One man's review of 8/6 DP show
As a onetime active participant in amd-p, back when there was a list server that sent things out in digest mode, when Mark "Land o' Corn" Cantin ruled the humor waves, Yuri flamed on periodically, and Trond and Dave regularly bestowed us with their knowledge (I suspect some things never change) I looked forward to seeing our favorite band open their American Tour on August 6 in Holmdel, NJ, 6 miles from my house. (Eat your hearts out, you Canadians!)
Opening for them was Dream Theater, who seemed to be out of their element playing while it was still light out (the PNC Arts Theater is an open-air hall), and couldn't quite get the hang of it, and Keith "I have more keyboards than you do" Emerson and his backing band, known as Lake & Palmer. As you can probably tell, I didn't enjoy ELP after the first 10 minutes, but at least it gave me a convenient time to hit the Men's Room.
Then came PURPLE!
I'll take a shot at the set list in a few moments, but first the overall reactions. (I saw them twice on the '96 tour - in Chicago and on closing night in Asbury Park, NJ, which may give you room for comparison.)
First thing I noticed right off - TMITD (The Man in Tie-Dye) was standing on the right side, where TMIB used to stand. He's not exactly taken Ritchie's place - but he certainly earned the right to stand there! Steve is absolutely integrated into the band this time around. Last tour, it seemed like he was "auditioning" for the audience, and hence Roger occupied the "guitar spot", while all the band members kind of cushioned Steve (from the audience - he's not guitar slouch!) This time - he's the MAN!
Ian's voice was stronger, by quite a bit, than the '96 tour. More than sometimes he felt like screaming, if you know what I mean. It might not be quite back to 1973 Child In Time quality, but it was darned close.
Jon wasn't as dominant in the first half of the show as the last tour - once again it felt like last time he had to take charge in order to let Steve "work his way in". But by the end - Speed King - he showed, again and again and again and again why he is *the* TOMATO (The Oh-so-great Man At The Organ), to misappropriate an acronym.
Little Ian - it's hard for me to characterize. I don't notice drummers, except if they are horrible. The only drummer I ever saw that "impressed" me was Cozy Powell, and that was only on one of the several occasions that I saw him.
Roger - well - I think it is darn well time that the Catholic Church look into him. He *must* be a witch - ever time I see him, he seems to get YOUNGER. More energetic, enthusiastic. Something must be done about this - he must be sacrificing young maidens to old Black Sabbath records or something.
The show itself. Opened with Hush and Bludsucker. Hush was heavier that I recall, and I really miss the opening "howl". The mix was a bit of a mess for the first two songs, dominated by bass (sorry, Roger. Luv ya, kid. But we do need to hear the other guys, too!). Then came SKOW; fun, but not trying to be the MIJ version. Pictures of Home was about then, too - may even have been before SKOW.
Ted the Mechanic was really powerful - I never liked it on Purpendicular, but it showed its teeth on this night. Almost Human, Seventh Heaven, and another from Abandon were sandwiched around WfT, and came across great - the crowd was into it, but not sure why. No airplay around here (except for Any Fule Kno That, thanks to Ed Janx)…
Steve noodled around for awhile - seemed like he wanted to use his tape loop, but it may not have been working, based on the look on his face and a couple of nods toward the road crew - which broke into, guess what, SotW. Except for the opening riff, it was POWERFUL. Like the guys were still having fun doing it. Jon did a shortened solo at the end, but we missed the first parts as the crowd was still going nuts.
Perfect Strangers and Lazy followed and were crowd pleasers - the band tight (when weren't they?) and Steve getting to show off on Lazy. Then the piece de resistance - the Italian lullaby. Speed King. The LONG version. Some absolutely [insert your favorite expletive here] marvelous interplay between the various members - Steve and Ian doing the voice-guitar tradeoff, and the MOST PERFECT lead and follow between Jon and Steve. If this bit was recorded - video or audio - it should immediately be sent to the Hall of Fame or the National Archives or somesuch. NEVER has there been such an absolutely PERFECT give-and-take between two musicians as that couple of minutes. Not even in the halcyon days of Ritchie and Jon.
After 90 minutes, it was over. Highway Star made for a rousing encore, with Roger and Steve giving out lots of handshakes, picks, etc. afterwards. My sense is that Dream Theater started late by about 15 minutes and ELP went a bit long, so DP had to cut it short - there is a midnight curfew that they hit on the nose for the show. But even cut short, this was probably the most perfect DP show I have ever seen (May 1973 rivals it, but I was 25 years more easily impressed then!) If DP were an army, they would now have conquered the world!
A Postscript for the Ritchie-o-files (of which I kinda am one): I overheard two comments on the way back to the bus: (1) "Wow! I guess Ritchie is dead! (2) That new guy, well, Ritchie always picked his notes carefully.
Which only goes to show - for each opinion, there is an equal and opposite opinion.
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