2005-12-13
The new Spock's beard double live album is a live documentary of one of the shows from the "octane" tour in 2005, Octane was a bit controversial, some said that their album "Feel Euphoria" was better, and that they are drifting away from the Prog genre, other claim that there is a certain amount of drifting but for the better, and it is a natural refresher for the band and last strings detached from the Neal Morse era.
The song selection for the show is a surprise for better and worse, from one hand there are mostly new stuff (almost the entire Octane album, which I think should be taken out a bit, and maybe perform on selected parts of it instead of it all), and on the other hand two out of the three songs performed from their back catalog are the epics – The light from the band debut album and the well appreciated and complex "at the end of the day" from the V album.
The recording sound isn't exactly cutting edge, and I might even say doesn't fit for a release of this scale, but more fitting to a bootleg, a band like Spock's Beard has to have the best sound so it could be enjoyed and give the credit it deserves, you don't get to do that here.
As mentioned earlier, most of the stuff performed is from the post Neal era, even though, the songs selected from his period are two of the most complicated ones, the very genesis like piece "The light" and the epic masterpiece from the V album "at the end of the day", and a third one, "Harm's way" which in my opinion could been easily trade for a better track such as any classic from the "day for night" album, or others from "kindness of strangers".
This is the first time we get to hear Nick D'virgilo fully taking the lead on a concert, Nick, once the drummer, today the front man (again very genesis style), has a lot of pressure on..
Nick's voice is different in its core from Neal's voice, which is deeper, and some might even say might have more warmth, on the other hand, Nicks voice is much more rock n' roll and suits perfectly all their new tracks and new fresh style.
The entire epic "A flash before my eyes" goes pretty well, so as Harm's way (with nice but not mind blowing version), "as long as we ride" "ghost of autumn" and "the bottom line", they all sound good. The tricky part hits with both epics, "the light" and "at the end of the day", those are the ones with the big shoes to fill.
"At the end of the day" quite benefits from the change, at parts anyways, Nick gives it a more edgier feeling, more wild and rock N roll style, most of the time it's refreshing and cool, the actual trouble begins with "the light", a piece that was written by and for Morse himself, any kind of messing with it, is doomed from the start. Unfortunately, Nick fails to fill those shoes, and can't get to cover all of Neal's characters on this one, musically it is a good version even comparing to older shows, though it has some weak points.
Eventually , Nick is the new leader of Spock's beard, and does a great job at it, he gives a fun loving, energetic performance, the only problem is messing with some of Neal's materials, (which is not a bad thing, as I can't see Neal working out the groovy "as long as we ride"), each one has its own style and should stick to it, it's only natural., personally I think this change is for the best, and Nick will lead this band properly, on stage and in the studio.
Roy Povarchik
