IQ at The Met Bury 3rd October 2009
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Topic: IQ at The Met Bury 3rd October 2009
Posted By: Roj
Subject: IQ at The Met Bury 3rd October 2009
Date Posted: October 07 2009 at 06:34
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The Met is my favourite concert venue, a relatively small place with a standing only capacity of , I'd say, about 300-400. There was a full house for this gig, which created an excellent atmosphere for the band's latest visit to the North West of England. Myself, my good lady Evette, my sister (Proggy Pogo here on pa) and her other half gathered for the evening's entertainment and we were not disappointed.
Paul Cook has returned to the drumstool, albeit temporarily, whilst Andy Edwards is on a hiatus, giving a real "old school " feel to the line-up. Only new keyboard player Mark Westworth, who seems to be fitting in really well, is what one could term a recent addition.
The full Frequency album was performed, followed by some older classics from IQ's repertoire. Mike Holmes guitar produced no sound at all for the first couple of minutes of the opener, much to his and everybody else's amusement. After that, the sound was pretty much perfect. The band were really in top form, and the whole set seemed to pass by much too quickly. Standouts from the Frequency set for me were the atmospheric Life Support and The Province, which was a good deal better than the studio version to these ears.
So to the older stuff and I was delighted to hear Sacred Sound from Dark Matter, easily the best song from that album. Not only is it one of my all-time IQ favourites, it's also my wife's favourite IQ song too! Guiding Light was excellent too, but when Peter Nicholls announced the final song was The Narrow Margin I was shocked and absolutely delighted. I never expected to hear the full version of this live again, and this really made my night.
Encoring with It All Stops Here and then The Wake and Headlong really brought the house down. Headlong is a real live rarity for IQ and was a great end to a great evening. My only request? Come back again soon guys!!
THE SETLIST
Frequency
Life Support
Stronger Than Friction
One Fatal Mistake
Riker Skies
The Province
Closer
The Darkest Hour
Sacred Sound
Guiding Light
Narrow Margin
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It All Stops Here
The Wake
Headlong
I will try and add some photographs to the review shortly.
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Replies:
Posted By: Roland113
Date Posted: October 07 2009 at 07:18
 Glad you had a good time Roj, sounds like a great show as well. It was a similar set list to their show in Pittsburgh though a little more from Frequency made it into your show. The Narrow Margin was wonderful to hear live.
------------- -------someone please tell him to delete this line, he looks like a noob------- I don't have an unnatural obsession with Disney Princesses, I have a fourteen year old daughter and coping mechanisms. |
Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: October 07 2009 at 07:18
Nice review. Sounds like a great gig! 
Other committments permitting, I'm hoping to go and see them in London in December (I think) I'd be happy with that set list. I'm guessing Andy Edwards will be back with them by then. No disrespect to Mr Cook, who done a blinding job with IQ for many years, but I did feel Edwards bought a certain fresh energy to IQ's live preformances when I saw them on their last tour. |
Posted By: Proggy Pogo
Date Posted: October 07 2009 at 15:38
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Nice review bro ! This was my second time seeing IQ and it certainly was an excellent gig! It was great to see Frequency played in full - I was really impressed with Stronger Than Friction, which is becoming one of my faves on the album, plus Ryker Skies and The Province. The band played a long set of about two and a half hours, but as Roj points out it did seem to go too quickly! There were many high points, but I really enjoyed hearing Sacred Sound and The Narrow Margin (the latter of which I hadn't heard before). I was delighted by the encore of The Wake/Headlong and got a bit carried away! After the show my better half, Alan, bought me Subterranea from the merchandise stall and I was lucky enough to get it autographed by Peter Nicholls, John Jowitt and Mark Westworth who we met after the gig. John Jowitt was particularly friendly, chatty and down-to-earth. Looking forward to next time already! ------------- 
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Posted By: demelza
Date Posted: October 08 2009 at 04:02
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"I'm hoping to go and see them in London in December (I think) I'd be
happy with that set list. I'm guessing Andy Edwards will be back with
them by then" I'm pretty sure that Cookie is doing the London gig...hooray! I'd missed him. |
Posted By: Roj
Date Posted: October 09 2009 at 06:55
I agree with this Blacksword. As good as Cookie is (and it was truly great to see him back with the boys last weekend) Edwards is on another level for me. In fact, his drumming performance on Frequency is outstanding, and I commented on this very subject in my review of the album.
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Blacksword wrote:Posted By: michaelmorris
Date Posted: October 20 2009 at 14:47
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I went to see them at the Robin 2 in Bilston last Friday. It's the first time I've seen them.
Great songs, great musicianship, great vocals ... ... awful sound balance. No seriously, I meant terrible. The lyrics were completely inaudible for all but the quietest sections, the drums were way too loud and the mix was generally all over the place.
It's not the venue because I've seen loads of bands there and the mix has been great. It's a great shame. ------------- Prog Rock fan and Amateur Astronomer |