Renaissance in Rockport, MA, USA
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Forum Name: Live Performance Reviews
Forum Description: Performance Reviews by Members
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=104502
Printed Date: November 23 2024 at 20:42
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Topic: Renaissance in Rockport, MA, USA
Posted By: kenethlevine
Subject: Renaissance in Rockport, MA, USA
Date Posted: October 22 2015 at 23:16
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Renaissance has been doing a number of shows in their stronghold of the US Northeast this fall, and the one closes to me was over an hour away, on a weeknight! I'm home now and basking in the glow. The setlist was Prologue Carpet of the sun Immortal Beloved Grandine Il Viento Symphony of Light ...break Sounds of the Sea Mother Russia Northern Lights A Song for all Seasons ...encore Ashes are Burning The concert took places at a fairly new music venue called the Shalin Liu performance Center. It was very comfortable but, more importantly, was pretty near full and had among the best acoustics of any concert settings I can remember. Every voice, instrument and note could be discerned and savoured, First and foremost were Annie's mellifluous pipes, still powerful and heat seeking. It's hard to explain - there is a genius at work that goes beyond just being naturally endowed, and it manifests in every nuance within her range. The sound waves of her concert performances are like snowflakes - no two are the same - so back we go to catch them over and over. Sadly, they are just as ephemeral, and I wonder how long she can keep performing at the level that she demands. At the same time, 5 backing musicians turned in a brilliant performance that did justice to some of the most unique opuses in rock, and also amped up the somewhat weaker recent material to, if not equal footing, at least stage worthiness. The twin keyboards were pivotal to the arrangements, with one carrying the melody and the other the multitude of orchestral flourishes and ambience For me, the highlights were Prologue, which showcases all the band members and Annie; Grandine Il Viento, whose climax captures Annie at her most majestic; Mother Russia, in an arresting version that had chills running up and down my spine; the beyond bombastic "Song for all seasons" which harnessed an energy sometimes lacking in the group's more sedate, well behaved canon; and of course the encore "Ashes are Burning", which ran on only long enough to bring the audience to its feet, clapping along with Annie. Of note, "Symphony of Light" also drew a standing ovation, its intricacies more evident on stage. As some of my favorites from the 1970s carry on into their 60s and beyond, I wonder if a live performing version of the group could follow in their footsteps when they no longer can. It's probably just a fantasy, but the material presented tonight is imposing enough to stand on its own, even with a different singer. The challenge would be to find one, and a backing band, whose passion for these creations is half what the current version of Renaissance bestows on these "songs for all our times". |
Replies:
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: October 23 2015 at 01:41
| Sounds great. Nicely described for a 'quick' review. It's funny but I too would like to see a new set of limbs carry on the music after Annie & co are done. I just don't know who can step into Annie's shoes. In Annie's heyday there were a bunch of these folk-rock sopranos but nowadays most female singers are mezzo. I was chuffed when they had Mary Fahl over for a couple of songs last year. Well, she did pretty well and still ended up sounding like Jennifer Rush. As you described, there are like a million little undulations going on in Annie's delivery and without that subtle dynamics it can sound very dry. That kind of singing is practically dead among the younger singers and the ones who do get somewhere close to that approach, like Anneke, tend to be mezzos. |
Posted By: Meltdowner
Date Posted: October 23 2015 at 03:55
| Great review and a very nice setlist. I saw a photo of the venue on their Facebook page, it seems really cool. |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: October 23 2015 at 11:24
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Wow! Great song list! I bet ASFAS went down a storm with two keyboardists and Sounds of the Sea must have been a rare treat! Thanks for sharing this Ken. ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: October 23 2015 at 12:19
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Thanks for this! Ah! Gotta listen to "A Song for All Seasons" again! |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: October 23 2015 at 22:16
| very strong set well played. They are hoping to be able to perform further afield but need the word of mouth (or print). The guitarist is very good and I wonder if he was a fan back in the day. He is probably in his 60s. He did great harmonizing with Annie, |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: October 23 2015 at 22:18
did you manage to see them with Mary Fahl? I had the impression you are down under and they haven't been touring there due to costs. Ah I see there are some youtubes I never made the connection between the pronunciation of her last name "Fall" and "October Project"
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rogerthat wrote:Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: October 23 2015 at 23:02
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Nope, India. Not going to be able to see them like ever but thankfully there's youtube. Yes, there's a youtube vid uploaded by the band themselves of Mary Fahl performing I Think of You with Renaissance. Don't know where she gets that heavily German pronunciation from since she speaks with a normal American accent. You know, I never made that connection too until you just mentioned it. :P Indeed, fall, october project, makes sense.
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Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: October 24 2015 at 09:50
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Ah India There isn't much likelihood they will go there I guess. Do they/did they have a following there? Did you ever see the videos of Northern Lights and Day of the Dreamer (short version) from the Mike Douglas show in 1978? At the show Thursday, Annie described getting a call or message while on tour in America that Northern Lights had made the singles charts - it must have been an unexpected thrill
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: October 24 2015 at 21:20
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I think they did albeit a modest one. I picked up Novella and SFAS in a store and bought Ashes/Cards from a domestic online retailer so they must have some sort of following. I suspect it's mainly the older generation. My wife knew Northern Lights because her mum used to play this song. I did see the Mike Douglas videos...on YouTube when a kind soul uploaded it shortly after Dunford's death. Not the best advertisement for the band - much prefer Midnight Special - but it will do. Yeah, have heard that story about how the band was in America when they learnt it was a top 10 hit. Annie mentioned it in an interview to a UK website earlier this year.
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: October 24 2015 at 21:23
| Even if Ren did have a good following here, Annie is practically paranoid about contracting diseases and Indian climate makes one immune to all sorts of things, starting with the pollution. My nose is never completely clear and just about everyone who lives in Mumbai is the same. We carry a slight cold all year...and still indulge ourselves to junk food off the street! |
Posted By: fudgenuts64
Date Posted: October 24 2015 at 22:39
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Nearly got to see the NJ show... had bus tickets and everything. Missed it as my ride's car broke down and couldn't get to the bus station. Still upset... ------------- 
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: October 25 2015 at 01:28
| Sorry to hear that, man. :( I know...I had even requested a review from you of the show. |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: October 25 2015 at 09:01
I believe that about Annie. I was joking with my friend that I could picture her in a group of friends back in the day passing around a joint, and she would be like "oh no thank you" with a vivacious laugh. She seems like the anti rock star in many ways, and although that may just be a persona, I bet she has taken good care of herself for a long time, starting with her voice
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Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: October 25 2015 at 09:05
so sorry to hear that any chance you can get to the Keswick in Feb? That's a great venue
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: October 25 2015 at 11:21
Yeah, anti rock star. She said she's never smoked and is only a light drinker. Don't think her voice would have held up this long if she hadn't been disciplined.
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: November 11 2015 at 20:18
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awesome. Great review Ken! How well did she carry off Sounds of the Sea. Tell me she can and did still do that justice ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: November 11 2015 at 20:34
sounded pretty good to me - it was actually the first song after the break and we were a bit late getting back. It was great that they listened to fans and played that, Northern Lights and Song for all Seasons.
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: November 11 2015 at 20:37
| So now that we are talking details, how did Song for all Seasons go? I mean how did Annie tackle it? I am sure the instrumentation came off better with the new band because they have two keyboards. But it's a pretty demanding song for the vocalist with those sharp dynamic spikes. |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: November 11 2015 at 20:49
well, you know, I'm of the opinion that a Song for all Seasons is not accorded as much respect as it should be because of it came about relatively late in their career, so I'm pretty demanding, and I think that she managed to hold her own within the dense arrangement. I'm always a bit disappointed that the brief instrumental break leading up to the final chorus never seems to do that brilliant turn it does on record. I don't know how to explain it better. It goes through 3 iterations, and the second is different from the first and third on record. Every live version I hear misses out on that. But just a minor flaw.
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: November 11 2015 at 22:17
| You mean the trumpet part right at the end of the second iteration? In live versions from the 70s, Annie vocalised all those portions which didn't capture that same effect because she modified the notes. With two keyboards, they had the opportunity to perform the brass sections on instruments but I wonder (doubt) if they did that? |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: November 12 2015 at 08:34
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I think that's it; was it really a trumpet? The orchestra was so tight with the band back then that I don't always realize when they are playing and when the band is playing, especially since the band was using synthesizers and even mellotron in that track on record. I honestly don't remember how they handled it live other than, if they did hit that high, it was a bit too buried in the mix. But overall I thought Annie really had the power to do the song justice, and the backing vocals helped too. The guitarist in particular seemed very sympathetic to the band sound vocally. I actually think I saw that he played in the band back in the 1980s as well, at least in several live incarnations I read somewhere that one of the reasons they stopped using the orchestra after this album was that the orchestra costs went through the roof around that time. It always seemed odd to me that they would have had to cut the orchestra for economic reasons after the most successful album of their career but it was because of unionization apparently.
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: November 12 2015 at 09:00
| Yeah, unionisation. Well, maybe if Northern Lights had been a hit single in the US as well, that could have bankrolled the orchestra. |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: November 12 2015 at 09:34
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Sadly, ASFAS did not find a new audience in America, but rather a dwindling existing audience, although I think it still sold quite well. I recently stumbled upon an archive of the Canadian charts called RPM, a magazine that ran from 1964-2000. The charts seems to have been based on some combination of radio play, sales and general popularity, and they also focus on English language audience, so any charts for Quebec would have been very different at that time, and local charts could be quite variable. It has quite a few surprises, first being that ASFAS looks to have been the most popular Renaissance album overall in English Canada. The only other ones that seem to have charted were Turn of the Cards and Live at Carnegie Hall, but in terms of time on the chart and peak position ASFAS was the most successful, peaking at #45. But nothing on the singles chart. edit - Live at Carnegie Hall was on Canadian album charts for 11 weeks in 1976 and peaked at 44; that was its only week in the top 50 A Song for All Seasons was on Canadian album charts for 7 weeks in 1978 and peaked at 45; it spent 3 weeks in the top 50 The only other album to chart in Canada was Turn of the Cards in 1974 for just 3 weeks, just scraping into the 90s.
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: November 12 2015 at 22:40
| That's at odds with the US market where I guess Scheherazade, LATC and Novella were their most successful albums with SFAS slightly behind. |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: November 13 2015 at 09:26
right, and I think it's dubious for a number of reasons, one of which is I don't think it includes Quebec which is 25% of the population more or less, and they had their own tastes, often favoring UK prog at that time.
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