, danced at the back of the venue, and cheered as much and as loud as I could. But then again, I am just a longtime JLT fan, who loves his music, and for one memorable night, I took a break from photography so I could write about it, instead. - Julie Barela Mills All Photos by ©Jeff Smith of ReflectionsNYC On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capturingthewowmoment/ On Twitter: https://twitter.com/reflections_nyc?lang=en Support Act: Peter Baron's Thunderfarm ![]() Set List: Let It All Rock We Don't Get Fooled Again (The Who cover) Nantucket Sleigh Ride Killing Post Keep Up Your Head |