Spending the afternoon watching The Theater Equation and MAN, what a show this is. Before starting the concert proper, I watched the behind-the-scenes feature and you can definitely feel the excitement and energy from the cast and band on this one.
My question for folks who have seen (or even been to) both The Theater Equation and Electric Castle Live - which do you prefer more? Which live performance best brought its studio counterpart to life?
-Marc.
I was at both concerts and I think The Theater Equation did a better job bringing the album to life. Stuff Iike the stage full of people at the party during Day 11: Love which then do the last chorus together with Pride and Passion was incredible. But I may be biased because 1) I think The Human Equation is a much better album overall and 2) it was my first concert abroad. But I walked out of the theater and was absolutely blown away.
Wow, you went to both?! Lucky you, but they were experiences of a lifetime.
I watched both The Theater Equation and Electric Castle Live yesterday/last night, and I'm conflicted on which I liked more. TTE has a magnificent stage set-up and the vocalists really took to their roles (thanks to the big help of the understudies), and acted their roles as well as sang them - it was a true rock OPERA in that sense.
Electric Castle Live was more ROCK opera, if that makes sense. Arjen didn't even think the vocalists needed any costumes of any sorts, but some of them went the full mile and really took to their roles with costumes and props, like the Knight and Futureman. It helped sell their characters a bit more, but like Ben said, they didn't really act their parts as much, but given the type of show it was, I don't think they needed to. Of course, the Star Trek bias in me praises the performance of John de Lancie as Forever, which was a highlight of the show, and I agree with Ben that the extra verse by Fish in "Another Time, Another Space" really gave that song an extra bit of OOMPH it needed, as well as the extended chorus outro - it almost makes the studio version unlistenable given how epic the live version is!
I think Arjen would likely do another live show that is somewhere in between these two kinds of shows, depending on which album he wants to perform next. If he does something like 01011001 or The Source, I'm sure it'd be more like ECL, given that the sets would have to be huge and extravagant for those sci-fi themes, and probably impossible to pull off financially. If he does a smaller-scaled story like The Theory Of Everything or Transitus, the stage set-up could be a bit more like Theater Equation, with different levels and mini-sets around the stage for the vocalists to really have space to act out their parts. I could imagine the Blackboard being a centerpiece for TTOE, much like the hospital bed was for Theater Equation. I would also love seeing Michael Mills being rolled out on a pedestal, all done up to look like a statue, only to leap off said pedestal to sing "Dumb Piece Of Rock".
In the interview on ECL, Arjen and Joost said they have ideas for the next big live show, should they be able to do one, but this was before Transitus was really full developed, so I think they were probably thinking of TTOE for the next live show, but given that John Wetton has passed away since then, and that he was a bit part of the cast, I wonder if he wouldn't do it - like, who do you even get to replace John Wetton for that role?!
Also, since Arjen originally wanted Transitus to be a movie, and that his vocal cast have already acted out, and been costumed, for the music videos, I think there is a strong chance that Transitus Live might be his next live concert. It'd be a bit short given that the album is only about 81 minutes, so he'd have to do something else to push the concert to at least 2-2.5 hours. Maybe another selection of songs from his side-projects?
-Marc.
Topic: Ayreon/Arjen Lucassen Thread (Star Three on the way) (Read 383456 times)
