Classic Albums Live

[theconcertaholic]

Nailed it!
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theconcertaholic...
[ CONCERT REVIEWS ]

[dr.wu]

Yes , They did nail it.

Can't wait for your detailed review , Jeff!

[dr.wu]

[Ron Burgundy]

You know it's good when the show contained real pieces of Floyd!

[theconcertaholic]

[Jface]

In yet another of Dr Wu's dreamy PhD dissertations on the CAL show experience, he's right on the money with the DSOL set last night.

Band members were in killer form, especially the keyboard and second guitarist. Troy the drummer played something of a heroic set, playing through injury and making it all look easy. Kudos.

But hey guys -- and I say this with a total love-on for the CAL concept and the Dr Wu-defined quality standards (the Wu Factor) -- last night was the worst encore programming I've ever experienced with CAL. By the end of Eclipse, you'd slapped a dog collar around the entire audience and they would have followed you anywhere. All the love was yours for a spectacular performance, an OVERWHELMING vibe! And what the f--?? Three soul-destroying songs from the Final Cut followed by two depression-bash selections from Animals?!? It's like you were all laughing and no one got the joke. The audience thinned out right away, some retreating to the back bar to escape the sound of Waters' massive ego breaking up Pink Floyd, while others just called it a night.

By the time the only cool song happened (Gilmour solo track), it was already one for the books. It damn near ruined what should have been another heavy-cool Floyd Friday. I was at the killer Meddle show and the encore tunes were amazing, the first time I knew of CAL pulling out the Syd Barrett songbook. Why go from 100 to zero in just a week? Where was Bike? Why not Lucifer Sam or Jugband Blues? Or ANY other Floyd (More, Atom Heart, etc)?? ANYTHING but the momentum-killing FINAL CUT!!

Don't you think it's better to have your audience celebrating life instead of envying the dead??

Actually I'm kind of nervous about what you may have in store for next week. I'd sooner hear dance remixes of The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking than what happened last night.

Jf

[Ron Burgundy]

I'm gonna punch you in the ovary, that's what I'm gonna do. A straight shot. Right to the babymaker.

[JB97]

Put the gun's away Ron you might poke someone's eye out !!

[dr.wu]

[Live Music Head]

My brother and his wife drove in from Mount Hope
To share a few organic beers in my yard pre-show
Where the words to Us and Them could be heard
Spilling from my brothers mouth between sips of lager
Arriving at the green P across the street from the Phoenix
We ran into a fiasco with the parking machine
After trying and retrying
The plastic just wouldn’t work
We went to the machine at the other end of the lot
But experienced the same thing
“if the machine doesn’t work, it’s free right?, I ask the guy waiting his turn
“yea, he says, but let me try”
As he’s pushing his credit card in, he asks…
“what’s going on at the Phoenix anyway?”
Without thinking I said, “Pink Floyd”
You should’ve seen his face
Before I realized what I’d said, he was all over me…
“are you serious?
“but there’s no line-up!
Is this a surprise show like the Stones?!”
He was getting so excited
But he calmed down as I explained what Classic Albums Live is all about
The look on his face when he actually thought Floyd was playing
Priceless
This parking machine wouldn’t take the plastic either
Only coin
But do you think any of us were carrying coin?
Of course not
We anxiously walk to the nearest store thinking we may miss some of the show
The nearest store is actually an Indian restaurant of some kind on the east side
“We don’t have change, only fives for your twenty”, we’re told
"Why don’t we just get change inside the club?”, I ask myself
Duh!
Fortunately within minutes we had our coin and the parking problem was solved
Finding ourselves with drinks in hand at the left hand side of the stage
We barely had time for the anticipation to grow before the band came out
And the opening Speak to Me scream from Leslea Keurvost thrilled me to the core
I absolutely loved it
That, and the entire band were dead on
But I was anxious to hear more of Leslea Keurvost
What can I possibly say about her vocals on Great Gig in the Sky
That hasn’t been said many times already?
Well, probably nothing
But her vocals on that alone was worth the price of admission
Actually the price of admission for a CAL show at the Phoenix is silly
You can’t get a better deal for your twelve musical dollars
I mean really, c’mon, we are so lucky
I think it was during On the Run when I really took notice of the keyboards
Lindsay Clark did an excellent job all night long
Except for minor snap, crackle and pops, the sound was darn good too
But I don’t think the lights were supposed to be lost for that little bit, were they?
Not that it had any affect on the playing
The band never missed a beat as far as I could tell
My brother commented on the well played second guitarist, Des Leahy
And how could you not smile watching the percussionist work those toys
Or not move your hips to the groovy bass in Money?
I loved the drums
But I did notice a pause somewhere when there shouldn’t have been
Seeing as I can’t even remember what song it was now
I probably shouldn’t even bother mentioning it, but…
I loved Braxton’s entrance to blow his sax
“it certainly was in the right……”
And not only does Rob Phillips sing, play guitar and bark well
He also does a good whistle
But was it really him doing the lunatic laugh?
Got home to find a transvestite passed out on the hill in front of my house
Yes, I have a grassy hill in front of my house
And it was a very strange sight to drive up and find
A colourfully dressed he/she passed out on it
A bicycle laying haphazard across the end of the hill and the sidewalk
Gave a clear indication that “gee, I’d say alcohol was likely involved”
“Perhaps Pride Week isn’t over yet?”
But he/she looked dead, and I was concerned
Until I leaned over him/her for a shake and wake
He/she stirred slightly and then suddenly shot straight up
Adjusting his/her wig and looking quite embarrassed
He/she was swaying and apologizing at the same time
“no worries”, I say
“stay, rest… take your time… there’s no rush”
There’s no way in hell you’ll make it cycling up that hill, I thought
If you’re going north, that is
What a weird end to the night

[Craig Martin]

i choose the outro list
i'm very into the final cut
lyrically it's rogers at the top of his game
rob and i were talking after sound check
about how the two songs gave us goose bumps
i got very emotional during 'the gunners dream'
it reminds me of my grandparents back in england
both my grandfathers were killed
my uncles were decorated veterans
that song puts a photograph on my nana into my brain
'after the service when you're walking slowly to the car'
if we'd have done that song at one of the sit down theatres
it would have been magical
but the phoenix tends to lend more to a rock concert environment
but
i think in retrospect i should have thrown in numb or mother or something
the outro set was a bit of a downer
i received quite a few emails
but i thoroughly enjoyed the evening
sonically it was one of my best mixes to date

regardless - disgruntlement noted

[Linz Jupiter]

I hope I'm at liberty to share this story because I think it deserves to be shared.

I was over for dinner at Craig's house last night, and I got to see the war medals of his one uncle... he was a member of an elite squad, and received stars for all theatres of the war.

It was an extremely, extremely humbling moment.
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Itinerant synthmonger.

[Jface]

Thanks to Craig Martin for providing background on the encore choices.

Dr Wu...your positivist attitude is refreshing, but it also seems to rule out any criticism, which is one of the principal ways a concert series can improve its product and increase bottom line. And as for the "can't get better for $12", well...CAL will always be a great night out, but remember that Friday-night audiences don't show up to watch a military funeral service.

Live Music Head, that was a great story of your Friday with CAL, but remember that writing in blank verse isn't funny, not even when Craig Martin does it. Check out the work of William Carlos Williams and you'll see what I'm saying.

Linz Jupiter, why on earth would it "humble" you to discover that someone fought and was decorated for bravery in WWII?? After all, if you drive four hours you may find yourself a War Museum with lots more humility to go around. Did you mean to say that it inspired you, perhaps filled you with reverence?

Anyway, all in good CAL...

[Rob Phillips]

Yeah, well I can see your point, but we've done a bunch of Floyd shows over the years at the Phoenix and there are always the same songs that come around afterwards.
The Summer Series is really like one long show split into 4 parts. We didn't want to have to repeat any songs during the series, so that means that songs from Meddle, Dark Side, WYWH and The Wall were already spoken for.
I think you said you were at the Meddle show, and we did Fat Old Sun there, but really what else could we do from Atom Heart Mother?
We wanted to mix it up a bit for the die hards and the casual fans (Animals is a pretty popular album). Where/when would we ever have a chance to play songs from The Final Cut? The Phoenix is our home gig, so maybe we feel like we can experiment a bit with our home audience and see how songs work live.
Personally, I really liked playing the outro set. The Final Cut was one of the first 5 Floyd albums I bought, so I've always been familiar with it. Also, I missed the Animals shows last time around and I was glad to get the chance to play those songs again.
It's a nice change of pace than playing Money and Another Brick In The Wall all the time.

[T-roy]

Glad to see that music still inspires so much passion when people could chose to just stay home and play video games and criticism is always welcome and defended if necessary.

Great bands like Floyd, Zepp, The Beatles, Yes etc had long careers that usually spanned more than a decade and brought us an album a year which is unheard of in this day and age. It makes it very difficult to please everyone and some will prefer old to new and vice versa.

I think Craig is always trying to make CAL the best experience possible for both the newbies and the die hards and we couldn't survive without support from both. DSOTM was the very first CAL show and has been repeated more than a few times at the Phoenix with the same encore set more or less. time to change it up a bit.

The summer series presented a big challenge because a lot of us are learning 30 to 40 songs at a time and my respect goes to the keyboard players who need to program sounds as well as learn the music.

I am not a fan of the Final Cut but I knew it was important for both Craig and Rob to finally cover some of that material much the same way that the Beatles band and the Zep boys have covered almost every song in the respective catalogs and the Phoenix is the one place we take a bit more liberty. The encore set was not the most upbeat and I'm sure that it will effect the choices on the next few shows.

To address an earlier comment about the drumming the song was 'On the Run' and I dropped a stick due to my hand seizing up, i probably should not have been playing but I already missed a few CAL shows with a bruised hand and DSOTM is one of my fav's. I think I recovered pretty fast but anyone that knows me will tell you that I was not happy making any mistakes and I apologize for breaking the spell temporarily.

CAL has become a big part of my life and I respect that Craig is willing to take professional risks to bring great music back to the people.
Just keep coming and we will keep playing.