Asia at Turning Stone Casino

L-R: John Mitchell, Virgil Donati, and Harry Whitley.
Live in Lancaster County, 2024. No other image available.

 Asia have just released their new studio album Indigo, the first with their new lineup with John Mitchell (Arena, Lonely Robot, It Bites), Harry Whitley, and Virgil Donati. Only Geoff Downes remains from the original lineup. It's the first without the late John Wetton or Carl Palmer since Silent Nation, which was the last with John Payne. This means that another US/Canada tour is inevitable, yet the band have not stopped at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY since Gravitas in 2014. That was the fourth since the original lineup reformed (Steve Howe left again in 2013, however). The show was held in the Showroom, used for concerts that wouldn't draw as many people. Larger shows would be upstairs at the Event Centre, even though it's still a smaller venue compared to most non-major areas. Verona is neither Hammersmith nor Wembley, but is still a premier destination, even for a small town in the Mohawk Valley. Turning Stone has had their fair share of name artists over the past few decades. In North America, playing casinos may seem like the nadir of ones career, since newer acts may only book them in Las Vegas like MGM Grand or Caesars Palace like Adele, alongside legends like Wayne Newton and Rich Little, rather than a heritage act like Asia. It's not just fruit machines anymore.
 I've also seen Duran Duran, The Moody Blues, The B-52s and Culture Club, and Roger Hodgson there (the only other show at the Showroom I've gone to, yet this could all go in a separate post). If Asia do make it back (technically Downes, who will have to show the other three the ropes, as it were), I have to know what day of the week because the express bus only goes there Monday through Wednesday, and any other day would be a challenge. The schedule changed just after Duran Duran, which was only a couple years ago, even though that was a Wednesday, and my own schedule has changed since then. I don't know if I'll have my driving licence by the time the show comes. I'd have to win big before that. We'd have to see if the band will even be a hundred miles of me first before making any plans.