Alright, so I was at the Trope/Haken/Symphony X show in Philly last night, a much anticipated show even though I just saw Haken because of it being a good long while since I've seen SX.
Let's get Trope out of the way. Couldn't be much more of an obvious pay to play, as already eluded to here, but man, was it lacking. I give the vocalist credit, she was good and performed with heart, and the guitarist to a certain extent as well, but not many positives beyond that. Given the two acts after them performing like they did felt empty, the music wasn't overly good, and you'd think if you have that guitarist there he'd at least warrant ripping out a few memorable solos, but nothing came close. I'd consider paying their fee at the NJ show at the end of the tour to give Haken an extra half hours to do covers again.
A stunning 5 days since my last Haken show no major surprises from their set. Someone next to me mentioned it weird they never really talked about who they were, or said much at all, and in hindsight I agreed with that. I hate to say much negative about a band I love so dearly, but between touring with Leprous and now Symphony X there are a few areas where I really think they could up their live game. Having more organic banter and sets would be a nice and easy start. On the Leprous tour they not only had the same set every night, but they performed in the same order, and with almost identical limited talk at the same points in the set. You add that to a band that already mostly stays put on stage and it can really feel like the worst aspect of a band playing to a click track, where everyone is kinda just rehearsing on stage as if they were at home. Leprous on the other hand didn't do anything drastic with their set, maybe changing one song between shows, but even then they changed up the order in which they played songs, it honestly kept them looking fresh and on their toes each night in a cool way. My next major gripe compares to SX, who were considered highly technical prog-metal for their time, and certainly still are, but compared to Haken doing a song like Nightingale in this set it's kinda night and day. Hearing the song live twice now, especially before SX really polarized me on how I feel about it. On one hand there is so much beautiful music and nice melodies there, and on the other it's so hard to follow as it's often disjointed and jarring seemingly for the sake of being so. It often feels too technical for its own good, whereas no matter how complex a part of two within a SX song may be it's almost always still a super strong cohesive song. And Rich, specifically for you, and one thing I'll have to ask Pete about, honestly the only time in the entire show where something doesn't seem well replicated is the keyboard "intro" in the middle of Nil By Mouth. If I recall did Diego use the Continuum style thing for that? Would make sense as to why it's tough to recreate on a standard keyboard.
I realize this is making me sound like an old man, "damn young kids with their polyrhythms and such", so enough with that and onto the good. Haken's music obviously still is amazing, and the performance of said music was great. The audience did seem to skew highly SX as far as who people where mainly there for (not surprising as SX is kinda local), but I heard a LOT of comments that evening that would suggest Haken were winning people over who didn't know them, which was fantastic. And then of course was what has to be a personal highlight for me. During 1985 I put my neon glasses on prior to Ross entering during 1985, only to shockingly see he was not sporting his own. As soon as he got to the front of the stage he motioned to me, I got up and handed him mine, and then he wore them to the Yes section and tossed them back at me. And other than the bit I mentioned, Pete is really stepping in and nailing it, on keys and doing well on vocals as well.
Symphony X was SX, for better and worse. Amazing vocals and delivery from Allen, you bet. Generic ass set? You betcha. Subpar sound while still being amazing live? Yes. Keyboards that could only be heard in softer sections and several key moments? Every time. An absolutely great time singing along to some choruses that will forever be burned into my subconscious? Yup.
Topic: Haken v. new single Nightingale (April 26) (Read 451939 times)
