Yet Another Prog Rock Concert (original) (raw)
nerkitt 😟blah
September 20 2010, 21:21
Listens: Enochian Theory - The Living Continuum
I got a chance to see Spock's Beard again yesterday. Yaaay, it's been much too long since their last tour through Europe.
Different from last time, the concert wasn't an "evening with" kind of concert -- this time, the Beard had an opening act, British newcomers Enochian Theory.
And even though the sound technicians weren't very kind to the Enochian guys and half their set had to come from playback (three people on stage just aren't enough to supply all the keyboards, additional guitars, vocals and stuff they need), they still sound interesting enough -- a bit like a cross of a less off-beat Sieges Even with a lot of Porcupine Tree influence in the softer parts and an interesting _Riverside_-ish use of breathing, sighs and grunts as percussion and punctuation. Right now, though, their album sounds a lot better than their live performance did, with the exception of Ben Harris-Hayes' voice, which doesn't quite reach Mariusz Duda's instant-shivers quality but is pretty impressive nonetheless. I blame it on the way-too-loud sound and the fact that I'd forgotten my earplugs, though.
As for Spock's Beard themselves... well, their concerts are always worth going to. If only for front man Nick D'Virgilios antics on stage and his banter with keyboarder Ryo Okumoto in the short breaks between songs. ("I always get distracted by Ryo's crotch.") Also, their virtuoso multi-instrumentalist skills along with their flawless many-voiced vocal performance are always a sight to see. To give you an idea of what kind of multi-instrumentalist skills I mean, I recall Nick swapping his instrument a total of three times (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums) in the first 20 minutes or so of their set. And I'm not counting the keyboard constantly standing next to Nick's position, because he would use that a lot of times when he wasn't busy doing little mimes appropriate to what he was singing.
There are a few things, though, that I found to be a bit of a shame. Not enough to spoil my fun, mind you, but noticeable nonetheless. First of those was that, in addition to having a somewhat shortened programme due to the opening act, Spock's Beard started their concert by playing their new album "SBX" in its entirety, which left less time for their classics. That's not a bad thing per se, since SBX is a pretty good album, but because that album hasn't been distributed in Europe yet I heard most of the new tracks for the first time at the concert. That doesn't have to be a bad thing either, but especially in a prog context, I much prefer listening to music several times before I hear the live performance. It's just that much easier for me to appreciate a piece I already know intimately, because so many nuances and subtleties are just too easily missed at first listening.
Second, the selection of classics they played after that wasn't quite to my taste. I realise, of course, that this is pretty much inevitable with a portfolio as big and varied as that of Spock's Beard (nine albums, not counting the new one) -- there will always be some fans whose favourites are completely left out. Tough luck that I was one of those fans this time... at least, there was "June".
The last, and probably biggest, of my complaints was that the only other somewhat prog-minded furry I know in my area of living wasn't able to come, so yet again I had to go to a concert alone. Well, at least that's something I hope will change when the number of such furries around here goes up from one to two.
Still, it was a quite pleasant evening from which I returned packed with music and merchandise. Signed Spock's Beard guitar picks, yay!