The Official Fates Warning thread v. Elsydeon hasn’t been around

[pg1067]

yeah, and then I thought Frank came up to you at his own show and you were super cold to him.  I thought Frank would have been thinking, "Why is this guy giving me the cold shoulder, wtf have I done?" 

Hmmm...Frank was a little busy at that particular show, but I'm quite literally laughing out loud here in my office.  Fortunately, I'm on the only person here so far today.

[bosk1]

While we're telling entertaining Frank Aresti stories...

I was fortunate to get to see DT do a soundcheck at a show on the Along for the Ride tour.  During soundcheck, there was a dude with short hair that I didn't recognize hanging out near the back of the stage on JP's side.  Afterward, I was just hanging out in the auditorium, and after the rest of the band left, JP and the guy I didn't recognize were talking up on stage.  JP then asked me if I wanted to come up onto the stage to look around.  I said sure and came up, and he introduced me to the other guy just by saying, "This is Frank."  I shook hands and just gave a generic, polite response like, "Hi, I'm [bosk1], nice to meet you."  His response, "Frank Aresti.  Nice to meet you." 

[RodrigoAltaf]

While we're telling entertaining Frank Aresti stories...

I was fortunate to get to see DT do a soundcheck at a show on the Along for the Ride tour.  During soundcheck, there was a dude with short hair that I didn't recognize hanging out near the back of the stage on JP's side.  Afterward, I was just hanging out in the auditorium, and after the rest of the band left, JP and the guy I didn't recognize were talking up on stage.  JP then asked me if I wanted to come up onto the stage to look around.  I said sure and came up, and he introduced me to the other guy just by saying, "This is Frank."  I shook hands and just gave a generic, polite response like, "Hi, I'm [bosk1], nice to meet you."  His response, "Frank Aresti.  Nice to meet you."

I LOVE Frank's solos!!!! They have that quality that I think Steve Rothery also has: their solos always tell a story, and not necessarily with a million notes.

He's a manager at Dunlop nowadays, as per his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-aresti-8ab6392b/

[TAC]

I've been listening to FW for a long time and have never even considered who was playing the guitar solos.  What would be the good Aresti ones?

[pg1067]

While we're telling entertaining Frank Aresti stories...

I was fortunate to get to see DT do a soundcheck at a show on the Along for the Ride tour.  During soundcheck, there was a dude with short hair that I didn't recognize hanging out near the back of the stage on JP's side.  Afterward, I was just hanging out in the auditorium, and after the rest of the band left, JP and the guy I didn't recognize were talking up on stage.  JP then asked me if I wanted to come up onto the stage to look around.  I said sure and came up, and he introduced me to the other guy just by saying, "This is Frank."  I shook hands and just gave a generic, polite response like, "Hi, I'm [bosk1], nice to meet you."  His response, "Frank Aresti.  Nice to meet you."

Awesome!!  And...you know...actually is about Frank.

I've been listening to FW for a long time and have never even considered who was playing the guitar solos.  What would be the good Aresti ones?

I think they used to mark in the liner notes who did the solos -- at least in the Perfect Symmetry through Inside Out era (there are also a couple on DIADL that I know are noted in the liner notes).  Without looking, the only ones I know for sure to be Aresti are Static Acts and the first solo on Monument (i.e., not the acoustic solo), and I only really know that from having seen them live.  Some of the things his fingers did during the Static Acts solo I've never seen anyone else do.

[RodrigoAltaf]

I've been listening to FW for a long time and have never even considered who was playing the guitar solos.  What would be the good Aresti ones?

 Face the Fear is a good one.

[wolfking]

I've been listening to FW for a long time and have never even considered who was playing the guitar solos.  What would be the good Aresti ones?

Life in Still Water
Leave the Past Behind
Don't Follow Me
Through Different Eyes (first solo)
A World Apart (second solo)
Outside Looking in
Pale Fire
Island in the Stream
Monument (first solo)
And Yet it Moves
One Thousand Fires

[TAC]

Off the top of your head?? WOW!

[wolfking]

Off the top of your head?? WOW!

I followed his playing pretty closely when I was heavily into Fates and Parallels and Inside Out back in the day.  I've always really enjoyed his playing too.  He crafted perfect little solos for the songs.  I couldn't get any from No Exit off the top of my head, that's one album I couldn't tell you without listening who does what.

[TAC]

So I'm railing on Mr. Big in the other thread, but Parallels and Inside Out is FW's sweet spot.

[wolfking]

I'll add that Life in Still Water is one of the hardest solos for me ever.  I could never get it clean.  Aresti's reverse hand hold and pull offs followed by tapped/slap harmonics is just insane. 

There's a great vid on YouTube, the one with Portnoy with great vision of Frank playing this solo.  So tricky to nail.

[pg1067]

I'll add that Life in Still Water is one of the hardest solos for me ever.  I could never get it clean.  Aresti's reverse hand hold and pull offs followed by tapped/slap harmonics is just insane. 

There's a great vid on YouTube, the one with Portnoy with great vision of Frank playing this solo.  So tricky to nail.

I always assumed that was more of a visual thing, but I'm not a guitarist, so all I know is that it really looks cool.

I also really love what he does at the start of his solo on Monument.  First of all, he's sort of out of time, and I think he's also pressing the string onto the pickup.  There's also a modal change partway through.  Oh, and it's in alternating 5/4 and 6/4.  The combo of that solo and Jim's solo (done on acoustic guitar over the same basic riff but in alternating 4/4 and 6/4) is one of my favorite 2-part solos ever.

[wolfking]

Yeah, Monument is one of their best.  Yeah he depressing on the pickup at the start, Frank does some really cool shit.

[kirksnosehair]

I've been on a huge Fates Warning kick in the last few weeks.  I wasn't really a big fan during most of the 2000's and 2010's so a lot of this material is relatively fresh to my ears, especially albums like Inside Out, Parallels, Perfect Symmetry etc. 

[TAC]

I only saw FW once and it was on the Inside Out tour.

[wolfking]

I only saw FW once and it was on the Inside Out tour.

Would have been a good show that one.

[TAC]

It was. The place was so tiny, I literally stood at the stage about 5' from Mark Zonder. Fucking awesome!

[SoundscapeMN]

other than not seeing Arch live, the only other regret I have with FW is never seeing them on a Headlining tour (nor APSOG in full).

I did see them at ProgPowerUSA in 2009, which was awesome, and a FULL SET; however the crowd of course was not 100% FW fans like a Headline show normally would be.

The 2 times they have come to my hometown since becoming a fan in 1995, they opened (Savatage and Queensryche).

[kirksnosehair]

I caught them on one of those 3-band tours that Mike Portnoy was organizing back in the day.  I forget who the other band was, but at the time Nick D'Virgilio was playing drums for them.

[emtee]

Pretty sure that was the QR/DT co- headliner tour. NDV was playing with FW. Great tour but DT was loud!
I yelled to Nick when they took the stage and he looked at me like he was surprised anybody recognized him.

[romdrums]

Pretty sure that was the QR/DT co- headliner tour. NDV was playing with FW. Great tour but DT was loud!
I yelled to Nick when they took the stage and he looked at me like he was surprised anybody recognized him.

Did you go to the show at Pine Knob?  I was at that one as well.  Fates with Nick was pretty good, and I totally didn't expect to see Frank Aresti with them, so that was a nice surprise.  DT played a killer set that night, too!

[emtee]

Sure was! Great show all around.

[pg1067]

I saw FW six times, all at relatively small clubs.

Three times supporting Perfect Symmetry.  The first time they closed the set with the entirety of The Ivory Gate of Dreams.  The other two were co-headlining shows with a band called Sanctuary.

I missed the Parallels tour because their only Southern California show was the same night that Rush played in support of Roll the Bones.

I saw them opening for Dream Theater, supporting Inside Out and Awake.

I missed APSOG because heck if I know.  Doesn't look like they played Southern California in support of Disconnected.  I missed the 2003 tour with QR/DT/FW because of kids.

I saw the Parallels reunion show in 2010 and a show in support of DIADL in December 2013.  I think I skipped the most recent SoCal show because it was on a weeknight (BOO, me!).

[bosk1]

I have never really seen them live.  Never cared about their pre-X catalog, and they never opened for anyone I was seeing to have caught them earlier.  I saw 2 shows on the FW/QR/DT tour.  But the first show, we got in just a bit late, and then I was talking with some friends I hadn't seen in years, so by the time I got to my seat, I only got to see a couple of songs in their short set.  The second night, it was a road trip to that other location, and we got there after FW was already done. 

As I have posted before, X was the first album I liked.  DIADL was the first album I really liked.  And TOF was my album of the year the year it was released.  But since becoming a fan late in the game, I haven't had a "convenient" opportunity to see them.  When things open back up, I think I will have to change that.  There aren't many bands I feel that I need to see anymore.  But if I had to make a bucket list, or a must-see list (for whatever reason), it would look like this:
-Maiden:  Have never seen them.  I really regret not seeing them on the Legacy of the Beast tour, but it just wasn't in the cards for what ultimately amount to very mundane reasons.
-Epica:  Have never seen them, and they put on such a fantastic show, from everything I have seen.
-DT:  I have seen them enough times that I don't feel any urgency to seeing them.  But I always enjoy their shows, and they are that band that I will go and see whenever they are in town as long as the scheduling works.

And that's really about it.  I would probably put FW on that list, but at the bottom, in terms of "Yeah, I'd like to see them if I can make it work, and I'd probably travel a decent distance to do it." 

Then at the bottom are bands like NMB and Transatlantic that put on a great show, and I would see them if it is "convenient."  And bands that, if they put out a really good album, or are doing a "special" show, or are part of a great lineup, I might go see, like Nightwish, Within Temptation, and some others. 

But, yeah, coming back to FW again, I think they need to go on my live "to do" list.

[kirksnosehair]

Pretty sure that was the QR/DT co- headliner tour. NDV was playing with FW. Great tour but DT was loud!
I yelled to Nick when they took the stage and he looked at me like he was surprised anybody recognized him.

Yeah, you're right!  Luckily for me it was an outdoor venue so the volume wasn't too big of an issue.  Yeah, I remember that show, Geoff Tate was still with QR and he was very rough sounding and pitchy as fuck.  Plus his banter between songs was annoying, he really had a very high opinion of himself at that point, I think he was overcompensating for his greatly diminished vocal range.  I mean, that's really got to suck for a vocalist to slowly lose their vocal range as they get older. 

[kirksnosehair]

Just came back to say I'm an idiot 


I did not give this album enough time to really marinate in my head until this morning at the gym, and now as I am helping Mrs NoseHair clean the house I've listened to it again and holy fucking nuggetz is this thing full of proggy greatness and these songs are just extremely compelling at times almost hypnotic but Then Comes The...RIFFS 


This is at least as good as Theories of Flight and I'll tell you why.  It's fresh but also nostalgic in a way as they've almost taken us on a tour of each era of the band throughout this incredible album.  Still getting chills from some of the passages, the lyrics are starting to sink in a bit too and it's just really incredible songwriting, NOTHING about this was phoned in.  Intricate in detail, melodies for miles, recurring themes, blazing melodic solos, complex rhythm patters that take multiple listens to really begin to appreciate, the drumming on this is just fucking monstrous.  Ridiculous chops. This is an amazing album and yeah, anyone on the fence, keep listening, it will pay off big time.      

[bosk1]

So...just got this album, and I'm pretty annoyed.  After one listen, it's pretty clear that no other album coming out this year is going to have a chance at album of the year.  It just isn't fair.

[wolfking]

So...just got this album, and I'm pretty annoyed.  After one listen, it's pretty clear that no other album coming out this year is going to have a chance at album of the year.  It just isn't fair.

 

[Mister Gold]

So...just got this album, and I'm pretty annoyed.  After one listen, it's pretty clear that no other album coming out this year is going to have a chance at album of the year.  It just isn't fair.

You sure you're not referring to Witherfall's Curse of Autumn?

(But yeah, the FW album is pretty dang great too... even if it's actually a 2020 album.)

[bosk1]

Oh, is it really 2020?  I knew I was getting it a bit late, but didn't realize it actually came out last year. 

OK, 2020 album of the year then. 

[Phoenix87x]

The Longest shadow of the day 

[Nachtmerrie]

Bought it immediately after the release but I didn't really connect with after one or two listens.

This topic made me go back to it over the last week and it gets better which each listen. While ToF was a direct hit this one has more secrets to unveil and I'm pretty sure it will top ToF in the end. So many great melodies.

[wolfking]

Yeah, I've been spinning it in the car lately also, it's bloody amazing.

[TAC]

Yeah, I've been spinning it in the car lately also, it's bloody amazing.

I was literally thinking about this album this morning on my way to work. It kind of came and went on me. I need to dig into it.

[LudwigVan]

Yeah, I've been spinning it in the car lately also, it's bloody amazing.

I was literally thinking about this album this morning on my way to work. It kind of came and went on me. I need to dig into it.

Definitely requires digging into. Not a come and go kinda album.