Review: Mansfield 8/8/98
Well, it's been 24 hours I'm recovered sufficiently enough to lend my observations of this long-awaited show....
First off: Hats off to Blueman for arranging the pre-show get-together at Jimmy's. It was great! I and my friend Alice were the first to arrive there, at about 4 o'clock: a quiet bedroom-community restaurant/lounge, with a 10-stick draft selection and what seemed dozens more in bottle. Nobody else was around yet, so I drafted up a Sammy's and Alice a Foster's, and we basked in the glow of the AirSupply wafting softly down from overhead, and waited for things to start happening.
Presently the _|_ tourshirts started drifting in, then the assorted NakedThunder shirts, TBRO shirts, then SouthPark?! Good job, Brad no sheep, you! Eventually, by 6 o'clock, a fine merry granfalloon of about 30-40 Purpfolks had packed the bar, including Ed Janx, Wolf Schnieder (thanx for the Trower info!) and the Swedish contingent of Svante ("Americans are more friendly") and crew. A grand time was had, thanx to the DPWWW gang, for providing some tour goodies as prizes in a "stump to DPWWW staff" trivia game, which elicited some pretty amazing questions from the mistiest depths of DP & related history. My amazement further compounded when the answers were provided but hey, just because I copped a CD single of AFKT for knowing what the bonus tracks on the Italian release of MIJ25 were, I thought EVERYBODY knew that stuff... ;-)
I was wandering around, meeting people and just soaking up the vibe. I'd left my friend Alice at the bar, but she'd fallen into conversation with a group of other DP widows and was really enjoying herself. Later she told me that they were looking around at us, and everybody was just nonstop grinning and excited and totally psyched. Golly, ain't we just a warm fuzzy luvvable bunch??
Anyway, most of the excitement stemmed from the news brought by people who'd seen the band the night before in Hartford: The band was on FIRE. It was gonna be a hot show!
So it got to be 8:00 or so and people were starting to bail out for Great Woods, about 2-3 miles away. DP wouldn't be going on till about 9:30, but there was some talk of a tailgate party out in the parking lot until then. So Alice and I split, drove there, parked... and we couldn't find anybody :-\. So, we went in, and I hit the merchandise stand.
I remember three shirts:
- /-\ cover front US cities back, black
- MH cover front MH reversed back (like back cover) with MH songlist (incl.WABMC), black
- polo shirt, olive green with cool new "dp" logo on a 3" crest w/dragon, sort of TBRO inspired but nice
For a change, I bought a baseball cap ivory canvas with the dp logo (no crest) above the bill, and "deep purple" stitched in green around the back strap cutaway.
I also picked up the tourbook, much like the _|_ one: the making of Abandon, words and photos by RG. I will not divulge the hidden secret in the front cover photo. Can YOU see it??? (Thanks, Ed.)
We found our seats... and waited through the last half of ELP's set. Should I expend bandwidth on ELP's set (what I saw of it)? Hmm... naw. Three words: Big Art Bombast. Flame away; I've never owned an ELP record. I recognised a couple of the "classic rock" tunes, and then there was this big important 15-minute Epic, and then they were done and Alice had a resulting impression of "we are Artistes, and we deign to play our Works for the gifted Few, amongst the vast teeming unscrubbed masses, that can truly Understand our Genius." Well, I understood it, they are brilliant but it didn't keep me from going to get a coke and a sub. Nuff said.
A quick, 15-minute set change... then bam the lights went down, and an illuminated backdrop of /-\ skyscrapers reaching for the sky (much like SteelyDan's "Royal Scam" album cover minus the snakes). JL grinds some snarling chords for a few seconds, and then
HUSH: No howl intro, just Blam, right into it. Immediately, the mix sounds great SM and JL are balanced out, IP and RG are funking away in the pocket, and IG is sailing hot and clear over the top.
Whoa yeah the crowd is on its feet right Now!
BLUDSUCKER: From the first "waaaa NO NO NO" I'm amazed IG is f***ing NAILING this! There's a slight hesitation to hit it on /-\, but man that hesitation is gone on this night in Mansfield! The crowd senses it and goes nutz. SM and JL's duelling solos are fiery perfection, JL in particularly fine form, as he delicately stomps on the last second or two of S's solo spot back into the riff, JL's itching to play. What balls he has - glad to hear it! The last verse, IG gets up on his toes and wails it in damn-near perfect IR range I'm stunned! At the song's conclusion, the audience roars its approval; Ian acknowledges "Thank you" sounding nary out of breath.
SKOW: Here's the one that I questioned the (re)addition of... especially including it into this shortened (90 min) setlist. So I sat back and listened to this SMed version: less shuffle, more bouncy. Nice guitar-vox harmony on the quiet G-D-A-Bm part; JL gets the second solo now, which reprises into the GDABm again. No more vox-axe dueling over shuffling drums; now SM just jams along with IP for a few bars (in E now, instead of Bm). Then a chorus, quick JL descending tagout line, and ber-DUM that's it. My opinion: I would have rather heard a Holy S**t song (like, um, Never Before). Or perhaps something more from _|_ . But that's just me... Meanwhile, the Mansfield crowd loved it.
"Every song we do, well, once upon a time it was a new song," IG tells the howling enthusiastic masses. IP taps the band into...
TED THE MECHANIC: The one surviving _|_ tune. Played a bit fast, and the crowd is rocken. This has always struck me as one of the less-adventurous tunes on the album (lyrics aside), but here live I'm sitting in admiration of IP's work on it, as RG spins and locks in with him. Hey, hold on I gotta go play the album version! (ten minutes & a beer later) Ok, that's better.... Back to work.
The crowd erupts as IG mentions the words "Machine Head"
PICTURES OF HOME: Introduced as "Emptiness Eagles and Roger Glover"... Again, it's eerie how little the tone of IG's vocals has changed, over the years. Granted, some of the old warhorses (SOTW, HS) he sings very differently now, but then this tune comes along and his phrasing and note selection are all still within his range, MH-perfect. SM gives a spinny (Alice's adjective) solo, majestic block chords in JL's, RG solo gets a big cheer. And they seem to have given up trying to make sense of that weird little break in the middle. But no big deal...
ALMOST HUMAN: SM starts this with some unaccompanied boogie wanking for a few seconds, making me think of some tune on Jeff Beck's "Guitar Shop", and I'm wondering what the hell this is, until the rest of the band kicks in. RG slides over to SM's side to share a backup-vox mic. The crowd is howling as JL finishes off with a bouncy, blocky solo; the song ends with JL/SM burning down a superspeedy run (a-la "Hey Cisco"). This isn't one of my fave songs on /-\, but the guys give it a little something extra in this live offering. The stuff *does* work... ;-)
WOMAN FROM TOKYO: IP horsetrots the intro to this, and Alice sees me make a face of weary resignation, and she laughs. This song really needs to go. Yeah, it's all well and fine that it's finally been put together at long last and played in its proper entirety... But gee whiz what a stupid Grand Funk partyhearty song borne of a painful album session, and wouldn't these people rather hear "Place In Line" or "Smooth Dancer" or...
Well, no they wouldn't: As soon as SM starts playing the riff, the whole crowd is going nutz and is already singing the chorus over the top of it. The band bashes it out with great willingness to please. The middle section the only part I like anymore is wonderful, with IG singing some new lyrics...did anybody catch those? Back into the partyhearty, he not only nails the "high" in the verse but contines to tag it over JL's goodtime piano solo. The crowd explodes with joy.
WATCHING THE SKY: "This is a song about standing next to yourself, really. Sort of." My current fave off of /-\... I immediately sat up and took notice. The dynamics (quiet/loud) of the tune come across excellently; the mix is great. SM-RG interplay during the quiet bits is wonderful; IG is still in great form. Again, it's faithful to the album version, not much deviation in solos just with that little extra "live" urgency to put it over. My highlight of the night!
JL lays some soft keyboard washes behind a SM spotlight solo spot; much like the intro to 96 WABMC. In fact, I thought that's what it was gonna lead into; dreamy, liquid arpeggios and yearning volume swells. But JL fell back and SM's solo grew into a more aggressive statement, smoldering feedback harmonics, fast picking that I recognised was his intro to...
SOTW: Those few still sitting were now standing. My thinking at that point was that there's no effect you can give to a vocal that simulates 17,000 people singing along with you! I also noticed that SM's solo, during the C-F-G part leading into the 3rd verse, has tempered into something very similar to Ritchie's MH lines...but still SM. Very cool.
This song no longer segues directly into JL's solo spot, but stops 4 measures after the singalong with a MIJ "ber-DUM." Of course everybody goes nuts after this, the whole place is crazed and even Alice is jumping up and down. (Aside: on the way home she asked me the ageless question "what is SOTW about, anyway?" I suggested she read IG's "Child In Time" book, or the liner notes to MH25, both at my house...but she demanded to be told right then. So that took about 10 miles of back roads home.)
During the applause, I didn't see a whole lot of people leaving, really; I was way in back and had a clear view. It didn't seem like that song marked the beginning of a noticable exodus or anything. People were on the move, but it seemed to me that it was a Saturday night and DP had them in their seats to the end.
JL rises above the applause with a short solo spot, melodic interpretations of the SOTW chorus & riff, trading between B3 and piano...finally landing on the B3 to lead in (with some MIJ-familiar riffs) to...
LAZY: Another MIJ addition, but this seemed much more "at home" here. SM loses the speedo runs for his solo and blooozes it up; JL rocks right out. And the "lunch-wrapper" gets a BIG cheer! I'm hesitant about SKOW, but this one is welcomed back wholeheartedly!
During this song I notice three teens in Metallica/Korn tees about three rows down: they're having a great time, body-slamming against each other. It warms a small little corner of me heart.
PERFECT STRANGERS: Alice explodes out of her chair. It's the only DP album she owns (altho I'm working on that), and she's in hyperdrive NOW. I'm air-guitaring along with abandon (no, along with PS). The green lights flashing, and the crowd is totally torqued! HUGE cheers at the end; IG mentions "the Perfect Street Rangers...the old blue and white!"
Then he runs briefly behind the backdrop to retrieve his drink...then, to JL's dischordant Brahms lullabye accompaniment, he "Graces" into...
SPEED KING: How many times can I marvel at the man's vocal stamina?? They've been on the road for three months, tonight's better than an hour on, and yet he slams into this tune better than LATO! Also hats off to IP's succinct but effective solo (under strobing red-blue-white overheads)...in marked contrast to Carl Palmer's earlier 10-minute "look at me" assault. IG-SM dueling at the end is a treat, now including "lunch-wrapper" lines as well...
The song slams to a conclusion, the crowd explodes in riotous applause; IG gives thanks to us all, "and also to Dream Theater and ELP, it's a privilege working on the same stage as these guys... thank you very much".
A short break; I'm wondering how much time they have for encores. I'm assuming they'll just come out for HS; but they come out to cheers and launch into...
ANY FULE KNO THAT: Yeah this song works great live! It's come a bit since HOB... Alice turned to me and shouted in my ear: "Rap!" This from somebody who's never read the newsgroup, ok? "It sounds like Walk This Way, inside-out."
HIGHWAY STAR: What needs to be said? Well... Alice has seen me with my old band doing this tune dozens of times. Our drummer wanted to kill us; he'd start it at the right tempo, and by the guitar solo he'd be at 78 speed. I tried to tell 'em that DP doesn't flay the thing anymore, but it was for naught. So here, I could at least show Alice that it wasn't an instrument of pain...
Well ok.... so that's it. A great show, only a few minor quibbles... Again, I want to thank Blueman for setting up the pre-show; and it was a treat to meet Ed and Wolf and Svante, and all the rest of you folks! Let's do lunch. And finally, many thanx to the DP guys for providing a truly amazing show! You're the best, mates...
[ reviews | the highway star ]