I got the "Flying Colors Live in Europe" DVD earlier this week, and I've watched it a couple of times.
Interesting variety of music.
Good musicianship.
I didn't realize until after i brought it home that they were only on tour for their first album, so there are no "newer" songs in the show.
The two opening songs are really good.
I thought some of the songs from the album around the middle or two-thirds of the way through were a little weak, but then it gets better towards the end.
There are, of course several covers.
"Can't Find a Way" is a song that the main lead singer did with one of the other bands he was with. Kind of a "pop ballad," and not the sort of thing I normally listen to, but I like it.
Neal Morse sings a Spock's Beard song called "June." It's more acapella and acoustic than a rock song, but still good. Neal does a lot of lead and solo vocals in this show, which sounds good, but I wish his instrumental sound was more out-front than it is. He's a very talented keyboard player, and that side of him should be heard more.
I didn't like the song "Kayla" as much as other people seem to like it.
Mike Portnoy, in addition to sounding great on the drums, sings a lot more than I expected him to. He does the lead vocal on a song from the FC album called "Fool in My Heart," and then after a brief but excellent solo by Dave LaRue, he does the lead vocal on their "cover" of DT's "Repentance." I like his vocals, even if no one else does!
Speaking of solos, I wish there had been a drum, guitar, and keyboard solo as well. They could have left out some of the weaker songs and replaced them with the solo spots.
Actually I think there WAS a guitar solo, because at one point about half or two-thirds into the show, Steve Morse was introduced, but then there was what HAD to have been an edit, and then they went into the next song.
The last two or three songs were pretty good, and for an encore they played the album's version of an "epic," a song called "Infinite Fire," which is a little over twelve minutes long.
However:
The DVD does KIND of have an "Easter egg"-
After the band says good night, takes a bow, and the credits are done rolling, they come back out on stage and play a song that isn't listed anywhere in the credits:
A cover of the Deep Purple song "Space Truckin' " which has McPherson, Morse and Portnoy each singing a verse of it.
Good stuff.