lonestar's Top 25 Concerts List---#1 IQ at Progstock with many others

[Cool Chris]

Not much more I can add to that. This would be in my Top 3. When it comes to albums influencing my lifetime musical journey, this and Images and Words are at the top. I was like you... when this was announced, I knew beyond any doubt whatsoever I was going. Yes, the stage presentation is off the chart.
 
I always enjoyed this video, seeing the guys on stage during the 2nd half when they are literally behind the wall. Bonus points to the guy countering the notion that "Playing Pink Floyd music is serious bizness!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSU-ggfML8U

I am a pretty easy crier, and those 'solider returns and surprises their family' videos usually get to me. During "Vera" I thought DON'T SHOW VIDEOS OF SOLDIERS SURPRISING THEIR FAMILIES DON'T SHOW VIDEOS OF SOLDIERS SURPRISING THEIR FAMILIES DON'T SHOW VIDEOS OF SOLDIERS SURPRISING THEIR FAMILIES DON'T SHOW.... DAMMIT"

[King Postwhore]

Saw Floyd, never was Water's band.

[SwedishGoose]

Quiteva bit of envy here..... I love, love  love The Wall. Would have done anythingbyo see this tour.

Oh well, at least I have seen Pink Floyed  (without RW) twice an Roge Waters once. On the Us & Them tour 2018.

[jingle.boy]

I went to this show with my brother, and our two sons (who had just turned 10 at the time).  My company had 4 seats at the Air Canada Center that were at the end opposite concert stages (ie, behind the goal/net for hockey and basketball games - the literal middle of the arena, 25 rows right.  It couldn't have been a better experience to take everything in - the imagery, the puppets (teacher, pig, plane crash), the Wall itself.  It was mind blowing.  The guys sitting behind us were clearly doped up before the show even started, and I politely asked if they were gonna light up during the show, maybe head a few rows up on the stairs (we were right on an aisle) given we had a couple of kids with us.  They were kind enough to oblige.  As soon as the lights went down on the show, a massive plume of smoke could be seen rising to the rafters.  It was the biggest hotbox I've ever been in!

I've been thinking about my Top 25 as well, and might get around to doing it as well.  Tim, start a new thread, so you can control the titles.  I think anyone could/should do this, just like we used to have a lot of Top 50 album threads.

[Deadeye21]

I’m super intrigued as to what could possibly be first if The Wall is second.

[SwedishGoose]

I’m super intrigued as to what could possibly be first if The Wall is second.

Question.... has lonestar seen IQ Subterranea  live?

[King Postwhore]

I’m super intrigued as to what could possibly be first if The Wall is second.

I know what show because I was with him for it.

[lonestar]

Ok, now that Joe basically spoiled it, let's finish this off...



#1 IQ- Progstock (with Enchant, , In Continuum, Evership, Mystery, Michael Sadler and many others)
Union County Performing Arts Center, Rahway, New Jersey
Oct 6, 2018
1-   The Darkest Hour
2-   From the Outside In
3-   Fading Senses
4-   The Road of Bones
5-   Further Away
6-   Leap of Faith
7-   Frequency
8-   Closer
9-   Until the End
10-   Failsafe
11-   Encore- Out of Nowhere
12-   Widow’s Peak



Yup, this is the one, for so many reasons. It's the farthest I've traveled for a show, almost 3k miles. It's the largest meetup of DTFers I've been with (King and the Queen, Jingle, Dr DTVT, JustJen, Cram, Axeman, and Splent) though I think the DT12 show at the Warfield was pretty close. It was followed by an amazing week in NYC with my kid to boot...but all the amenities aside, it's here for one, and one thing only. It's about IQ.

So the difference between this IQ show and my first trip with them is 20 years of them being my favorite band, of them being my go to music when I was in those darkest places, of them saving my ass again and again and again. I knew literally every note of the show they played, every lyric, every nuance, and the all were core to shaping who I am today. But before we dig further, the first night we had a tremendous performance by Michael Sadler. The second day was fucking loaded, newcomers Evership put on an outstanding show, and Enchant (who oddly enough opened for IQ the first time I saw them) kicked all sorts of ass. Sunday, Mystery blew me away with their unique take on prog and an outstanding set of their own.

But again, it's all about IQ here. They played almost the entirety of Ever(there were tech problems setting up which caused them to cut Came Down from the set for time constraints), which along with Clutching at Straws is the most influential album in my life. Peter was in top shape sounding as amazing as he possibly can, and being the formidable front man he is, commanding the crowd with his unique and subtle theatrics. The band just fucking crushed it, perfection you'd expect from musicians 35 years into their journey. Every word was sung at the top of my voice, it was a true celebration of their music beginning to end, and to top it all off, after the show I was able to meet my musical heroes and tell them what they'd meant to me over the past decades, and they were tremendously gracious and welcoming. Tons of other meetups too, got to meet Mystery, chat at extent with the gents from Enchant (who are local for me, and to my surprise we actually share mutual friends) and others. I was also able to get my IQ/Enchant shirt from the 1994 show autographed by all members of IQ and most of Enchant, almost 25 years later.

Yeah, the perfect show all around, and celebrated with great friends to boot.



Me and Peter.... 




And for video here's a good audio recording of IQ doing Failsafe...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsxh2l9p3kk&ab_channel=cramx3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLq5sdtQVTQ&ab_channel=LeeGaskins[/url

And here's a collection of shots from Saturday shot by our own Cramx3, with tons of IQ footage..

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsxh2l9p3kk&ab_channel=cramx3



And that's it folks, glad you all enjoyed this little trip down memory lane, it's been amazing for me, especially just doing down rabbit hole after rabbit hole of fantastic concert video and setlists, I seriously hope others will follow suite and do this as well, I'd love to see what you all got in your memories as well. Thanks for following, I'll do a top 10 concert songs in a day or two...

[King Postwhore]

None of these jamokes knew we hung out for the weekend. Lol

[Lethean]

This was a really enjoyable thread to read.  I love your description of the IQ show even though I've never seen them (or listened to a ton of their stuff).  I recognize stuff I'd write for my favorite shows.

I haven't been to any of the specific shows on your list, but the tour overlaps are:

Nightwish - sort of.  I saw them on that tour with Anette.

Orphaned Land - never been a huge fan, but really enjoyed them on that tour, moreso than I had in the past.

Anathema - that tour was awesome

Haken - I saw their set at ProgPower that year; great set

[SwedishGoose]

Ever is such a great album would love to hear it all live. Who knows what they bring out in Stockholm next year....

Sounds fantastic with the DTF meetup wish I had been there.

[Cool Chris]

I remember that top picture.

Don't know anything about these guys, so unfortunately cannot comment on your top spot. Highly enjoyed this thread. Thank you for taking us on this journey.

[King Postwhore]

[TAC]

Awesome shot of you guys at Nerdstock!

I also saw a show 3000 miles away. If I do a list, maybe it'll show up..

Tim, start a new thread, so you can control the titles.  I think anyone could/should do this, just like we used to have a lot of Top 50 album threads.

If anyone else want to start a new thread, go ahead. If not, I'll go, but I can't start until tomorrow afternoon.




And again Lonestar! Nice list!

[lonestar]

 

[King Postwhore]

I got into IQ with Frequency but seeing them live playing song from The Road of Bones was special.

[cramx3]

Good times that night. I honestly probably wouldn't have gone to the show if you all hadn't been there. IQ was new to me and I thought they were really good. Sucked there was a delay to start the set and therefore we didn't get the full Ever album. Easily the only negative to say of that show. Enchant were pretty good too. I wasn't too into Tom Brislins set but he's in Kansas now so that's kind of cool. I recall we went to a brewery as well in Rahway between sets which was nice.

[King Postwhore]

RJ.  Love you bro.  I can't tell you how happy Lisa and I were able to hang with you. Memorable weekend for sure.

[lonestar]

RJ.  Love you bro.  I can't tell you how happy Lisa and I were able to hang with you. Memorable weekend for sure.

 

[axeman90210]

That was such a good weekend, and Saturday in particular with IQ as the culmination.

[ReaperKK]

Awesome thread Lonestar! I saw the same Wall tour and it was indeed amazing.

I'm down for this becoming a theme, we should start a tracker thread.

[jingle.boy]

I ain't even bothered that rooming with me for the weekend was like the 7th best highlight of this trip for you. 

Seriously though, this was one of the best festivals I've been to, and one of the best weekends ever.  Hanging with you 'til like what ??  2am or so before the IQ boys got wrapped up for that meet/greet ?? was just awesome to be a part of with/for you.

I'm not a massive IQ fan (for as hard as you've tried - I do very much enjoy everything by them) - I was more partial to Mystery and Evership that weekend, but their show was quite magnificent.

Nice to take this trip down memory lane with you.

[lonestar]

Definitely a fun trip down memory lane...let's finish it off with the top ten song performances...



10- Haken- Pareidolia - My favorite song of theirs, and they crushed it, the fact that it went straight into Architect helps.
9- Steven Wilson- The Raven that Refused to Sing - Such a somber, emotion filled display.
8- Dream Theater - Six Degrees - How the fuck they can keep up that intensity for that long is beyond me, just amazing.
7- TesseracT- Of Matter - A relentless display of technical prowess...
6- Yes- Rituals - The masters of the epic showing how it's done right.
5- IQ- Further Away - Hitting that final climax of this one, just an unforgettable moment.
4- Roger Waters- Comfortably Numb - When Roger hits the wall, and it explodes in color, can't ever get that moment out of my head.
3- Nemophila- Life - This song saved my ass countless times during the pandemic, such a positive and forceful ballad. To be with 500 hardcore fans, singing every lyric even though none of us spoke Japanese...yeah, definitely had a tear or two in my eyes.
2- Marillion- Hotel Hobbies/Warm Wet Circles/That Time of the Night - Would be number one if it was Fish on the lead, but even with H, it was a career moment.
1- The Who- Amazing Journey/Sparks - I highly doubt anything can ever knock this out of the top spot.

[King Postwhore]

Might make a playlist out of these songs.

[lonestar]

Might make a playlist out of these songs.

I got you covered boo...

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Bc9NGPHbBWoGtdO2fKIxj?si=aac1c65c084b46b0

[lonestar]

Also gonna toss this out here...it's not on the list and I didn't attend this show, just watched the livestream...so Nemophila formed right before covid, did two live shows before shutdown, and built their following on the back of social media and youtube cover videos. This is from their first post covid show, the performance of Life, where the emotion of the moment gets to be too much for lead singer Mayu...(we later learned pretty much the whole band lost it as well)...I remember this so well, such a pure musical moment, even I at home was losing it, as were fans around the world.


https://www.facebook.com/hechicero.setentayocho.3/videos/506168927395973

[King Postwhore]

Might make a playlist out of these songs.

I got you covered boo...

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Bc9NGPHbBWoGtdO2fKIxj?si=aac1c65c084b46b0

You rule.