Ray Manzarek The Jefferson Starship Tour July 7, 2002

Ray Manzarek, legendary keyboardist and former member of The Doors, recently came to the Detroit, Michigan area and put on an incredible show. He was in great spirits and seemed to enjoy himself and the experience very much. We of course were thrilled, especially since it had been so long since we last saw Ray perform (way back in the early 90's when he and Michael McClure came to Ann Arbor, Michigan a few times during their Love Lion tour).

Furthermore, the folks at the concert venue they allowed us to bring in the camera! The images you see above are some of the 40+ photos we took, and were "cropped" to cut out most of the stage background. Click on any of the thumbnail images for larger versions of the photos (most are 550x450 but a few are slightly different sizes). Alas, I am simply a passionate fan of excellent music, not a professional photographer, thus some of the photos are a bit blurry (oh well...).

Ray appeared after Vanilla Fudge and before Jefferson Starship, the other two acts on the tour. We sat in the third row and very much enjoyed the view! He performed for about 30 minutes, and shared many fun stories with us all. He talked about how he and Jim Morrison came up with the name of the band, how Jim sheepishly sang the Moonlight Drive lyrics to Ray on the beach, and many other interesting stories.

Ray performed the following songs (all times are approximate):

• Storytelling - Warm-ups and Introductions (2:30)
• The Crystal Ship (instrumental) (2:30)
• Storytelling - On The Beach (1:30)
• Moonlight Drive (vocals including Horse Latitudes poem) (5:00)
• Close To You (vocals) (3:45)
• Storytelling - Forming the Band and Early Performances (2:00)
• Milestones by Miles Davis (instrumental) (3:00)
• Storytelling - Opening the Doors of Perception (3:30)
• Light My Fire (vocals) (4:30)
• Riders On The Storm (vocals) (1:30)

In addition to the show itself, and Ray's amazing keyboard playing, we were thrilled with news of upcoming events and activities. Ray confirmed that The Doors were regrouping (Ray, guitarist Robby Krieger, drummer John Densmore, with guest vocalist Ian Astbury of The Cult) for a performance on September 6, 2002 in Los Angeles, with an European tour to follow. He promised that a subsequent North American tour will come to the Detroit area, along with new studio recordings possibly in the spring of 2003!

The crowd was very attentive and, in my opinion, genuinely appreciated Ray's stories and of course the music! The venue was an outdoor arena with a pavilion dome thing, and the acoustics were great. Two closed-circuit video cameras captured Ray's every movement onto the large video screens on either side of the stage. We thoroughly enjoyed every moment, and we eagerly await his next performance!