The Morsefest 2017 package was not cheap, but I plunked down for the whole ball and wax. It was an awesome weekend of music and I am more than happy to pay for the whole package.
I've been listening to the new Exorcist demo the last few days. It is good and the finished product next year will be even better.
Some tidbits from the shows last weekend that I forgot to mention:
Friday:
-They kicked off the show by covering Where the Streets Have No Name and each member came out one by one. I cannot remember the order, but NDV came out first and started the drums, and Neal was last. As each guy came out, they joined in until Neal arrived and all six guys were playing. Very cool.
-Jake Livgren's vocal performance of Dust in the Wind was pretty awesome.
-Some of the crowd kept on singing Waste Away until they came out for the encore and played June.
-Birthday was not on the set list, but after they sang Happy Birthday to a friend in the crowd, Neal jokingly did a few bars of Birthday and then they were like, "Hey, everyone knows it, let's play it!"
-Neal, Nick and Ted doing the opening chorus of Carry On Wayward Son inspired much awe.
Saturday:
-Neal played the talk box with his electric guitar on one song. I had never seen him do that before.
-All of the lyrics were on the screen during the musical as they were sang in real time, with the person listed who was in singing. Very smart move, as it made following the story easy since we know who was singing what instead of trying to guess on the fly.
-Paul Bielatowicz was kinda annoying to watch. Helluva player, but his entire stage presence screamed "LOOK AT ME!!" and not in a good way.
-I always knew Ted Leonard and NDV were great singers, but they took it to a whole new level. Both sounded amazing, as did every other singer Neal got for the musical. In fact, I even heard a guy after the show say, "Neal is a great singer and he was probably the worst one there tonight."
That was a credit to everyone else, not a slight on Neal.