(For anyone interested in hearing some of Marillion’s work, you can go directly to their website at http://www.marillion.com/music/racket/crash.htm and either have a free CD sent to you or you can simply download it…again, all for free. What have you got to lose?)
(NOTE: All quotes listed in these articles are to the very best of my memory and are not to be taken verbatim. Set lists are also via memory, and whereas I’m pretty confident that I have all the songs listed here, the nightly order might be slightly out of whack.
Also, the below pictures are actually from Saturday and Sunday night since I didn’t bring my camera on Friday.)
Seasons End
I actually saw the “Seasons End” Tour at the Palace in Hollywood, CA, in March of 1990. I was only 19 years old at the time and living in Phoenix, AZ. It was my first ever concert that I traveled out of town to see and little did I know how many more such trips I would take in the future. Hollywood terrified me at that age and it was one of the first times I was traveling out of town without my parents by my side, instead accompanied by a couple of friends of mine. The show that night absolutely blew me away, though, and has ever since made my list of top ten shows that I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’ve seen a phenomenally large number of performances. I can still remember that show pretty vividly. I will never forget lead singer Steve Hogarth jumping up on top of the stack of speakers on the stage, with one arm raised in the air like an army sergeant trying to rally his troops forward, during “Heart of Lothian”. Absolutely incredible…
Marillion had announced beforehand that they would play the entire “Seasons End” album on night one of the Marillion Weekend. They actually played the entire album on the 1990 tour as well so this was to be a bit of nostalgia for me. Regardless, it had been almost 5 years since I had last seen them live and so I was pretty damn excited and almost didn’t care what they played.
The opening act, Sun Domingo, came on about one minute after I arrived at the theater. I was pleasantly surprised by them and found them really rather enjoyable and likeable. The musicianship was really top notch, especially the bassist whom was also the lead vocalist. It was just the kind of “warm up” that I needed while the Advil that I took at the hotel was starting to kick in and relieve my headache from the day’s traveling. By the time they were finished, excitement was really building in the air.
It was then that I started to look around me, at the people, the theater, etc. The Theatre L’Olympia was really an interesting looking place, with a sort of Arabian-esque stage set up which oddly seemed a perfect visual match for Marillion. They also appeared to have a lot of lighting available which was what I was hoping for. The people in the theater were an interesting mix of locals and fellow travelers like myself. Ages seemed to range mostly from 20 to 60 with some people bringing the entire family, including children. The theater was definitely crowded but not over crowded, so we basically all still had room to breathe and be reasonably comfortable. The theater’s main floor was tiered so that you could choose what sort of angle you preferred to watch from and how many heads would block your view.
It was obvious that they were going to be filming the performance since there was a large boom and camera pivoting up and down over our heads at stage right. There was also a lady in a really cool outfit taking pictures of the audience, trying her best to get people to cheer, raise their arms, etc.
As the crew did the necessary preparation work for the performance, the Marillion slideshow started behind the drum set, showing a collage of photos that fans had sent in displaying their Marillion t-shirts and gear while standing in front of various locales. Marillion had asked fans to send in these sorts of photos awhile ago but I just completely forgot about it. At the end of the slideshow, the word “Welcome” displayed…and a huge cheer erupted from the audience. Again, I couldn’t believe I was there and had made it! Not long afterwards the lights went down. The performance began as the first droning notes of “The King of Sunset Town” shook through the theater while the band took their places on stage. The audience went ballistic!
They sounded as perfect as always. Marillion have always been a band that sounded nearly identical live as they sound on album, almost to an amazing likeness that doesn’t seem possible. Even when playing songs that they probably haven’t played in 15 or more years, they still sounded as if they played them every single day. This night was absolutely no exception.
They also looked fabulous. With the string of “older” bands getting back together and touring over the past couple of years, ala Genesis, the Police, and so on, I was mildly afraid that Marillion too would look, well, older. Surprisingly, they looked no different, in fact, maybe they looked better than they had 5 years earlier. Lead singer Steve Hogarth’s voice was clearly no less magnificent, with his amazing singing range and sound echoing through the place with soaring intensity as always. The lighting also was incredible, drenching the stage in colors and adding visual depth and atmosphere to perfectly compliment the music. It was positively dreamy.
Once “The King of Sunset Town” ended, the band was met with a mammoth amount of cheers, yells, you name it, all coming from a North American audience that hasn’t ever gotten their fill of Marillion due to their lack of touring here. I think everyone, very much including myself, was a bit in denial that they were actually standing before us and playing. It took awhile for this reality to settle in.
Once Steve Hogarth (who prefers to go by H since there are two Steve’s in the band) was able to talk over the cheers, he yelled out with a huge smile, “See?! I told you I’d bring them back!” pointing backwards towards the band. “You’ve gotta have faith!” It was the perfect comment because every time I have seen Marillion live I always have to wonder if I’ll ever have the opportunity to see them again. And from here, the playing of the “Seasons End” album continued onward in glorious fashion.
At some point, I don’t recall the precise moment, H introduced the band members. Pointing to the bassist, H yelled, “Ladies and gentlemen, Pete Trewavas!” Now, I didn’t hear how this started personally but someone evidently let out a joking “boo!” H immediately commented on it. “Boo?!” Looking at Pete he asked, “What did you do now?” Pete Trewavas walked up to his microphone and said jokingly in a great English accent, “I don’t know! What did I do? What did I do this time??” This of course started an ongoing “boo!” session all weekend whenever anyone mentioned Pete which just got funnier as it went on.
I won’t go through every single song of the set, which can be found below, by the way, but instead I’ll mention highlights. The title track of “Seasons End” was as amazing as always, one of their truly gorgeous tunes and one of my personal all time favorites. “Berlin” really sounded fantastic and for some reason stood out to me more than usual as it echoed throughout the theater.
H also talked at some point about how great it was to be back in Montreal, and how he had been listening to Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark” album on the way over, in homage to the vicinity. “Bloody brilliant,” he said, and I would totally agree since it is one of the true great albums. H also commented, “You know, as we were relearning these songs, we were surprised by how short the album was. Albums in the 80’s were much shorter than today, huh?” The crowd agreed. “So, then I’m looking at the songs on “Court and Spark”,” H continued, “and I see songs that are 2 minutes, 3 minutes in length.” H stopped and smiled. “Hell, in a Marillion song, we haven’t even gotten to verse 1 yet!” The crowd cheered ecstatically. H laughed, “I guess it just takes us longer to climax,” and of course some guy in the audience yelled out, “Viagra!”
When the time came later in the set, H breathed a sigh into the microphone and said, “Okay, this next song. What can we say? We were young…” Many audience members laughed along since the song was to be “Hooks in You”, a very late 80’s-ish almost hair band sounding song that’s not very typical of their music. H: “And so, if you’d like to relive your youth along with us, well, then sing along…” It’s never been one of my favorite tunes but this night, it just rocked the house and I couldn’t help but smile. H jumped all over the stage as if he really was 20 years old again, even more or less copying his movements in the “Hooks in You” video.
When the “Seasons End” album was finished, H announced that they’d be taking a 5 minute break. The crowd waited patiently, chatting amongst itself. When the band emerged again, H announced that their departure was premature and that they were supposed to play the “obscure B-Sides” from the “Seasons End” album prior to taking the break. And so, they launched into “The Bell in the Sea” and “The Release”. Immediately afterwards, H said, “Ok, ok…3 minutes…we’ll be right back…then we’ll play some new songs from the “Happiness is the Road” album…”
At this point, once a couple of minutes had passed, the crowd started chanting, “Play! Play! Play!” and stomping it’s feet, enough so to rock the entire building. Moments later, the encore began.
Another moment of note on that first night was when Steve Rothery (their guitarist) had his back to the audience before a song, looking or messing around with something in the corner by his amplifier. H saw this, waited a couple moments patiently, shook his head, then smiled at the crowd and said: “I don’t know what he’s doing over there either.” H thought a moment and then said, “You see, he keeps a small furry creature in that corner and it doesn’t do well in hot sweaty rooms. So, he needs to attend to it on occasion.” Steve Rothery turned to look at him, eyebrows up, with a look of total disbelief, like ‘I can’t believe you just said that’. It was a priceless moment.
The show ended with the title track of “Happiness is the Road” of which it truly was for me on that day. It had been a long exhausting day of travel, frantically trying to get to the show on time, but for that two and a half hours, well, nothing else mattered. It was true bliss. I could hardly wait for the next night which in all likelihood would be even better, if that was even possible.
The day ended in typical fashion: I made my way out of the theater and found that it was raining pretty steadily. I hustled over to the nearest Metro station as quickly as possible and purchased a ticket to get me back to the vicinity of my hotel. Once there, I had a couple of blocks to walk outside. I think I collapsed onto the bed around 12:30am and nearly passed out from exhaustion but with a smile on my face, nonetheless.
To be continued…
(Friday Night’s Set List)
The King of Sunset Town
Easter
The Uninvited Guest
Seasons End
Holloway Girl
Berlin
After Me
Hooks in You
The Space…
(5 minute break…)
The Bell in the Sea
The Release
(3 minute break…)
The Man from the Planet Marzipan
Essence
Asylum Satellite #1
Whatever is Wrong with You
Happiness is the Road
No comments:
Post a Comment