Results 1 to 11 of 11

Thread: Spock's Beard w/Neal Morse...again!!

  1. #1
    Connoisseur of stuff. Obscured's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    980

    Spock's Beard w/Neal Morse...again!!

    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

  2. #2
    Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Boulder, Colorado
    Posts
    186
    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!

  3. #3
    Member PotatoSolution's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Orange County, CA
    Posts
    63
    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.)

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by PotatoSolution View Post
    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.)
    What was the other song?

  5. #5
    Member PotatoSolution's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Orange County, CA
    Posts
    63
    Quote Originally Posted by Rufus View Post
    What was the other song?
    June.

    After that, Neal played a very brief riff from Snow after the audience started shouting it out. He joked he would play the whole thing which sent the audience crazy, but instead launched into The Light.

  6. #6
    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Vallejo, CA
    Posts
    1,012
    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)

  7. #7
    Member PotatoSolution's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Orange County, CA
    Posts
    63
    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.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by PotatoSolution View Post
    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.)
    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.

  9. #9
    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.

  10. #10
    Member dgtlman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    OKC, OK
    Posts
    581
    Magical!

  11. #11
    and...just to add more proof
    Last edited by lumpy99; 02-26-2014 at 02:33 PM.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •