Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  A blast from the not-too-distant past. Nov. 19, 1978 review Like Fine Wine, Moody Blues Have Aged Well          The Moody Blues returned to Memorial Auditorium Saturday night for the first time in five years and took 16,000 devotees on a magic carpet ride back to the nights in white satin, back to when the giddiness of the 1960s was turning into the fantasies of the ‘70s.          During their long layoff, everyone in the British-bred group has married and had children, but they’ve survived very well indeed.          The front line – Justin Hayward, Ray Thomas and John Lodge – was more hale and hearty than ever. The harmonies were in place. The new songs were brisk and agreeable. The one ones throbbed with fresh life. In fact, they rocked out gloriously.          Substituting for Mike Pinder, the man who gave the group the sound of a thousand violins via the mellotron, was Patrick Moraz, formerly the keyboardman with Yes.          Moraz replicated Pinder’s sound to a po

  A hot night I would happily go back and relive. Nov. 9, 1978 Byrne, Talking Heads Infuse Old Tunes with New Sizzle          Talking Heads, the most courteous and clever of the new bands that germinated in CBGB’s in New York City, gave some 700 bobbing, cheering fans a high-intensity musical message Wednesday night.          They engulfed their setting – the Spectrum, a sweltering former supermarket at Elmwood Avenue and Amherst Street – with droning rhythm guitars, an energizing beat and the capricious, croaking tenor of singer, songwriter and guitarist David Byrne.          Lean, short-haired Byrne was a compelling presence. He stood deadpan, drenched in sweat, straining occasionally on his tiptoes as he sang, rocking back on his heels to pick off some rapid-fire single-note counterpoint.          As a singer and stage figure, Byrne took the excruciating internal restraint of Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry and turned it into a smoldering madness. As guitarist, he made atonal