On July 28th Elvis and his crew checked into the Hilton Hotel in Hartford/Connecticut, which was their home base for the next three concerts. On the same day the king performed in Hartford, the next two days he travelled by a chartered Greyhound bus to Springfield/Massachusetts and New Haven/Connecticut. For his concert on the 29th the bus left Hartford in the late afternoon, so Elvis and his entourage arrived at the Civic Center just in time.

The orchestra plays an excerpt of "Also Sprach Zarathustra", the band takes over with the "Opening Riff" and Elvis appears on stage. He's wearing the "White Egyptian Bird Suit". It looks just like the blue one on the cover, but the colors of the suit and the sleeves are switched. Charlie Hodge hands him his guitar and the show is underway.

Elvis obviously tries to present the song in energetic style, but it sounds labored. However, the band does everything to cover it up, especially Ronnie Tutt beats the drums like there's no tomorrow.

Today Elvis also keeps the toying around with the word "well" short. In-between he mutters "I lost it, I lost my cross, lost my ring".  A few "wells" later someone of the crew seems to ask his boss about the jewelry and Elvis repeats his statement. "I Got A Woman" also sounds labored at times, when the band wants to end the "Amen" tag, the king asks them to go on. During the usual spoof of his old moves Elvis remarks "I am trying to wake everything up folks, as I have only been awake for an hour and I'm still not awake". He teases the people behind the stage by turning around and ends the opening with a reprise of "I Got A Woman". His musicians appear to have been caught off-guard, because they need a few seconds to join in. Slightly amused by the mishap the singer throws his guitar back to Charlie and welcomes the crowd. He slurs his words a bit and his voice sounds a tad nasal. Somewhat falteringly he tells the audience about his stage crew having played softball this afternoon and Ronnie Tutt "wore is arm out". As sad as it is, Elvis gives the impression of an intoxicated person.

Someone yells out a song request to which the king replies "It's now or never, you're right". Of course he doesn't do his biggest selling hit, but continues with the usual "Love Me". He sounds tired and forgets the lyrics. But he's handing out scarfs and that's enough for the ever screaming women.

During the performance of the Olivia Newton-John hit Elvis' voice cracks and he misses several notes. Especially at the start he fails big time, which makes him say "wooooo". Of course the fans don't mind, today they seem to act especially wild. Afterwards the king tries to cool down the crowd by saying "Don't fall down, don't get hurt. We got a long way to go".

Compared to the country tune the performance of "You Gave Me A Mountain" is a bit better, but especially on the verses Elvis struggles to hit some notes. He still belts out the chorus, but it also sounds labored.

In the background Charlie Hodge suggests a song to his boss, to which he replies "no way". Instead he announces to sing "Help Me", the flipside of his 1974 top20-hit "If You Talk In Your Sleep". Elvis sings with a lot of feeling, but when he has to hold the notes for a longer time his voice sounds shaky. He needs help, indeed.

Now Elvis cues his band to move over to the oldie block by saying "medley". He mumbles through "All Shook Up" as if he doesn't care at all.

The combination of "Teddy Bear" and "Don't Be Cruel" isn't presented any better. Elvis sounds tired, nasal and at times he skips to sing at all. Afterwards he bestows a lady with a kiss and is amused by her saying "mouth". 

In contrast to his greatest hits Elvis really seems to care for this ballad and performs it well. Even his voice sounds surprisingly good here. Still a bit hoarse, but at least he's got his vibrato under control again.

The good ole' "Jailhouse Rock" is driven by the band. The former rock'n'roll king doesn't invest too much energy and is more or less dragged along by the others.

Due to the singer's condition there are better versions of "America (The Beautiful)", but here Elvis gives all he's got and even repeats the finale. Afterwards he says "Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen" and cues his band with a confident sounding "Polk Salad Annie".

In contrast to "Jailhouse Rock" Elvis is up for this rocker, really takes the lead and even moves to the music and shows off some karate figures on the finale. Of course it's still obvious, that the plump man on stage is a shadow of his former self, but at least he tries.

To give him time to recover, the "Introductions" are padded out with a lot of solos and time killing stuff like having James Burton playing "Johnny B. Goode" with the guitar behind his back or David Briggs playing "Oh Susanna" on a harmonica. The procedure takes a quarter of an hour and therefore a quarter of Elvis' time on stage. That's what I call an insult of the paying audience!

The king returns to the music with a presentation of his latest single "Hurt". Today he even performs it twice and each time delivers a powerful finale. But once again he cannot disguise his vocal problems completely.

Jokingly the king repeats the words "you ain't" several times and adds "Thank you very much". Of course he does the expected song, but since it's an oldie and a rock'n'roll tune he just mumbles through it, investing as little energy as possible. It's a travesty, but the fans eat it up anyway.

As usual the king asks for the house lights to be turned up. Then he sings "Funny, How Time Slips Away", but since is voice isn't very good today, the long lines sound labored and Elvis slipps off key several times. However, he sings in falsetto voice and features JD Sumner with a very low note at the ending.

Today the king takes a relatively long time to bow out. He says "You are a fantastic audience, anytime you want us back just let us know. The audience is very responsive and they are crazy and so are we. And so that helps us" and once again tells the people, that he had lost his diamond cross and his big ring. Then he kisses a lady at the edge of the stage and sings "Can't Help Falling In Love". Of course the movie ballad segues into the "Closing Riff", which lasts quite long tonight. Elvis takes his time to bow in every direction, shake some hands and give away his final scarf.