Haken thread v. "Evening With" tour (some set spoilers)

[Buddyhunter1]

On The Architect, the middle section, was a lot shorter live, which worked better live in my opinion.  The crowd was really in to this song. 

Did Ariich pull some strings to get that to happen?

[Evermind]

Not a huge fan of the Aquarius song, but I'm stoked to see the rest for sure!

That's the best part of the setlist for me

[ariich]

On The Architect, the middle section, was a lot shorter live, which worked better live in my opinion.  The crowd was really in to this song. 

Did Ariich pull some strings to get that to happen?

I didn't, but when Pete told me they were skipping past the boring meandering (my words, not his!) and going straight to the keyboard solo where it starts building back up, I was delighted!

[Laughingplace56]

For those that attended last night- Setlist.fm says one song was abridged; what part was taken out?

Apparently, the middle section

On The Architect, the middle section, was a lot shorter live, which worked better live in my opinion.  The crowd was really in to this song.

That's exactly what I was hoping for. Don't love that part and I think shortening it will be an improvement when playing it live. Awesome!

[Nick]

I'm not reading any comments, just scrolled to the bottom quick to tell you guys that I am continually, out of such force of habit, clicking on this thread every time there is a new post and then immediately realizing my mistake and hitting the back button.

[Ben_Jamin]

On The Architect, the middle section, was a lot shorter live, which worked better live in my opinion.  The crowd was really in to this song. 

Did Ariich pull some strings to get that to happen?

I didn't, but when Pete told me they were skipping past the boring meandering (my words, not his!) and going straight to the keyboard solo where it starts building back up, I was delighted!

I know what part you mean.

[mike099]

Not a huge fan of the Aquarius song, but I'm stoked to see the rest for sure!

That's the best part of the setlist for me

Last night musically it was good, but the vocals seemed off. 

Concerning the encore from Virus, it was a great song for the encore.  It kicked ass and the crowd loved it.

[goo-goo]

Were they selling any signed vinyl? I'm plannig to do the VIP but if they are not selling the Fauna signed vinyl, then I'll take my copy to get it signed.

[Mosh]

Are they selling the awesome Hawaiian button up shirts?

[King Postwhore]

Haken posted the merch table on Facebook 

[TheCountOfNYC]

On The Architect, the middle section, was a lot shorter live, which worked better live in my opinion.  The crowd was really in to this song. 

Did Ariich pull some strings to get that to happen?

I didn't, but when Pete told me they were skipping past the boring meandering (my words, not his!) and going straight to the keyboard solo where it starts building back up, I was delighted!

That's my favorite part of the song.

[Nick]

I'll try for a better post tomorrow, but my initial reaction was this was my favorite Haken show so far. That's out of 32.

[ariich]

I'll try for a better post tomorrow, but my initial reaction was this was my favorite Haken show so far. That's out of 32.

[CrimsonSunrise]

I'll try for a better post tomorrow, but my initial reaction was this was my favorite Haken show so far. That's out of 32.

You're making it tough on me!  I was leaning a hair to the "Not going" side of the fence.  Now I'm squarley back on the fence.  The setlist is a mixed bag for me and I was hoping as headliners they would play a little longer than 90ish mins.  6 hours total driving is a lot for my sorry ass. 

[King Postwhore]

Tuesday night with the Queen & Nick, he boyfriend. Lol. Can't wait!

[Nick]

Copypasta from FB

Alright, now with some sleep and a shower (shout out to Irving's very nice accommodations), a proper recap of last night's show.

While the set had the advantage of being a lot longer than I've seen in some time for Haken, it still exceeded expectations and was probably my favorite Haken show thus far after being 30+ deep at this point.

The set had a couple of big surprises, some absolute favorites of mine, and really made some changes from recent tours to be very fresh. Sound was great and all the guys were on fire.

And Arch Echo was quite the way to kick things off, they brought unreal energy and showmanship to their set. You inject a little bit of that into Haken's show (for folks other than Ross who is often left to carry that end of things) and you've pretty much hit perfection for them.

Who knows when I'll be seeing such a magnificent show again. Wait, I do, it's onto breakfast and then the rest of the way to Quebec City!

[gzarruk]

It just dawned on me that Lovebite is the perfect thematic companion piece for Angra's Black Widow's Web

[Nick]

As far as short and poppy songs are concerned I always thought Earthrise, which I love, lost a step live. Not the case with Lovebite.

[ariich]

As far as short and poppy songs are concerned I always thought Earthrise, which I love, lost a step live. Not the case with Lovebite.

I slightly prefer Earthrise as a song, but I agree. Lovebite was fantastic live. In fact, the whole set in Europe was so great and better than it looked on paper.

[King Postwhore]

One hell of a show last night. Always awesome hanging with Nick.

[WilliamMunny]

Having returned to Fauna this week for couple of fresh spins, I have to say, this album is beyond satisfying (and a huge step-up for me compared to Vector and Virus).

At this point, it's still somewhere in the middle of the pack, but I can confidently say that it's had more staying power with me than anything they've released since The Mountain.

[cramx3]

Having returned to Fauna this week for couple of fresh spins, I have to say, this album is beyond satisfying (and a huge step-up for me compared to Vector and Virus).

At this point, it's still somewhere in the middle of the pack, but I can confidently say that it's had more staying power with me than anything they've released since The Mountain.

I must say, after giving a bit of a break and returning to Fauna, I agree, it's better than I initially gave credit although I always thought it was good, but it did come off better after the break. 

Tonight is my turn to see the band in NYC 

[Kram]

Having returned to Fauna this week for couple of fresh spins, I have to say, this album is beyond satisfying (and a huge step-up for me compared to Vector and Virus).

At this point, it's still somewhere in the middle of the pack, but I can confidently say that it's had more staying power with me than anything they've released since The Mountain.

I must say, after giving a bit of a break and returning to Fauna, I agree, it's better than I initially gave credit although I always thought it was good, but it did come off better after the break. 

Tonight is my turn to see the band in NYC 

I too recently revisited Fauna and also agree it's quite good and I REALLY love Eyes of Ebony.  I'd also say middle of the pack, definitely below The Mountain and Affinity, but quite good nevertheless.

Looking forward to your report from tonight's show.

[DTA]

I saw them in Boston and while Haken was incredible, I thought Arch Echo had a bit more of a stage presence and command. Great band, and I was entertained throughout their entire set. For Haken, the Fauna songs worked really well live and one of them was the highlight of the entire show (along with the Virus song I wasn't a huge fan of on record but blew me away live). Great crowd too, these guys deserve it

[cramx3]

I saw them in Boston and while Haken was incredible, I thought Arch Echo had a bit more of a stage presence and command. Great band, and I was entertained throughout their entire set. For Haken, the Fauna songs worked really well live and one of them was the highlight of the entire show (along with the Virus song I wasn't a huge fan of on record but blew me away live). Great crowd too, these guys deserve it

I'm curious if Arch Echo does a better show this year than they did opening for DT last year.  I didn't dislike them and they are obviously talented, but I didn't find their stage presence or their show to be anything special to stick out to me.  (I saw them twice, once from the last row, once from the front row).

What's interesting (and off topic) is that a lot of this instrumental progressive music is getting kind of popular.  I saw Polyphia sell out a 2k venue a couple months ago.  Intervals is opening for a sold out Spiritbox tour.  And then JP had a successful solo run through the US.  It would be cool if Arch Echo caught on and from the exposure gained some popularity.

[hefdaddy42]

When I saw Arch Echo open for DT, I thought they were clearly excellent musicians, but it felt like they played the same song 5 times, instead of playing 5 different songs, if you get what I mean.

[gmillerdrake]

When I saw Arch Echo open for DT, I thought they were clearly excellent musicians, but it felt like they played the same song 5 times, instead of playing 5 different songs, if you get what I mean.

yep. There was no real discernable delineation between songs. Sonically sounded great.....but it was just one long song in my ears.

[cramx3]

When I saw Arch Echo open for DT, I thought they were clearly excellent musicians, but it felt like they played the same song 5 times, instead of playing 5 different songs, if you get what I mean.

yep. There was no real discernable delineation between songs. Sonically sounded great.....but it was just one long song in my ears.

Yeah, I'm with you, but for me, I feel a lot of this music ends up like that in the live setting unless you already know the songs.  I think it's part of being an instrumental band.  Even Polyphia who has a wide range of sound and style, some of those songs do still end up sounding similar when it's just not stop guitar shredding and djenting after 30 minutes or so of it. 

[King Postwhore]

They were excellent but I do agree with Gary and Hef. 

[gmillerdrake]

When I saw Arch Echo open for DT, I thought they were clearly excellent musicians, but it felt like they played the same song 5 times, instead of playing 5 different songs, if you get what I mean.

yep. There was no real discernable delineation between songs. Sonically sounded great.....but it was just one long song in my ears.

Yeah, I'm with you, but for me, I feel a lot of this music ends up like that in the live setting unless you already know the songs.  I think it's part of being an instrumental band.  Even Polyphia who has a wide range of sound and style, some of those songs do still end up sounding similar when it's just not stop guitar shredding and djenting after 30 minutes or so of it.

I've felt this way about 'Animals as Leaders' also. Which is why I've tried several times to really get into them....but...always just fade out. Fantastic music but I feel like I've only heard one of thier songs when I know I've listened to dozens.

[DTA]

When I saw Arch Echo open for DT, I thought they were clearly excellent musicians, but it felt like they played the same song 5 times, instead of playing 5 different songs, if you get what I mean.

I agree that instrumental music starts to sound the same, but the energy of their performance and showmanship made it exciting to watch as opposed to Haken who's songs are incredible but there's a lot of just standing there which cuts some of the energy down a bit.

[cramx3]

When I saw Arch Echo open for DT, I thought they were clearly excellent musicians, but it felt like they played the same song 5 times, instead of playing 5 different songs, if you get what I mean.

I agree that instrumental music starts to sound the same, but the energy of their performance and showmanship made it exciting to watch as opposed to Haken who's songs are incredible but there's a lot of just standing there which cuts some of the energy down a bit.

I totally understand that. Not a huge line at the venue to get in right now, arch echo goes on in 70 minutes.

[cramx3]

Concert was fun last night...

Not a huge fan of the shape of the venue.  Stage is in the corner, you have to push through to get around the corner to see the stage... the lighting was horrible, the stage was like a foot high so it's hard to see the band playing if you aren't right up front (you can basically only see their heads from the back).  But there is a bit of a charm to a small place like that.  It is fairly intimate with no barrier between the band and fans.  I thought the sound was great (for both bands).  Nice people working the venue.  Kind of sucked that the show didn't start until 8:30pm.  Felt like that could have been pushed up an hour or at least 30 minutes.  I didn't get home until almost 1:30am 

Anyway, Arch Echo was fine.  I'm not sure I get that they are more energetic than Haken?  They have one guitarist who was pretty active on stage, but just kept reminding me of a cheap version of Tim Henson.  Not that he was bad, he was really good in terms of playing and stage presence, but he literally stole his look (minus the tattoos). I thought they were overall decent.  Some fun moments, but nothing really special. The crowd seemed into them though, for the most part.  It actually felt like the place was most packed for them too.  Unless people just pushed up for Haken, the venue back was PACKED for the second half of Arch Echos set and it never felt that packed for Haken.

Haken came on around 9:45 and ended around 11:15pm.  I had gone out for a smoke between bands so when I got back in, I was stuck in the back wtihout much of a view. Therefore, I got pretty poor quality video for my standards.  Oh well, I had fun and wasn't jam packed around the corner.  The setlist was the same for this tour, but we got treated with some sort of drum issue near the end of Taurus to start the show that lead to them performing the end of the song again! I love stuff like that.  So cool how they did the whole song and then just said lets do that ending again    I thought the abridged version of The Architect was perfect.  Kind of like the "get to the point" version of the song, maybe better than the original. I eventually moved to the side of the stage and realized that was a WAY better spot because after a few people left, I ended up about 3 feet away from Richard. So in some ways, for me, the show really started with Elephants Never Forget.  Which was awesome live.  But for the people who say Haken are kind of stiff on stage, I agree other than Ross.  Ross was VERY active on stage.  Harder to see from the back, but up close, he was interacting with the band, moving around, interacting with the fans.  He was honestly the highlight of the show for me. He sounded good and was energetic.  We also made tons of eye contact too.  Richard basically was playing with his eyes shut it seemed and had zero interaction with us right next to him.  Pete looked wayyy too serious on stage    I yelled for Connor during Elephants when it was the heavy bass part and got a smile out of him.  Celestial Elixir was pretty incredible live.  First time I've got to see it.  I thought the crowd was mostly dead for Haken, from the back, but up close, you could see the front row (many of which were females) absolutely going wild for Haken.  I still kind of felt the crowd overall was a bit dead, but at least up front I got to feel that energy in the room.  For me, Messiah Complex was the highlight of the night.  Absolutely incredible way to end the show.  I've had the song stuck in my head since leaving.



I can share more when I go through my stuff tonight or something, but the only song I recorded was Lovebite and my video is pretty bad so watch at your own risk since I was still in the back for this.  My clips from up close are WAY better, but I haven't gone through and posted any of them yet.

Haken - Lovebite LIVE @ Le Poisson Rouge New York City NY 5/11/2023

[Stadler]

Dude, get off the stage! 

Kidding; great shot there. You get some really good photos, man.  You've got it down to a science.  For every one good one I get, I have 8 or 10 of shit.

[cramx3]

Dude, get off the stage! 

Kidding; great shot there. You get some really good photos, man.  You've got it down to a science.  For every one good one I get, I have 8 or 10 of shit.

I actually think my photos SUCK.  My phone camera is not good.  My gf has the exact same phone and her pictures come out sooo much better.  I definitely got some sick vids from up close though.  Maybe tonight I can share some more.

Funny enough Stads, I overheard someone next to me compare the venue to Toads Place.  I've never been, but I know you've mentioned it many times before.