TESTIMONY TWO - LIVE IN LOS ANGELES

When you think the man is going to slow down to make big concepts albums with huge epic songs, there is a voice from god that tell him to continue. Neal Morse brings his little orchestra to Los Angeles to play the complete Testimony 2 CD plus many more epics. The songs are complex and intense like a big piece of symphonic music that are interrupted by some straight forward acoustic passages with Neal on the guitar.

The visuals of the DVDs are a bit of a disappointment, they added nothing to the performance, while the camera work is professional with some split screen effects. With the 3 hours performance of the show, we have a additional 10 minutes performance with Neal and Spock's Beard in the High Voltage festival. The stereo sound is nice, so you won't be disappointed listening the audio CDs that goes with the DVDs.

If it's impossible to enjoy every minute of this long concert, i really enjoy the first half of the first set, were it seems that every songs was flowing together very well. As usual a concert of Neal Morse is not complete without his "Gentle Giant moment" and a emotional moment when he talks about the miraculous recovery of his daughter from heart failure.

In conclusion, i think its always better to see the band playing their instruments than listening only to the audio portion on CDs. But don't expect to see a visually entertaining video to watch here like his previous live ones. Testimony 2 is a nice piece of music, not as strong as Testimony 1, but strong enough to fit in the discography of this passionate composer and musician who continue to gives us something to satisfy our hunger for symphonic prog rock music. (3.7 stars)