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That was the disappearing testicle, haha! Long story short, 6 weeks ago I had excruciating lower back pain, groin pain, and both testicles were rotating in sharp pain.. Went to my doc and he said it was probably compressed or herniated discs. It went away for a few days, then came back so I went to the ER last Thursday had an ultrasound, CT scan, urine and blood work. I have deterioration in lower discs, swollen lymph nodes and inflammation in my groin, and a hydrocele in my testicles which needs to be drained. Good times.

God damn Tom, I'm squirming in my chair just reading that.  Does not sound fun.  I hope you can get on top of that.

You might!

You just wait...........

Anyway, yeah this start ripping shit up in the second half.  Open Road was great and Mortal Eyes reminds of heavier Dimeo era.  Lost Dreams keeping the tempo.  Expecting a quality finish.

I might have to go back and check them all out.

I saw them once, and he was pretty great. Someone brought their kid in the front row and Russell had the kid come up on stage and put him on his shoulders while singing. Very cool.

That said, they tend to play pretty small venues and he always seems like he's meant for bigger venues. And I know he plays those with TSO but he's not quite "the" frontman there. I'd love to see how  he is at a bigger venue. Hopefully he can be at the next live Ayreon show?

I've only gotten to see them twice and both venues were small. But the first time I saw them the venue was packed because it was when Haken was opening for them....it was a 1,000 seat venue called 'Red Flag' and I'd wager there were 1300 people in there. It was awesome.

Last night at 'Delmar Hall' it's a tad smaller....800 max capacity and I'd say there were 600 people there. Good crowd....but I've been there when TNMB or Haken has played there and it was packed to the gills. But it didn't affect the energy or the show or how Allen interacted with the crowd....both times I've seen him he has the crowd engaged and just goes for it.

Faith is such a nice deep cut.  I've never been a big fan of ATYD, but it makes sense to pull it out on this current tour IMO considering the new album was more varied and less heavy.

I'm not a fan of ATYD either, but it's obviously important to Bruce.