I just got back home ... wow, my ears are still ringing.
This concert was just like I expected ... they are a very strong band, with and without Neal.
It was an evening with Spock's Beard - no support act. Spock's Beard are Dave Meros, Ryu Okumoto, Alan Morse, Nick D'Virgilio ... and Jimmy Keegan, who supports Nick on the drums. In fact they had two drumsets on the stage and often played simultaneously ... and of course they did a drum solo together.
Nick is really a good front man ... he switched between playing the drums (and not singing), singing and playing the guitar ... it was an electric guitar with piezo pickups, and he used the piezos (acoustic guitar sound) most of the time.
Alan - well, before I comment on the music let me say that he wore a absolutely weird rainbow colored shirt with freaked out interference patterns, shiny black trousers and black sunglasses - he looked just INSANE. His guitar playing was amazing ... he was using the same guitar that he played on the "Don't Try This at Home" DVD (the one with "Mellotron" printed above the pickups), and a nice Les Paul copy. If you're a guitarist and don't know Alan ... check him out, he has an absolutely unique style. He uses fingerpicking for EVERYTHING, and and gypsy-like strumming with the index finger.
Ryu had four keyboards - a Yamaha and a Korg to the left, a Hammond and a Moog to the right. And he made good use of them ...
The setlist ... well, I don't remember each song, but they started with the first half of Octane. Then they played some old songs - At the End of the Day, Strange World, Harm's Way, Go the Way You Go, ... then they did a short acoustic break with Carry On from Feel Euphoria and the acoustic interlude they also played on the DVD. Then they played some more songs from Octane. Unfortunately they only played one song as an encore ... fortunately it was The Light.
A wonderful experience ... it was worth every cent.
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