Observations on my third time seeing The Astonishing live:
Abridged Album: From what I recall, five songs were nixed: X-Aspect (too bad
), Road to Revolution, Heaven's Cove, Begin Again and Whispers on the Wind.
Having Act I end with A New Beginning was perplexing for many because there was no indication that the set would wrap early. James was long gone from the stage during the instrumental section and JP solo, so once the song ended, and the band ran off stage and the lights went up, a few people were scratching heads. Awkward. As far as better pacing, I can understand that argument, but having grown accustom to the song order, the missing tracks were very noticeable to me.
Our New World: Lizzy sounded great live!
Heard rumblings that Astonishing was given space as an encore, but not last night. Hymn, Power Down and Astonishing played consecutively without a break.
The added "classic" encore gave a much needed boost in energy to the audience, and the band responded in kind. Didn't expect a mini-solo spot before Spirit, which was nice. Perhaps the classic encore was trade up from those missing tracks after all.
This was the first time that I noticed that the NOMAC picture kiosk in the lobby was transmitting fan images onto the stage screen during the intermission. I suppose that's the interactive element that was advertised. Pretty cool though.