Seemed like they loosened up a lot when they knocked off "Universe" but they weren't exactly tight then either. You're going to enjoy it.
I've watched The Absolute Universe section of the concert again over the last two nights and enjoyed it even more than first time around. My enjoyment is certainly enhanced by the four of them - including Roine in his more understated way - having a really good time playing these songs together, possibly for the final time!
It an interesting observation that this is a band greater than the sum of its parts (something that is certainly not always true). I never got into Marillion and dislike Dream Theater. Flower Kings and the various other Morse vehicles are hit and miss for me, yet I have really enjoyed everything Transatlantic have done.
If I was to rank the individual members main bands (past & present) incl. Transatlantic it would be: Spocks Beard Dream Theater Transatlantic The Neal Morse Band Neal Morse Marillion The Flowerkings Flying Colors
My rank would be Dream Theater (namely 1994-2002) Transatlantic (first three albums particularly) Flower Kings Spocks Beard (Neal era) Neal Morse Band Neal Morse Flying Colors Marillion Portnoy has other bands too like Sons of Apollo, the Winery Dogs and Roine has/had Kaipa plus his solo stuff. I think Flower Kings have the best overall discography over all those bands mainly because of how consistently great they are and how they tend to be more experimental than the other bands. But those DT and Transatlantic eras are the best IMO. I love the Neal era Spocks Beard albums very close to my heart but I ranked it below Flower Kings just because Flower Kings have far more albums thank Neal-era Spocks Beard has.
In many ways Zorn is like a JS Bach of the 20th/21st century, and in the sense of cataloguing all these compositions and recordings he very much fits that typology too. Probably long after both his and our own lives, the vastness of his body of work will be more accessible to future generations in the manner that later happened with JS Bach's vast work.
I’m just not a fan of heavy/metal prog. For example, I really like the clean vocal Opeth albums, but despise the growling stuff. DT, to me, is just headache inducing noise. My top five: Transatlantic (I really like all 5 albums) NM Band (3 good albums, one crap) Flower Kings (3 good albums, the rest meh) Spock’s Beard (2 really good albums, one ok, the rest just don’t to it for me) Neal Morse (mostly derivative stuff, nothing stuck for me) As to the others, mama always says if you’ve got nothing nice to say …..
The Light and V are definitely the height for Spocks Beard, though I've been revisiting some of my neglected albums of the Morse era lately and both Beware Of Darkness and Kindness of Strangers are far stronger albums than I remembered. The Flower Kings thing puzzles me, though it's subjective but Stardust We Are, Flower Power, Untold The Future, Sum of No Evil, Banks Of Eden and Desolation Rose are all incredibly strong albums, very high tier prog IMO.
I finally watched most of this on Saturday. I thought it was great... I got most of the way through the Whirlwind... I thought the sound and performance was excellent... Not much to speak of in terms of the surround mix. The only thing that was a bit of a negative for me was the overlaying of the backing screen over the band with that dual image... it seemed a little overdone. Otherwise top class
I am always a bit baffled to see love for Desolation Rose. To me, that sits next to The Rainmaker as the only average albums the Flower Kings have done. Desolation Rose sounds like a band on creative fumes (which I guess explains why they took over half a decade off after that).
How can you not love Tower One? Desolation Road? White Tuxedo? Resurrected Judas? Last Carnivore? Out of the post-2000s albums form them it's one of the ones I always find myself coming back to, alongside Banks Of Eden.
Some big epics trivia. The longest Flower Kings song is over twice the length of the longest Spocks Beard song. The longest Transatlantic song is the length of the Flower Kings longest with aprox the length of Spocks Beard's The Light added to it. As for Marillion it's longest song is only around the length of The Light as far as I remember.
Personally, I've never bought into that whole 'The Whirlwind is one 80 minute song' thing that Mike in particular has said so often. Sorry, but how is that one song? It's a dozen songs with occasional recurring themes, just like many albums out there (including other Transatlantics!) As for Marillion's longest, I think that was probably Grendel, going all the way back to their debut EP. That's about four or five minutes longer than The Light.
It's not just Mikes opinion, it's represented as one 77 minute long song on the CD and in subsequent live releases (where it's also indexed as a single track). It's very difficult to tell any of the sections from each other, it is seamless, there are no "endings" inside the sections of the song to differentiate them. It is not a concept album either. Since the very first time I heard The Whirlwind, I've always heard it as a single song. It's a pedantic argument though, people have the same argument over the title track of Dream Theater's Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence all the time. But in the case of both, they both sound like a single song and are specified to be intended to be seen as such in the CD presentations and live presentations.
I love the middle section of Tower One, but I dislike the beginning and ending bits. Desolation Road is ruined by Hasse, who sounds hoarse on most of the record, and frankly is the big reason why I am not a big fan of the record as a whole. He sings more lead than normal, despite his voice sounding like it wasn't in good condition. I never understand why he was used so much given how bad his voice sounded. White Tuxedos and Last Carnivore are both solid, but unspectacular. Resurrected Judas is classic TFK songwriting as far as structure goes, but the melodies fall a little flat, especially in the chorus, which is pretty blah (Hasse's poor vocals strike again). No, The Whirlwind is presented as 12 songs on the original studio album, just like TFK's Garden of Dreams is 18 tracks that comprise a suite, and Six Degrees is eight songs on the original album that comprises a suite. I know Portnoy likes to be clever and loves the idea of having a 77-minute song or a 43-minute song, but I don't buy any of those as being a single song. The songs from the Six Degrees suite are often played individually (the 6DOIT tour and the Score score are the only times the suite has been played in full), and select songs from The Whirlwind were played on last year's tour.
I would put the case forward for 'Suppers Ready', which the band themselves have alluded to. That song could easily be broken into single songs more than any other epic I've ever heard.
This is probably my favourite of the Flying Colors albums but the other two are excellent too - as are the live sets.
Whirlwind plays like a single song for me, with sections... What someone else may think is fine, but to me it is a 77 minute song that is as, if not more, coherent than many artists 3 minute songs
My ranking is probably: Transatlantic The Neal Morse Band Neal Morse Solo Spock's Beard (Neal era) The Flower Kings Flying Colors Dream Theater (Mike era) Marillion though there's little, if anything, to choose between The Neal Morse Band, Neal Morse Solo and Spock's Beard (Neal era). The Flower Kings upwards are all in my top dozen or so bands.
I know it's not just Mike's opinion, that's why I said 'Mike in particular' (he's by far the most vocal band member about it... but then, he's by far the most vocal band member! ). Personally, I find it immensely easy and simple to differentiate such completely distinct songs from each other. The fact that some of them blend without silence between the tracks doesn't make it all 'one song' IMO, any more than it makes some Moody Blues albums (which do the same thing) one song. None of this is important in the grand scheme of things, it just seems like they were really reaching for it to be something it isn't (I love the album BTW). As if to say, 'Look at how PROG this is! It's the longest song ever!' But then to be fair, Ian Anderson did the same thing (twice!). The difference I suppose is that with Thick As A Brick, for example, he just named the song that. He didn't list a dozen individual tracks and then say 'Oh, but it's one song'. I get that the idea is for people to listen to The Whirlwind in one sitting as a complete piece, and I agree that it's best heard that way. But there's a name for that, it's called an album. And don't most artists - especially in the Prog rock field - want their albums to be listened to in full anyway? Anyway, interesting topic (IMO). I'm just offering my perspective.
Somebody has to put Marillion on top of this ranking lists But yeah, Transatlantic ends up pretty high! Marillion Dream Theater (Mike era) Transatlantic Flying Colors The Flower Kings The Neal Morse Band Neal Morse Solo Spock's Beard (Neal era)
