Just a quickie review really, wanted to get it out quick since the one in the Times Union sucked hardcore. I'm pretty sure the writer didn't stay until the end and did most of their research by reading bad reviews from other newspapers. There wasn't a single person on stage that was part of early Savatage, which, apart from one corporate mistake (Fight For The Rock), was never 'cheesy'. Their early work was as heavy as you were going to find in the genre and their later albums, after Caffery had joined (beginning with Gutter Ballet), began their fringe heavy progressive period that they remain in and, frankly, dominate (Dream Theater and Fates Warning play decidedly different styles, less metal, more progressive).
We were at the evening show with about 8,500 others. I guess there were about as many at the matinee, making about 17,000 total, which probably does justify the two shows, which surprised me a bit. This was our second year attending.
Overall...a B. Last year was an A, one of the best concerts I've ever been to. First impression was they seemed a little tired. The guitar work was off, etc. It picked up towards the end, but it started off pretty down.
Somehow the guitar mix was all screwed up early on, which made no sense considering they had just played there a few hours earlier. The opener, Wizards In Winter, fell flat because Chris' and Alex' guitars, which screamed last year, were almost inaudible. Excusable if they hadn't just played an earlier show. Very disappointing, it wasn't fixed until after the opener.
I think I've got the right people here (not complete, I can't recall all the women), * by their name means they did the Albany show last year (to the best of my recollection):
*Bryan Hicks - narrator
*Chris Caffery - guitar / clown
*Alex Skolnick - guitar / still looks funny with short hair
*Steve Broderick - vocals
*Jennifer Cella - vocals
*Jill Gioia(?) - vocals
*Mee Eun Kim - keyboards
*Bob Kinkel - keyboards
*Danielle Landherr(?) - vocals
James Lewis - vocals
*Tany Ling - vocals
*Jeff Plate - drums
*Jay Pierce - vocals / and then some
*Mark Wood - strings
*Dave Z - bass
Michael Lanning (I think) - vocals
All in all Christmas Eve and Other Stories was very good. Bryan Hicks did a great job again as narrator. I'll run through this one in its entirety, although I won't single out instrumentals unless needed, suffice it to say they sounded very good.
An Angel Came Down / An Angel Returned: Pretty good. Michael Lanning did these, assuming I have the right guy. Unfortunately they had some opera guy last year that blew the roof off on these songs, so this was a bit of a step back.
A Star to Follow: don't recall how this went for some reason...presumably fine
The Prince of Peace: As he did last year, Pierce absolutely steals the show on this number, especially the Hark the Herald Angels Sing part. No roof left on the dump, so to speak, when he was done.
Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24: Generally good, but oddly muddled, not as good as last year. Maybe they need to mix things up next year, are they getting tired of playing this?
Ornament: OK, as good as last year.
Old City Bar: (insert sigh here) Broderick did this again this year, as he did last year, and I still hate the way he sings one of my favorite TSO songs. Nuff said.
This Christmas Day: Lewis, he shone on this one.
OK, intermission. Then a little of this, little of that. Tany Ling shot out the lights (or shattered them with her voice) on Queen of the Winter Night even more than last year. Very impressive. Wish Liszt was OK. TSO's take on Flight of the Bumblebee was pretty good. Carmina Burana again from the supposedly forthcoming Night Castle (now looking at 2007 apparently). Like last year, good, but muddled. They're going to have to make it cleaner for the album (I hope).
The reason I suspect the TU's 'reviewer' left early is because they didn't mention the encore that included Chris and Dave getting strapped to a scissorlift that briefly brought them up to almost the level of the balcony. Something a reasonable reviewer might have mentioned.
In the end, a decent show that failed to live up to last year's near perfection. I'm there again next year.
2 comments:
Post a Comment