3 restores my faith in Prog Metal
May. 9th, 2007 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsAs a general rule, opening acts suck. I can't remember who opened for Heart the one time I saw them in concert, I don't think anyone even dared trying to open for Pink Floyd, the opening acts for Blue Oyster Cult the two times I've seen them were local "hard rock" bands that were not worth recalling. I mean, there seems to be a rule that opening acts must suck: the opening act for Jethro Tull was Saga, for Set's sake, and they sucked live.
Three has restored my faith in both opening acts and progressive metal. They rocked. A mostly classic fivesome: lead singer/guitar, second guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards. Except the guy on keyboards also had a second, smaller drumset pressed up against the main drumset. The second guitar owned a classic axe and I thought he was pretty good. And then the lead singer/guitarist pulled out his own guitar and proceeded to do the impossible: play slap-fret heavy metal. I was so blown away by his skill, there was such visceral admiration for it from the audience.
And then the drummer got a solo, and he was quite good as a soloist until the keyboardist grabbed a pair of sticks and both of them started soloing in tandem on his mini set. They played against each other the way jazz musicians play against one another. Until they started hitting each other's instruments and things got even cooler-- to the point where one of them squelched a high hat with his mouth.
The audience went completely nuts. I bought the CD. Their studio work is solid, but it really lacks the astounding energy and sheer bravura that Three put out on stage. They broke the rules: they were an opening act that was as good as the act that followed. Porcupine Tree had to work, and work hard, to pull the audience up to the level of frenzied admiration that Three had aroused. Fortunately, they succeeded.
Aw, frack. My ipod's headphone jack is borken. I've lost all sound in the right ear. This is not good. I just had the car's brakes done and paid for the Pendorwright server, and I'm broke for at least the next two months.
Three has restored my faith in both opening acts and progressive metal. They rocked. A mostly classic fivesome: lead singer/guitar, second guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards. Except the guy on keyboards also had a second, smaller drumset pressed up against the main drumset. The second guitar owned a classic axe and I thought he was pretty good. And then the lead singer/guitarist pulled out his own guitar and proceeded to do the impossible: play slap-fret heavy metal. I was so blown away by his skill, there was such visceral admiration for it from the audience.
And then the drummer got a solo, and he was quite good as a soloist until the keyboardist grabbed a pair of sticks and both of them started soloing in tandem on his mini set. They played against each other the way jazz musicians play against one another. Until they started hitting each other's instruments and things got even cooler-- to the point where one of them squelched a high hat with his mouth.
The audience went completely nuts. I bought the CD. Their studio work is solid, but it really lacks the astounding energy and sheer bravura that Three put out on stage. They broke the rules: they were an opening act that was as good as the act that followed. Porcupine Tree had to work, and work hard, to pull the audience up to the level of frenzied admiration that Three had aroused. Fortunately, they succeeded.
Aw, frack. My ipod's headphone jack is borken. I've lost all sound in the right ear. This is not good. I just had the car's brakes done and paid for the Pendorwright server, and I'm broke for at least the next two months.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-05-10 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-10 12:49 pm (UTC)I'm listening to a few 3 tracks on PureVolume (which seems to be a poor band's myspace, albeit somewhat less annoying to navigate), and they seem pleasant enough. Their song construction makes me wonder if they've played jazz, which can't help but be a good thing for a band playing in a genre whose adherents tend not to have influences outside of it, to their detriment. I can't help wondering what on Earth would possess a band to revive the band name Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer used in their abortive trio with Robert Berry, though, especially when there are not actually only three of them.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-10 11:06 pm (UTC)Where should I send them?
no subject
Date: 2007-05-11 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-12 12:30 am (UTC)Me, I'd have to run ask
no subject
Date: 2007-05-13 04:10 pm (UTC)Well, you do get one now and then...
Date: 2007-05-11 07:52 pm (UTC)Ronnie Spector, lead musician of the Ronettes, mentioned that in 1963, while the Ronettes were a number-one band in America and the UK at the time, their UK tour had a opening act that was a band that had had just one album released at the time... a little band named 'The Rolling Stones'.
Falbert
http://www.ronniespector.com/bio.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_stones