From tgkeefe@juno.com Tue Nov 5 05:19:19 1996 To: app@roadkill.com Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 01:02:13 PST Subject: Cincinnati Review X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 3-4,14-15,26-27,35-36,38-39,42-44 From: tgkeefe@juno.com (T. G. Keefe) Content-Length: 2406 I just returned from tonight's show at the Taft Theater in downtown Cincinnati. Since I'm not as eloquent with the written word as some of my fellow list members, I'll spare you the details and just offer some observations. Big disappointment! There must have been only 300-400 people at this years show. However on the bright side, my seats were great! Second row in "the pit". Since the first row had only about 10 seats in it, and none in front of me, I'll claim first row honors for the show. I sat right in front of Ian, and after watching him the entire show, I came away quite impressed. Technically perfect, and when he needed to, he wailed! I especially liked his slide work, and the "Knopfleresqe" sounding pieces during DAYS ARE NUMBERS. Watching Ian play made me think of Martin Barre of Jethro Tull. Both possess the same stage mannerisms, and they both can play! The band stuck to the song list that they've been doing for the tour, and therein lies my only beef about the show. In my opinion, the pacing could have been better. After the first three songs, the crowd had really gotten into the show, then things were slowed down for OLD & WISE. While this is one of my favorite APP songs, it really cooled down the mood of the crowd just as it was getting warmed up. I would have preferred to hear OLD & WISE sandwiched in between LIMELIGHT and TIME during the first set. I would have loved to hear some more instrumentals too. A driving tune like URBANIA off of Stereotomy would have been great after the On Air songs had been performed in the second set. The highlight of the evening for me was the performance of the 6 selections from On Air. I've listened to this album at least a dozen times in the last two weeks, and every successive listening makes me appreciate it more. The emotion that Ian put into BROTHER was touching. Watching him play, you could see that he could hardly keep himself from breaking down in tears during the song. The audience was unusually quiet during Ian's intro, and following the song, gave him a standing ovation. It was enough to bring a lump to your throat. It would have been great to hear something, anything from EVE. But you can't have everything. All in all, a fantastic show. The crowd size concerns me though. I wonder if I saw AP for the last time in the states. Hope not. Looking forward to a tour in '98! Tim From JAWALK04@ukcc.uky.edu Tue Nov 5 15:05:33 1996 Date: Tue, 05 Nov 96 16:35:34 EST From: j Subject: Cincinnati Concert To: app@roadkill.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Content-Length: 9632 AP's U.S. tour is history, at least for this year, and last night's show in Cincinnati was great! I prepared carefully for this, my second concert in a week (first was Akron). Determined to ward off any embarassing recurrence of Geek's Disease, I wore my husband's totally COOL British biker jacket (black leather). It seemed to work, at least for the most part! Cincinnati is a BIG city, but the crowd that greeted AP last night was pathetically small -- no more than 400, if that. Once again, it appears that AP's promoter screwed up, scheduling the concert on the same night as a nearby "Who" concert. The band was not happy about that, and neither was I! Probably as a result of so small a crowd, the audience energy didn't feel the same as at Akron, but eventually the crowd warmed up and by the end I think we made up for the small size. I was sitting seven rows from the front on the right aisle, just in front of the giant speaker stack. Nevertheless, I didn't feel the need to install the earplugs more than a few times. The sound, to me, was just right -- and the mix seemed even better than at Akron, where I had a hard time hearing Peter sing. The keyboards were the only thing that seemed a little distorted, but only on the soft songs like "Traveller". The crowd? Typical, average age in the late 30's to early 40's. Most I talked to had not heard the new album yet. A number of other list members were there, and I was quite impressed that Martin Vasko made it at the last minute (all the way from Oakridge TN!). He had taken my concept of an ID badge for "roadkillers" and "Avenuers" and made up some really cool, professional-looking badges with the Pyramid logo on them for distribution to other listmembers and Avenue subscribers. Thanks, Martin! He gave the badges to me to pass out backstage to folks after he left, and they were a hit. I had enough left over to give one to every band member who came out -- looking back, the only ones who went without were Gary and John. That'll teach them to be more sociable! ;) The guys really seemed to like them. I decided to bestow an honorary badge upon a guy I'll call "Front Row Man" (my sister called him Wayne, from Wayne's World). Front Row Man was up and dancing through nearly the entire evening, right in the front row, dancing with all his heart! It was really funny, in a neat sort of way, 'cause the people behind him never could get the energy to stand up too, but they never complained either. I thought the concert was great, but it seemed that Ian's solos were a little shorter than at Akron, and he spent a lot of the time on the other side of the stage so I didn't get to see as much of him. :( Neil and Peter were wonderful and they received as much praise from the crowd as anyone else on stage, even Ian. They really seemed to be having a great time up there. Alan was funny -- he kept messing up what he wanted to say, at one point forgetting the name of the next song, Time, (deja vu!) and then joking how he'd been doing this for countless times and still couldn't get the set list right! He struck me as tired, maybe a little slap-happy. In fact the whole band seemed that way and it's not surprising really. Toward the end, while Alan introduced people, I caught Gary tossing something back and forth to one of the stage crew on the other side of the stage. Gary had a perpetual grin on his face through the whole night, occassionally shaking his head as if he were privy to some inside joke. It was fun seeing the guys apparently having so much fun up there. I must say tha Peter does a fine job of singing former "Woolfson songs". I was never really a fan of Eric's breathy singing, and much prefer Peter's clearer quality on those numbers. I asked him after the show if he'd be singing on any future albums, and he said "I certainly hope so!!" On the same subject, I loved what Neil was doing with former "Lenny songs"! He has tremendous range and can do amazing things with his voice, and best of all Neil is a terrific performer. I'm also impressed that such a singer can pull off some of the softest and smoothest songs on the OA album, like Too Close to the Sun and Brother Up in Heaven. Can you imagine Lenny doing songs like those? Neil's really amazing, and I look forward to hearing him on future albums (he said he thought he'd probably be back). Neil mentioned that he wanted to add Too Close to the Sun to the tour set, that he really liked the song and that many fans had asked for it. So who knows? You guys in Europe or South America may get to hear it! As for the concert in general, I loved it! Psychobabble seemed longer than ever, so powerful and crazy, and the crowd loved it. I thought their best numbers were the really rockin' ones, except for BuiH which was absolutely breathtaking. You could've heard a pin drop during Ian's intro. One surprise for me was Limelight -- a song that I've never cared for, but Neil did such a great job singing and performing it that it was really wonderful! ^^^^^^^^^^ Backstage was absolutely delightful. Most of the 30-odd pass-holders left fairly early on, leaving only a handful of us to talk with the band. I had planned on spending a little more time talking to Ian, but he admitted to being really tired and actually left after only about a half hour or so. Caught a split-second glimpse of John as he whipped past to get his beer and leave (was he holding something in front of his face?) -- Neil joked that John didn't do the "people thing" very well. Alan was a lot more approachable backstage this time, and my jacket kept me "cool" and safe from Geekitis while I had a nice, rational, enjoyable conversation with him. His first questions were about the promotion of the concert -- had we seen any ads? How had we found out about the concert? Radio coverage? (none apparently -- radio stations seem to need to categorize the artist as "old" or "new", and AP is BOTH!) I tried to reassure him that the Net would make an increasing difference in the coming months and years, as more and more people get their info off the internet. That's how I came to be there, along with many others. The two biggest delights of the evening were Stewart and Neil. My friend Kathy was with me, and Stewart took a liking to her when she asked him for something to drink (she was really dehydrated). He got her a coke and the two parked themselves in a couple of chairs and apparently had a conversation about all sorts of mundane things -- afterall, Kathy didn't know anything about the band, since I had brought her to introduce her to the music, so she didn;t ask him all the normal fan-type questions that he's probably used to getting. I joined them for a while, and Stewart was really having a nice time conversing with both of us in his quietly funny way. I got a chance to talk with him about his music-writing and singing, which was very interesting. I told him how much people like Take the Money and Run, and how nice it would be to hear more of his singing. He said he likes to sing, that it's often easier than playing drums, but when it comes to singing his own stuff he runs into a kind of "artist's angst" about it, worrying too much about the sound of his voice, to the point that he just can't get it right enough for his satisfaction. He said he was originally going to do One Day to Fly (how I wish he had!), but it just didn't work out. He's too much of a perfectionist about the sound of his own voice! He also talked about another song he co-wrote -- Mr. Time -- saying it was a song he'd done in another band he'd been in and that the singer, Jacque(?) Copeland wrote the words to that song. Why so few women's voices on AP albums? He said they'd tried a few times (Eve) but, in his oppinion, it didn't work. Must be a "guy thing". (grin) I love Clare and Leslie's songs! I could say a number of other things from our conversations with Stewart, but it's just silly personal stuff ("I can't eat before a performance"). I also had a good half-hour with Neil, and was pleasantly surprised at how friendly and talkative he was. When I mentioned my husband is from Wales, he perked up and told me he's Welsh too. We compared notes on Wales, the concert, and what it's like to be a professional singer (I'm one too). I told him I'd be afraid to take on such a grueling tour schedule for fear of a cold or something, and how does he do it? He said he takes great care of his voice and his health, taking vitamins and making sure to get plenty of exercise. I asked him where the band was headed next after Canada, and he said after the first of the year it'll be Europe and South America (don't remember which is first) and -- get this Australians -- he said "hopefully Australia". I asked him if he really thought they would make it there, that there were a lot of fans there who were really hoping to see the show and worrying that they'd be left behind. He seemed really pleased to hear this, and said Australia was one place he'd never been to so he was REALLY hoping they'd be going there. Don't know how much influence Neil has over the tour destinations, but have hope, Aussies! They may actually make to your neck of the woods! I'm sure there's probably more, but you're probably getting a little tired of these reviews by now so I'll finish for now. All I can say is I had a wonderful time, that Stewart is adorable (grin), and the band ROCKED!!!! Thanks, Steve, for making my experience even more fabulous with the back- stage experience!! It was truly a delight. --- Roberta From dagonet@indy.net Wed Nov 6 07:01:40 1996 Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 09:49:06 -0500 (EST) From: Dagonet To: Parsons List cc: cec@indy.net Subject: Cincinnati... Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Length: 3347 Whew. :) Now that I've recovered, here's some random thoughts on the Cincinnati show: * Small crowd? Yep. Enthusiastic crowd? Yep. The energy was GOOD; despite the band being obviously tired (showed mostly with Alan), they did a heck of a job and the audience responded, on their feet after most of the numbers in the second half of the show. And I LIKED the venue, cheesy rococo plaster and all. Though I was afraid we were going to shake some of it down... The Guy Down Front, as Roberta said, was GREAT. And two guys ahead of us had flown in from Fayetteville, Arkansas. * Highlights: Ian's extended solo on 'Prime Time'; 'Fall Free', which just blew me away (my wife accused me of going into trance, she was right); 'Standing on Higher Ground'; the light show during 'Psychobabble' (I found the flashbacks they promised us, it was at the Parsons concert); and of course 'Games People Play', which worked to end the show, better than I thought it would. Overall, I LIKED Neil's work; I look forward to more of it. * Mistakes: A few. I still think the 'Money Talks/La Sagrada Familia' medley should have included a song other than 'Money Talks', because the audience response was palpably cooler for it. Peter Beckett still suffered from undermixing on a few numbers, especially 'Time'. And there was this drunken moron five rows behind us who kept yelling 'Raven!' like he was at a damn Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. More on him later. :) * Backstage passes: The venue folks were paranoid. "Get in a line, single file"...once Alan, Stuart, and Peter came out, they cheerfully ignored that and led us all into a small room where we all milled about and talked. I was nervous, it showed, and I thank Stuart for being calm and pleasant and getting me a little quieter. :) I let the crowds get to Alan and talked with Stuart for a while; I think Roberta and I embarassed him when we were effusive over 'Take The Money And Run'. Ian came out about ten minutes later, and I had a long and very gracious conversation with him where he impressed the hell out of me with how polite he was. I asked him about 'When' (one of my favorites, because I like the David Foster/Chicago-style arrangement and production) and he called it a 'throwaway' song. Apparently what's on the live album is -not- what he envisioned; as he put it, 'if you heard the demo, you'd see what I mean'. He said the same about 'Back Against The Wall' from TAO. Funny how what we view as perfect they view as flawed. :) And of course, Alan. Gracious, tired, taller than I was, which is a novelty. I didn't have that much to say to him, I simply thanked him and told him to do it again. It was really humbling and a little awe-inspiring; unless I'm reading him wrong, he's STILL boggled by the number of us, small though it may be, who are fanatical about his music. Oh, and the drunken moron had a backstage pass. And turned out to be as fanatical as the rest of us. I guess he just likes 'Raven'. All in all, wonderful experience, wonderful show. Thank you again, Steve. Duke A. Egbert dagonet@indy.net Blessed be! Head into the sunset, or just wander out to sea, Wherever your heart leads you is the place you're meant to be... --"Blown By The Wind", Alan Parsons, _On Air_ From philmac@tso.cin.ix.net Wed Nov 6 17:53:38 1996 Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 08:43:42 +0000 From: Phil McDermott To: APP List Subject: Cincy Comments Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 2306 Hello Everyone, Here are a few comments on the Cincy Concert. By the way I got to sit right behind "The Front Row Guy". He definitely added some excitement to the crowd. My wife and I were trying to figure out his relationship to the older guy next to him. Very interesting to find out he was his father. I overheard him saying that the band had appeared Sunday night before the concert at a local bar in Cheviot. Cheviot is a small city on the west side of Cincinnati. I was wondering if anyone knew which bar it was. I am not sure if they performed any or were just there to meet people. Anyway the appearance at this bar was listed in a local paper which I obviously didn't see. One of the best kept secrets I guess. I anyone is familiar with Cheviot , It makes you wonder which band member picked the location. Great show all around. I have never been to a concert and sat so close to the stage. The sound was a little shaky when the volume got high. The bass was somewhat muddy. But I can live with that. Thanks Martin for the roadkill badge. Everyone that was around me seemed to be there because of the internet. A few internet newbies were very interested in how to find out more about APP sites. Other interesting note, just to the left of the "Front Row Guy" was a couple. The girl stood out because of her long blonde hair and leather jacket. I didn't notice this but my wife said that Peter winked at the blonde several times during the show. After the encore the couple held up two CD booklets (one was I-Robot) and Alan took notice (after of course the blonde leaned over the stage a little bit more). He took the booklets and returned them after the next encore. Interesting to know what was written there (Maybe Peter left his number for the blonde). After the last song, they shook everyones hand on the front row. I tried to get both Alan and Ian to take my CD booklet (Tales), but they kept on moving. I wish all concerts were as intimate as this one was. I realize this would be a financial disaster but the small crowd made it unique once in a lifetime event. Perhaps Alan can find some way of rewarding his dedicated fans from the internet since they are reponsible for promotion this time. Phil McDermott philmac@tso.cin.ix.net