Finished off my holiday week by going to see KISS. Missed their Liverpool gig, so I had to drive over to Manchester. Glad that I drove to the gig, because the extended encore might have missed the last train back.
There was a great 'party' atmosphere going into the arena. Loads of people had got into the spirit of things, and were wearing the face paint of their idols. Some full outfits were being worn too. The audience age looked like it ranged from 8 to 68.
KISS were everything that I expected them to be. Absolutely phenomenal pantomime/circus totally over the top extravaganza of a rock concert. A band who really know how to make an entrance! 3 guitarists arriving on a stage that flies from behind the drum riser, over the top of the drummer and lands in front of him - This set the scene for what was to come over the next 2 hours.
Lots of people were watching the gig via the screen of their mobile phones, so consequently you can now find most of the show on You Tube. Personally I'd rather see it than film it.
An arsenal of pyrotechnics and flame throwers, huge video backdrops, fire breathing, blood spitting, trapeze, guitars that fire like guns and fly up into the roof, and the KISS logo - an entertainment in itself. Each member of the band 'flew' at some point, either up into the rigging, or across the audience to a separate stage - even the drummer and his kit went into the air! Some highly powered rock music too (but this was never their strongest point), but combined with the whole package in full makeup, absolutely phenomenal!
They finished off with a half hour finale. After the smoke had cleared they finally bowed out with a long rendition of "God Gave Rock and Roll To You" whilst cannons blasted a constant stream of ticker tape over the crowd.
Totally knackered afterwards, since I'd driven about 200 miles back from holiday earlier in the day, but really glad that I went.
Showing posts with label concert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concert. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Ullah!
We went to see Jeff Waynes Musical Version of War of the Worlds at the Echo arena on Sunday Night.
It's the 30th Anniversary Tour i.e. 30 years since the album was released - as it's only been performed live for about 3 years.
On the whole the performance was great. The orchestra was divided into a keyboards / percussion / electric stringed instruments and a 48 strong string section. Jeff Wayne conducting, of course. The music from the album was performed from start to finish, with an interval at the point where the second disc has to be played. No staged encores, or replays of favourite bits, the show finished at the second epilogue, as it does on the album.
To complement the music there was background screen displaying CGI animation portraying the story, live singers/actors who interacted with a hologram head of Richard Burton and a 35 ft Martian Fighting machine.
On the downside the sound technicians seemed to be having trouble getting the balance right between the spoken words, the singing and the music. The Richard Burton hologram and the actors were drowned out a couple of times by the music/singing, when they should have been speaking over the top of it.
The sound improved a lot by the second half, so it could have been a symptom of this being the only performance at this venue.
The CGI wasn't the greatest I've seen, but this isn't a cinema performance, and the heat ray scenes interacted well with pyros and flash bombs going off on the stage. It was a warm night, so you really felt like you were getting blasted and scorched.
At the start of the gig a new scene was displayed, showing the Martians plotting their invasion of earth. Personally I thought that this preview of the Martians lessened the impact of the later classic scene, as described by H.G Wells and narrated so well by Richard Burton when the cylinder lid unscrews, and a Martian is seen for the first time.
The fighting machine was quite impressive at first, when it descended from the lighting rig - although most of us had seen a much better mechanoid just outside on the steps last September :) This tripod was animated by chain motors, rather than the hydraulics and was a lot more cumbersome in it's movements. It reminded me a little of the old Motorhead Bomber lighting rig which was "flown" in a similar manner.
The Richard Burton hologram head is a bit weird at first. It's projected onto a clear plastic backdrop stage right and carries out the narration, as heard on the album. The weird thing is that the hologram is of a much younger Richard Burton than you might have expected him to look (the voice sounds older than the image).
The singers/actors all performed their parts well. We were amused at the start by the performers being introduced on the screen, which reminded us of an American mini-series intro - particularly "The voice of humanity" who was punching the air with his fist. They reacted to the hologram well, which in turn reacted to them.
Justin Hayward played the journalist - getting on a bit, but singing well - the right voice for "The Eve of the War" and "Forever Autumn". I didn't think that the other performers would top the original voices from the album, and I was mostly right, but surprisingly, for me, Jennifer Ellison as the preacher Nathaniel's wife did. I've only really seen her on the cover of FHM, and other magazines of that ilk, so I'd assumed that she was only famous for her other assets.
So a great musical piece, well performed, but not perfect. The complementary special effects are not for the CGI/Video games generation, but make a good piece of theatre all the same.
It's the 30th Anniversary Tour i.e. 30 years since the album was released - as it's only been performed live for about 3 years.
On the whole the performance was great. The orchestra was divided into a keyboards / percussion / electric stringed instruments and a 48 strong string section. Jeff Wayne conducting, of course. The music from the album was performed from start to finish, with an interval at the point where the second disc has to be played. No staged encores, or replays of favourite bits, the show finished at the second epilogue, as it does on the album.
To complement the music there was background screen displaying CGI animation portraying the story, live singers/actors who interacted with a hologram head of Richard Burton and a 35 ft Martian Fighting machine.
On the downside the sound technicians seemed to be having trouble getting the balance right between the spoken words, the singing and the music. The Richard Burton hologram and the actors were drowned out a couple of times by the music/singing, when they should have been speaking over the top of it.
The sound improved a lot by the second half, so it could have been a symptom of this being the only performance at this venue.
The CGI wasn't the greatest I've seen, but this isn't a cinema performance, and the heat ray scenes interacted well with pyros and flash bombs going off on the stage. It was a warm night, so you really felt like you were getting blasted and scorched.
At the start of the gig a new scene was displayed, showing the Martians plotting their invasion of earth. Personally I thought that this preview of the Martians lessened the impact of the later classic scene, as described by H.G Wells and narrated so well by Richard Burton when the cylinder lid unscrews, and a Martian is seen for the first time.
The fighting machine was quite impressive at first, when it descended from the lighting rig - although most of us had seen a much better mechanoid just outside on the steps last September :) This tripod was animated by chain motors, rather than the hydraulics and was a lot more cumbersome in it's movements. It reminded me a little of the old Motorhead Bomber lighting rig which was "flown" in a similar manner.
The Richard Burton hologram head is a bit weird at first. It's projected onto a clear plastic backdrop stage right and carries out the narration, as heard on the album. The weird thing is that the hologram is of a much younger Richard Burton than you might have expected him to look (the voice sounds older than the image).
The singers/actors all performed their parts well. We were amused at the start by the performers being introduced on the screen, which reminded us of an American mini-series intro - particularly "The voice of humanity" who was punching the air with his fist. They reacted to the hologram well, which in turn reacted to them.
Justin Hayward played the journalist - getting on a bit, but singing well - the right voice for "The Eve of the War" and "Forever Autumn". I didn't think that the other performers would top the original voices from the album, and I was mostly right, but surprisingly, for me, Jennifer Ellison as the preacher Nathaniel's wife did. I've only really seen her on the cover of FHM, and other magazines of that ilk, so I'd assumed that she was only famous for her other assets.
So a great musical piece, well performed, but not perfect. The complementary special effects are not for the CGI/Video games generation, but make a good piece of theatre all the same.
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