Monday
Heat of the Moment
I'm back from the Asia gig. It was excellent.
Like I blogged before, this concert promised a lot of nostalgia value for me. It delivered that. Asia was a band I thought was exceptionally cool when I was 13. I really didn't know anything about progressive rock at the time. I certainly didn't know that Asia was a prog supergroup: singer/bassist Jon Wetton was from King Crimson, guitarist Steve Howe was from Yes, drummer Carl Palmer was from Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and keyboardist Geoff Downes was in The Buggles and also had a short stint in Yes. I found that out later. In 1982, all I knew was that their self-titled debut album rocked. Their next album, Alpha, had only a couple of good songs. They started changing members after that and quickly went to shit. Asia continued to release albums intermittently right up until 2004, none of them worth a damn.
So when I saw that this was a 25th anniversary reunion tour with the original members, I got me a ticket.
There was no opening act at the Shepherd's Bush Empire tonight, just Asia in two acts. Unsurprisingly, Wetton, Palmer, and Downes are all older and fatter; Howe is older and skinnier, making him look like Death wearing a floral shirt. But they can all still play really well, as their prog roots required. Asia songs are prog - complex, dynamic, and abrupt - but with great pop-radio hooks. I was most impressed by Palmer, who didn't look nearly as old as the others, and played some heavy, fast drums.
They played a perfect set for my tastes: all nine tracks of their debut album, led off by my favourite, "Time Again". "Sole Survivor" sounded good too, as did big crowd-pleasing closer "Heat of the Moment". They also played "Ride Easy", which was a B-side to "Heat...", and the only three decent songs from Alpha: "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes", "Don't Cry" (both acoustic), and the very good "The Heat Goes On".
A fun twist they're doing this tour is playing homage to the bands they came from. Thus, we also got Yes's "Roundabout" (how hard is that to sing and play bass to?), ELP's "Fanfare for the Common Man", King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King", and - yes - The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star". Believe me, nothing's more humourous than watching a prog band play a bubble-gum hit that was the first video on MTV. Downes even wore a shiny metallic jacket and big sunglasses.
I queued at the end and got my on-the-spot double CD of the live performance, and got it signed by the band (I blogged about this instant-CD technology the other day, too). They're glad their tour is over, but are heading to Japan in the new year. On first listen, I'm not impressed with the mix of the CD: the vocals sound too high for me. Obviously, it's not going to have the benefit of studio twiddling, so I can't be too fussy. It's certainly a nice memento of a cool show, one that I've always wanted to see and never thought I would.
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Like I blogged before, this concert promised a lot of nostalgia value for me. It delivered that. Asia was a band I thought was exceptionally cool when I was 13. I really didn't know anything about progressive rock at the time. I certainly didn't know that Asia was a prog supergroup: singer/bassist Jon Wetton was from King Crimson, guitarist Steve Howe was from Yes, drummer Carl Palmer was from Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and keyboardist Geoff Downes was in The Buggles and also had a short stint in Yes. I found that out later. In 1982, all I knew was that their self-titled debut album rocked. Their next album, Alpha, had only a couple of good songs. They started changing members after that and quickly went to shit. Asia continued to release albums intermittently right up until 2004, none of them worth a damn.
So when I saw that this was a 25th anniversary reunion tour with the original members, I got me a ticket.
There was no opening act at the Shepherd's Bush Empire tonight, just Asia in two acts. Unsurprisingly, Wetton, Palmer, and Downes are all older and fatter; Howe is older and skinnier, making him look like Death wearing a floral shirt. But they can all still play really well, as their prog roots required. Asia songs are prog - complex, dynamic, and abrupt - but with great pop-radio hooks. I was most impressed by Palmer, who didn't look nearly as old as the others, and played some heavy, fast drums.
They played a perfect set for my tastes: all nine tracks of their debut album, led off by my favourite, "Time Again". "Sole Survivor" sounded good too, as did big crowd-pleasing closer "Heat of the Moment". They also played "Ride Easy", which was a B-side to "Heat...", and the only three decent songs from Alpha: "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes", "Don't Cry" (both acoustic), and the very good "The Heat Goes On".
A fun twist they're doing this tour is playing homage to the bands they came from. Thus, we also got Yes's "Roundabout" (how hard is that to sing and play bass to?), ELP's "Fanfare for the Common Man", King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King", and - yes - The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star". Believe me, nothing's more humourous than watching a prog band play a bubble-gum hit that was the first video on MTV. Downes even wore a shiny metallic jacket and big sunglasses.
I queued at the end and got my on-the-spot double CD of the live performance, and got it signed by the band (I blogged about this instant-CD technology the other day, too). They're glad their tour is over, but are heading to Japan in the new year. On first listen, I'm not impressed with the mix of the CD: the vocals sound too high for me. Obviously, it's not going to have the benefit of studio twiddling, so I can't be too fussy. It's certainly a nice memento of a cool show, one that I've always wanted to see and never thought I would.
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