Wow, no comments from Marc yet? I'm SHOCKED! 
Well, I haven't had the chance to watch this yet, but I did catch a few songs last night. The look and sound are EXCELLENT. I love seeing Mike onstage with Neal. But the entire band is just ON. Neal really hit a homerun with this lineup. Having gone through such an extensive audition process, I really think he did himself and his music a great service because he not long got great musicians, but got guys that he obviously gels and has chemistry with, and that comes across. As good as his former lineups were, they all sounded loose and unpolished at times. This lineup sounds and looks very tight and focused.
LOL Sorry, I've been busy! I did watch SOME of the DVD the other night, from "World Without End" to the end of the show. GREAT song, the epic, and the pull it off effortlessly. You're right, bosk, he chose the best people for the job, and these guys really know their stuff! He picked great musicians who are also great fans of his music, so they've all taken great care and time in learning the songs and performing them at top-level. Also, it helps to have 2 multi-instrumentalists on stage in the form of Bill and Eric, it allows Neal to just SING whenever he wants to! And boy, does Neal sing his heart out on this set! I don't think he's ever sounded THIS good!
Of all the live sets I have from Neal on my iPod (an audio-rip of Testimony Live, ? Live, audio-rip of Sola Scriptura & Beyond, So Many Roads, Testimony 2 Live In LA, and now Live Momentum), this set is probably the best right after the last one (T2 Live In LA). Great set choices, and I dig the album-suites this time around! The Testimony Suite is literally the 2nd half of "Part 1", and they pull out great renditions of those songs. The Question Mark Suite takes four parts from the 12, and seamlessly melds them together, with a bit of "12" in the middle.
Other highlights have to be "Thoughts Part 5" and "Author Of Confusion", as well as "The Conflict", which includes the last bit of "The Conclusion" (all of which wasn't played on the last tour/live album, since it was part of a medley with "The Door"). Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the great performance of the SB tune "The Distance To The Sun" - on
Day For Night, it's a good ballad, but here it has taken on a life of its own, and has become a "We All Need Some Light"-type epic ballad. The vocal harmonies are amazing as well.
Really, there's probably only two tunes on here that I could care less for ("Weathering Sky" and "Fly High", but even then, both performances are still stellar). Hell, I even really enjoyed "Crazy Horses", as well as the jammy "Sing It High"! Neal and company will be hard pressed to surpass a live set like this in the future (of which we probably won't see another of until 2014-2015, depending on when Neal releases another studio album).
Give me a few more days when I have more free time, and I'll watch the rest of the DVD. I *did* watch the Tour Documentary, though, and it's a good hour of hilarious antics from Neal, Randy and Mike, as well as the rest of the band. You really get a sense of the camaraderie that these guys have with each other, and that they're not just hired guns for a gig - they're truly a band, and it helps that Bill, Eric and Adson all also contributed to
Momentum in some way! I hope Neal keeps these guys for a couple more albums/tours after this year! Of his 3 major bands over the years, I'd rank this at the top, followed by the Testimony/Testimony 2 Live band, and his European band last (not that they weren't bad, but the others were just tighter).
-Marc.
Topic: Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread (Read 548473 times)
