Wow, what a cruise!
Wow, what a cruise!
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
Yep, Spock's was by far the highlight of the cruise for me ... with AND without Neal. Ted Leonard did such an amazing job. But Alan Morse, Dave, Ryo and Jimmy TOTALLY killed it! They were such a tight band, it's inconceivable to believe that they don't gig year-round. The setlists were killer, too. Man oh man, what a band!
Spock's Beard was easily the highlight of the cruise for me, hands down.
Ted Leonard is a terrific addition to the band. Vocally, he is a significant upgrade over Nick (sorry Nick, I still think you are one still of the greatest prog drummers ever). Ted sings some of the old Neal-era stuff better than Neal did.
But when Neal came out and did those two songs, man, that was amazing. The room was totally electric, everyone in that theater knew they were experiencing something really special, and you could feel the love flowing back and forth from the stage. Incredible.
(Poor Riverside. Their first set was just about destroyed by technical problems, and their second set was scheduled at the same time as the SB show. The theater for SB was fully packed, so I don't know if anyone was at the Riverside stage.)
I have to admit, Neal Morse is a great showman, after seeing him with Transatlantic. Mike Portnoy might have been a manic court jester, but Neal Morse pumped the enthusiasm up to ten. I can imagine he set the place on fire when he showed up.
If it works for him, the man can be what he wants.
"Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)
There was a funny moment before Neal came out.
The first part of the set was SB performing stuff from the new album (which sounded great). Then, Ted Leonard moved his microphone stand directly in front of his keyboard near the front of the stage.
Then Ted said, "How many of you have seen us play live since I joined the group? You have never seen me put the microphone stand in front of the keyboard like that, have you?"
That's when people went nuts, as they figured out the setup was for Neal.
That would be me. I really like the Ted Leonard era Spocks and caught the first set. But Riverside is a real favorite of mine. So I caught as much as I could of them and then ran to the other theater (6 floors down) just in time to catch Neal perform The Light. Then I ran back to Riverside to catch the last 15 minutes of their set. Their second set was awesome and no sound problems this time. I was fortunate to some time with Mariucz Duda over a few days and he truly is an amazing artist. The band were actually ashamed of their sound problems so I was really happy for them that the second set rocked.
Another thumbs up. Neal Morse sitting in Friday night performing The Light - definitely the highlight of the cruise for me. But SB Wed night performing at the pool stage was just as good. Afterthoughts extremely tight - and the best band vocal work of anyone on the cruise by far.
and...just to add more proof
Last edited by lumpy99; 02-26-2014 at 02:33 PM.
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