Alan Parsons Live Project
w/special guest David Pack
September 30, 1999
San Francisco, CA

The Good News... it was a great show!  David Pack was the opening act, and
not only did he do 7 songs (3 were Ambrosia hits), but he and the band did
Oh Life (There Must Be More).

The Bad News... because of the opening act and extra song, a song had to
be cut.  To One In Paradise was the victim.  Also, the band had an early
departure time for LA in the morning, so that cut our after show session
short.

Got to meet a bunch of Roadkillers, Micheal (Moreta1235@aol.com) and her
sister Crystal, Jerry Tyler (jerryt@safetystorage.com) and some friends,
and Eve (MissKitty4@aol.com), visiting from North Carolina.  Also caught
up with some old-timers, Laura (Yellowdaf@aol.com) and her husband Matt,
John Finney (jf@ulink.net) and friend Russ, Gail Buller (gbuller@wheel...)
and son Paul [my how he's grown!], Chad Cottle (cottlec@cooley.com), and
Robyn King-Nitschke (winterhawk@magespace.net) and husband Dan, and finally
Barbara, whom I met at the AAA office -- I was going in there to get some
maps, and then she saw my TAO t-shirt and then I had to do the usual rou-
tine of catching her up from 1987 to now.  I know I overloaded her head
that day, and by the time I left, she was *dying* to see her first AP/P
concert.

People started showing up for the pre-show dinner around 5:40, and we had
a great time talking about AP/P in general.  We also had the honor of
Laura presenting us with the special t-shirts that were made for the
Northern California Roadkillers.  The Time Machine cover is on the front
with "Roadkillers 1999," and the rear has the band name and date, as well
as the individual band members.  Also on the back was a volunteer list of
those attending who wanted their names on the back and how many shows they
have attended.  They were/are great... thanks Laura!!

Dinner concluded about an hour and a half later, and everyone rushed over
to the venue to either get tickets or their after-show passes.  The Fillmore
is a historical venue with plenty of posters and nostalgia on its hallowed
walls.  Even David Pack made a note of this as he was introducing himself!
We all took our places on the dance floor... right up to the front; not
nearly close enough to untie Ian's shoelaces, but he was practically
standing over us!  The Fillmore basically has a set of tables on the side
and balconies all around... those are nice, but the real action happens on
the dance floor!

The show started pretty much on time, squarely at 8.  David Pack was
introduced and in both a nostalgic look at The Fillmore's past, started
everything off with Pinball Wizard!  He played a few new tunes, that people
obviously didn't recognize, but they (the audience) really did warm up to
the Ambrosia hits.  At one time, Pack sheepishly acknowledge kudos that he
had received for playing Ambrosia music, primarily the comment that people
made telling him that their children were made to the Ambrosia hit tunes!
He did take it as a compliment however!

Ambrosia fans were lucky tonight.  Not only were they treated with the
special guest appearance of Pack, but Ambrosia management brought along
copies of the Japanese imports of most of the Ambrosia albums, including
the David Pack solo CD.  Apparently, they have released two more of their
albums in Japan recently.  Along with Life Beyond LA and One Eighty, they
have now released the first (self-titled and engineered by Alan) and last
(Road Island) albums.  I guess we have yet to visit Somewhere I've Never
Travelled.	:-)

Sadly, those looking for The Time Machine were out-of-luck.  As i explained
a few months ago, contracts with the record companies prohibit sales of al-
bums at concerts.  this may be a deal setup with retailers so that it does
not hurt sales.  this is obviously not what the fans want nor care about,
but that's the life in the music industry.  lesser-known artists who do not
have large distribution deals or restricted concerts are able to do this.
Ambrosia was able to sell their CDs at the venue because those albums are
available only in Japan for retail sale.  There is no record deal here in
America that would preclude them from doing so.  Enough said.

Back to Pack's set.  I enjoyed hearing the old Ambrosia pieces live for the
first time, albeit he was missing the backing vocals of the rest of Ambrosia.
I couldn't help but chime in with the "missing pieces."  i also can't say i
was absolutely thrilled with Pack's newer stuff either, but again, perhaps
it was due to missing backing vocals and a full rhythm section behind him.
Nevertheless, it was great that not only did the band have an opening act,
but they performed pretty much a full set as well.  This was not the case
with Kansas 4 years ago -- they played about an entire half hour more this
time compared to back then.

Once Pack was done and the techies were tearing his setup down, it was time
to mingle, take quickie bathroom visits, and pick up whatever drinks you
were going to have before the music started.  It was about 15 minutes of
blank space, so there *were* some conversations started!  As my other show
attendees mentioned, we met many of the other concertgoers who were wowed by
Laura's t-shirts, people asking about the shirts, the new album, freudiana,
etc.

As the lights dimmed, the cheers started to go up.  But after a few seconds,
no band members showed up on stage.  Instead we were treated to a pseudo-
Halloween-like introduction with the Prelude to the Fall Of The House Of Usher.
Mixed into the music were narrative audio clips of Professor Close on the
relationship between time and space as well as JFK from Apollo, and of course,
Dr. Evil.  One note on the Close narration is that it included some stuff
*not* in Temporalia...  which i think was for the better.  He was going on
and on about quantum physics and stuff, and wouldn't you know it, it was like
being transported in a Time Machine back to my college days.  The crowd recog-
nized the Dr. Evil clips, and that was pretty much it.  I leaned over to John
or Eve(? can't remember), and we pretty much concluded that no one else except
for the gang of us knew what the hell the music was... sad.

Then as the music faded, the build-up to HGForce crescendo'd and then every-
thing came on in a flash and the pounding of stuart's drums and we were rockin'
to the title track of the new album.  As we moved on down the setlist, it was
great to hear "new-to-liveness" tunes, like adding Breakdown to the Raven.
Breakdown is really one of the more incredible songs on IR (and IR is a monu-
mental album in its own right), and it was good to hear it live the first time.
Out Of The Blue is a track that I particularly like from the new album, and it
was good to hear it as well... some of us even knew all the lyrics and were
singing right along with Neil.  Psychobabble... finally, the put the spotlight
on Ian during this song.  I'm sure very few people know that he is responsible
for practically all the sounds you hear in the interlude.  It's amazing to
watch him in action and the sounds that come from the amp which come from his
guitar which come from his hands.  He got a chuckle after the show when I
grabbed his hand, then instinctively yanked it away as if I just stuck my hand
in the fire.  I'm sure he melts the superglue every time.  Then, what can I say
about Prime Time, except that it is always different each time, and this time
was incredible like in the past, but in its own special way.  It was a crowd-
pleaser and an excellent high to be at right before the break.

The break was about 20 minutes long, but it didn't feel that way... the time
passed by so quickly with all the conversation going on, etc.  When the second
set started, we were treated to Stereotomy, also for "the very first time."  :)
A nice and loud song to get everyone back in the groove again.  When they
started playing I Can't Look Down, I was disappointed because I thought that
they skipped Blown By The Wind, one of my faves from OA.  But I looked down (
or is that up) at the setlist Ian had by his feet and when I saw the double-
headed arrow, then I breathed easier.  When it came on, I was just going
"wow...".  That was when I really wished I had a tape recorded because I began
to realize what an incredible compilation CD this live show would be.  All the
old songs mixed with tTM music... 22 tracks... i'd be playing it over and over!

If *that* weren't enough, the next song was Oh Life.  Oh man!!  It's one thing
to hear it on CD, but being treated to this one live?!?  I can only say that
ya'll need to try to too!!  It's true that Pack had the lyrics on his hand -- I
turned his hand over during the aftershow jokingly to confirm the smeared ink,
but told him he did an excellent job nevertheless.  give the guy a break!  he
hadn't sung this song in like *six* years!!  sadly, that song replaced To One
In Paradise, which I also really wanted to hear.  Hopefully there'll be a next
time for that, unless I want to setup some travel arrangements....

The rest of the set was also rousing, especially the last two songs from tTM.
Everyone, including Ian, is right about Neil on The Very Last Time.  It *was*
written for a female, but Neil has his own interpretation of it, and it is a
dandy... it brings it right close to Brother Up In Heaven: the sadness lingers
throughout the song, and then is safely and quietly tucked away when we wake
up with Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether.

Everyone was in on the encore set... these are definitely two crowd faves and
send everyone home on a high note.  Alan, Ian, Stuart, Neil... excellent work.
John Beck... was not in tune perhaps body language-wise, but musically, he was
pretty much on the money.  he must have smoked at least two packs and drank a
six-pack back there.  his stage antics are sophomoric, but his artistry and
skill appear to be there, and that's all that matters to me... i wasn't paying
much attention to him anyway.

After the show was over, we all started to wander our way upstairs to the
balcony where the brief aftershow was to be held.  As I noted in my 1996
show review, San Francisco is not the place to expect to meet the band
members up close and talk.  There are too many people, too many record company
execs, and the music press present for that.  No way.  The same goes for this
year.  Most of the band's time was taken up with non-civilians or relatives.
I only had a chance to catch a few moments with Alan, Ian, and David Pack.  I
didn't get a chance to say hi to Neil or Stuart, which was somewhat disappoint-
ing, esp. since I practically made Stuart jump on the street because I was
driving by looking for parking earlier in the evening around 5pm!!

Rather than just speaking to Alan, it seems that i was just introducing him
to all the people that i brought to the show!  he was pretty tied up with
the Mix magazine folks during this time.  Ian was gracious as usual, trying
to get to everyone as fast as he could.  I got him to sign a few more things
as he was handing out the same pack of signed photos that he had been at the
other shows.  I also had the opportunity to introduce myself to David Pack.
I had him sign the Ambrosia Anthology and his solo CD, then teased him about
the hand.  he took the ribbing quite well, and i also met their manager, who
was the one selling the ambrosia CDs at the venue.

Needlesstosay, we were caught in a fast moving current of a time machine...
It only seemed like a few minutes, and then it was all over.  To fill in I
believe Jerry's quote from Alan about needing to leave at 7 AM the next
morning and giving a final call for things to sign.  With that, we were
ushered out the fire escape and made our way home slowly, ears ringing, some
regrets, but mostly incredible memories of another night with our music.

-wesley