Two Nights of Transatlantic
Nicholas Andreas
Ever since I started really planning the trip out on Monday the wait to see Transatlantic had been excruciating. Seeing the band was going to be more than just seeing one of my absolute favorite bands that now has three amazing albums under their belt, it was going to be able to see a true supergroup, a hodge-podge of musicians from all over the world that I truly admire.
By the time Friday rolled around I was happy to have a side job installing a few garage doors in the morning to help keep my mind from the exciting weekend to ensue, which would have course led to excessive boredom as hours rolled by. Once the job was done I headed home to shower and get a few last minute things together and headed to my girlfriend’s work to pick her up. With Amanda on hand we departed for New Jersey at shortly after 3pm.
Now, since I refuse to drive and park in New York City the trip would end up taking more stages to completion than an Apollo moon mission, but after some awesome food at Holsten’s in Bloomfield, a bus ride from there to Port Authority, and a taxi ride to the other side of Manhattan we managed to arrive at the venue around 7:20, and even though the doors were open people were lined up all the way down a New York City block. In line I met up with my friend Bill who would be doing the rest of the trip with Amanda and me. We managed to get into the venue about five minutes shy of 8:00, and since the line had developed sizably behind us since we got in it, it was obvious that the show would not be starting on time.
Once inside I made a quick trip to the restroom to get my recording gear together, and then got my merch shopping done, scoring a shirt and the new live bootleg DVD. Finally I made my way to the floor and ended up near the back of the standing section. The Blender Theater had been sold out for awhile and it showed, the place was absolutely packed with people struggling to get out of the hallway and onto the main floor for the show.
I’m going to leave my main show review for the next night in Philadelphia, but for now I’ll run down a few things about the NYC show. It was my first time at the Blender Theater, and compared to B.B. Kings, the venue was a nice improvement. It was nice seeing a smallish show in the city in which the sound was not absolute shit. Despite that one of the themes of the night would unfortunately end up being technical troubles. Early on in “The Whirlwind” Neal’s microphone started cutting out and eventually they ended up stopping while Roine’s microphone was given to Neal, but then there ended up being a lot of jamming as no replacement mic could be found for Roine! After the issue was finally fixed they continued on and Neal made the remark that Daniel was travelling the country with a vibraslap for one hit and to pay attention to hear it, and I couldn’t help but think maybe instead of hauling that thing around perhaps they should have brought an extra headset microphone instead!
Although that was by far the worst technical trouble they had it was not the last as the night was plagued with feedback, various noises, and the band constantly turning to sound men to adjust the volume of something, and in predictable fashion the adjustment was usually for louder! Technical troubles weren’t the only hindrance to my full enjoyment of the evening, during “We All Need Some Light” a very drink and more than likely drugged up moron made his way right aside and in front of us, and I kid you not the guy looked like he was a boxer warming up for the entire song. The man then proceeded to air-do every instrument (horribly) through the rest of the set, except for “Bridge Across Forever” where he once again resorted to shadow boxing. I found that to really enjoy the show and not attack the man in rage I had to close my eyes for a bit, listen to the wonderful music and then open my eyes again trying not to notice the pathetic fool. Although the man got worse as the show went on, the band seemed to get tighter through every song, both vocally and instrumentally and they put on a fantastic 3+ hour six song set, but like I said, you’ll hear more details on that shortly.
Briefly during the show and then after the show I got to talk to a few friends, but not much as catching a cab back to Port Authority for the last bus was a bit of a priority! After cab ride in which Bill elected to take the front seat and listen as the driver sang him the songs of his people we ended up back at Port Authority in time for our bus, and after a nice relaxing ride for 25 minutes or so we had a car ride home that was longer than any of us would have liked, and we finally got back to my apartment just after 3am. Having been up for 21 hours at that point I was quite happy to stumble into my bed and quickly drift off to sleep.
The following “morning” which started a little after 11am featured pancakes made from mix that was given to me when I moved into my apartment that looked to be produced in the 1960’s, however the result seemed to be edible and ended up getting us moving for that day’s events. A little after 1pm we finally loaded back into the car and headed down the northeast extension towards Philadelphia. We arrived around 2:30 and proceeded to Lorenzo and Sons for some of the best pizza you can buy and then finally went over to the TLA to get in the queue. The queue at 3pm consisted of the three of us and three other folks who we would become very acquainted with in the four and a half hour wait for doors to open.
One of the three guys we had met had come all the way from India for that show and the previous night’s show in NYC and he ended up provided much of the comic relief for the wait, either intentionally or at his expense. Perhaps the best part of the entire wait was when it cooled off a little bit he put his backpack on saying, “Maybe this will keep me a little warmer”. Two minutes later he says, “Oh shit, I forgot I had a jacket in the backpack”. Of course there was also all the jokes about him stealing all our jobs, and the chuckles every time he used the word queue, which I have been using previously in this little piece in his honor.
Comedy would prove not to be the only benefit of showing up for the queue at 3pm as we ended up meeting most of the band while waiting outside. First to show himself was a very friendly Neal Morse who I was very excited to meet as he has never done a tour of America as a solo artist. Next came Pete Trewavas who is, besides many other things, a tiny tiny man! My friends joked about him being short after the NYC show and I defended him saying that he just looks short next to Roine Stolt, but after posing for a picture I realized he was an inch or three shorter than my girlfriend, so he truly is not a large man. Despite his ability to easily navigate low clearance areas we were kind enough to direct him to a place where he could find some excellent Philly cheesesteaks. Finally the Disco Queen himself Daniel Gildenlow stepped out and talked to us at length. Amongst many other things I found out the native Swede disliked the cold, and I joked that I had forgot to bring my scissors as I wanted to claim my piece of hair that failed to come with the Linoleum EP!
Not only was the band really nice, but I have to give a shout-out to their exceptional tour manager Colin Leijenaar, who went out of his way to keep the fans informed of what was happening that night. Basically most tickets had said doors at 7 and show at 8; however some tickets got misprinted to say each was happening an hour later. Now because some tickets said show at 9 they had to honor that and doors would be opening later because of it and he made sure the fans lining up outside knew that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to a show where doors haven’t been on time or something similar and gone the entire night without a clue why, so for him to be so active in getting the information across says a lot, thanks Colin!
So after much fun and member sightings 6pm came along and now the line had formed as far back as we could see. Having our spots at the front of the line well established Bill, Amanda, myself, and our new Indian friend (who I won’t call by name as I haven’t the slightest clue how to spell it) headed down to Steaks on South for dinner. Despite a long wait I ended up having the best cheesesteaks I have ever had. I ended up bumping into a few friends once again while waiting in line and was really starting to get excited for the mad dash to the front of the venue. The moment of truth finally arrived around 7:30 as the doors opened up and we headed straight for the rail, setting up camp directly in front of Neal’s keyboards. Despite seeing more shows in Philly than I can count I had never been to the TLA and was pleasantly surprised at how close you could get to the stage, with only about six inches between the stage and the metal barrier. I could actually reach out and over and touch Roine’s stage monitor from where I was standing! That was the good thing; the bad thing was that it was still another hour and a half till show time.
Of course the wait was worth it as shortly after 9pm the intro tape for “The Whirlwind” started to roll and moments later Transatlantic took the stage. During the instrumental “Overture” I was blown away with how good everything sounded. Normally from the front row the mix and overall quality won’t be perfect, but on this night it was! Very early on from across the stage Portnoy noticed me getting into the song and pointed at me with his drumstick. I responded by giving him a thumbs up to which he nodded in approval, and that started what would be an awesome and intimate evening.
As the band continued through “The Whirlwind” I was blown away by so much of it. If I looked slightly to me left I could occasionally catch Neal Morse looking down at me as I sang along to fantastic vocal melodies that he has such a gift for crafting, and if I looked slightly to my right I could absolutely feel Roine Stolt’s guitar solos. It’s a tough feeling to describe, but between being so close to him and Roine being such an expressive player I could swear I was onstage next to Roine during his solos feeling everything he felt as he played them. As one section of the song flowed into the next I was impressed constantly by the members of Transatlantic, but the unsung hero of the night was perhaps the hired helper for the tour, Daniel Gildenlow. I was constantly amazed with how many different instruments the man had, how often he changed them, and how many times he played two at once! Now having two different shaking instruments going at once may not be a huge feat, but having a drumstick in one hand and using that same hand to strum the guitar between hits all while singing is quite impressive. As the final notes of “The Whirlwind” rang out it was hard not to appreciate that some bands would be taking a short break and coming back for an encore; Transatlantic however would be coming back for another entire set!
After a 25 minute or so break the lights again went down and the intro to All of the Above began and once again the five amazing pieces behind Transatlantic’s live show took the stage. The entire song was excellent, and included some of the best singing along of the night, and it was really during the song I came to appreciate how error free the night had been thus far, both by the band and on the technical side of things, certainly a smoother ride than the previous night in NYC! After that Roine and Neal did a bit of guitar teasing back and forth before going into an altered version of “We All Need Some Light” in which Neal and Roine switched their vocal parts for the song. Although a very cool idea after seeing it twice I wish they had done it the original way as although Roine did a good job taking Neal’s vocals and singing them in his own style, he was reading the lyrics off a paper on the floor and ended up missing the first few words of the second verse, and overall he just didn’t seem to put the kind of emotion into the song that Neal does. Also, the part that Roine normally sings is probably my favorite part of the entire song, and although Neal did a good job of it I would have liked to hear Roine doing it. But it was an interesting idea and overall well done, and really those are my only major complaints about the entire performance.
Then came the highlight of the show for me, “Duel With the Devil”. It has always been my favorite Transatlantic song, but after seeing it from the front row, after nearly losing my voice to it, it might be my favorite song of all time. Each section was moving, exciting, and intense in one way or another. The end of the song made for a perfect set closer, and if I had died at that moment I’d have died a very happy man! Well, luckily I didn’t die, and Transatlantic wasn’t done for the night either. After a short break Neal and Roine came back to perform a very moving version of “Bridge Across Forever”. Then the rest of the band once again found their way to the stage and Portnoy banged out the very recognizable beginning to “Stranger in Your Soul” which probably got the best crowd reaction for the start of a song other than “The Whirlwind” which had a slight advantage starting the show off. “Stranger” had a live performance just as good as “Duel” and included some of the coolest parts of the entire evening. For starters some of the best vocal trade-offs could be found in that song, and then there was the incident that leg to Portnoy crowd surfing…
In the middle of the song Neal wandered over to Portnoy’s kit, picked up two sticks and slowly edged Mike off the drums. In his absence Pete came over and started playing keyboards while Daniel Gildenlow crept up behind him, reached around him and played Pete’s bass! While all that was happening Portnoy was struggling with an obviously prog crowd trying to instruct them what needed to happen for him to be able to crowd surf. Basically even though the TLA was either sold out or very close to it, people actually gave the people around them room to breathe, something missing from even poorly attended metal shows in which trying to rape the people around you almost seems to be the norm anymore. Anyway Portnoy got everyone to come together a little bit, and then he finally turned around and took the leap of faith back into the crowd which sent him back a little bit and then back towards the stage where I got to help throw him back up between Neal and Roine. Everyone then proceeded back to their normal areas and they finished the song with as much zest as they had closed the second set, bringing the night to an end that I will not likely soon forget.
After the show I once again met up with friends and after hanging around the venue for a bit Amanda, Bill, Chris (ZepDT), our new Indian friend and myself headed over to a bar around the corner so that Bill could finally have a beer to celebrate his birthday, and so the rest of us could just get some form of liquid back into our bodies after not touching anything all afternoon in fear it would cause us to have to use the restroom during the show. After some very much enjoyed sitting we once again got to our feet and headed to the nearby parking garage to get on our way. Chris took Bill with him and we took our new Indian friend to the bus station on our general way towards the highway home and then arrived safe and sound back at home around 3:30am.
All in all a fantastic experience and an amazing weekend. Friday night’s show from the back in NYC was awesome aside from the mentioned troubles with both the sound and that one man in the crowd, but then Saturday’s show in Philadelphia was nearly perfect. The wait was long but enjoyable, the sound of the show was stellar, and of course the view from the front row coupled with being truly engaged by the band was fantastic. I didn’t realize how much it took out of me until this afternoon when I woke up at around 2pm, probably the first time I’ve slept in that late in over three or four years!
Thank you Transatlantic (and especially Neal Morse) for finally doing this again!
Topic: Two Nights of Transatlantic (Read 6129 times)