THE FINAL FLIGHT: LIVE AT L'OLYMPIA

I can judge this album twice, because I was right there in first person, attending one of the best concerts in my life and in prog history. The album sounds incredible and I can tell that what you hear in the album was exactly what we lived there at L'Olympia. The mix sounded really nice, also the theater is an excellent place, and the CD and especially the Blu-ray is a perfect representation of that.

The setlist was (almost) perfect, revisiting the entire discography (except Kaleidoscope... it would be great to hear 'Shine' or 'Black as the Sky', or even better, a bit of 'Kaleidoscope' inside the Medley), but... The Absolute Universe Ultimate Edition, Whirlwind Medley, WE ALL NEED SOME LIGHT, and the Final Medley with sections of their best prog epics... almost 3h of epicness, I think it's fine.

Goosebumps since minute one when the intro started. The Absolute Universe was a long album, but watching it live makes it better. The 'Overture' was an incredible prog exhibition with all members showing their skills. This first CD has no pauses or moments to disconnect. The songs flowed perfectly smoothly, increasing the tension until 'Looking for the Light' (really powerful performance) and 'The World We Used to Know', ending the first set with an emotional Transatlantic-ish short moment. 'Bully' sounded really strong too and 'Rainbow Sky', the most poppy song, was really fun actually.

The second part of the Absolute Universe started with the Mike Portnoy speech, there was almost no salutations until that moment. CD2 is less powerful than the first one but it has some of the most emotional moments, like 'Solitude' with Pete singing, beautiful song... and 'Can You Feel It?', a typical Morse happy section from the Abridged version, but personally it's a shoot of energy that song in that moment of the album, goosebumps... After that, the tension increases until the big melodic theme at the end, with all people standing up, waving arms and singing in unison.

The second part of the show was spectacular: Whirlwind Medley was like "Is It Really Happening?", it was incredible. No words, music speaks by itself. 'We All Need Some Light', the most emotional song I've heard live, a really clever choice for a last song, before the Final Medley breaks in. 'Duel with the Devil', 'My New World', 'All of the Above' and ending with the best closing section of all time, 'Stranger In Your Soul', the crowd was like a sea of waving arms. What else can we say? This concert should not end...

A special evening in an incredible venue, one of the concerts of the century, Transatlantic is the synonym of prog.