The audience gave a mature applause as Michael Matijevic sauntered on stage with black shirt opened revealing pecs that even I was jealous of and leather trousers. Well of course, he’s filling the shoes of the great Jim Morrison. The women in the balcony sitting next to me cooed at the unmistakable intro of Love Me Two Times.
The Royal Philharmonic seemed a bit drowned out from where I was sitting. I moved about but the sound didn’t really get balanced out until after the intermission. Despite this initial observation, I was blown away by Matijevic’s “impersonation” of Morrison’s token singing style…it was almost eerie.
A jungle rhythm broke out to Break On Through and the few people that had congregated near the stage were dispersed by a portly security guard. By the time Love Her Madly hit the set list, I could see that the audience in their seats were just a throng of contained energy – feet tapping, spasmatic body movements, chair-bound dancing, on the verge of being whipped into a frenzy.
The orchestra came into its own for the fourth song, Waiting for the Sun, with powerful strings and intense timpani fills against Matijevic’s gloomy vocals and metallic keyboard skills of Manzarek.
Moonlight Drive, Wild Child, The Changeling and Not to Touch the Earth filled the remaining first half set. Finally, Manzarek appealed to the audience that despite the intellectualism that comes with performing with an orchestra – this was a …