Live Reviews Blog

Concert reviews, with a very strong emphasis on the UK progressive rock scene.

Panic Room, Bilston Robin 2, 19th June 2011

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Tim Hall

I love Bilston Robin 2 as a venue. With excellent sound and lighting, a decent-sized stage, and a hotel right next door it doesn’t have the reputation as one of the nation’s best rock clubs for nothing. And they always draw a sizeable crowd; just about every band I’ve seen there plays to more people that at equivalent venues elsewhere, even on a Sunday night. And tonight was a very good crowd indeed.

Support was David R Black, the alternative rock power-trio I’d seen supporting in Manchester earlier in the year. I enjoyed their set a lot more than the first time round, helped by the vastly superior sound of a proper rock venue rather than a toilet of a nightclub. While I still find their mix of metal and indie is a bit generic, they were both tight and energetic, and made a good warm-up for the headliners.

I’ve seen some great gigs by Panic Room, especially in the past twelve months, but this performance took things to another level, even for them. They played with an incredible power and intensity, but without sacrificing subtlety or finesse. If this is prog-rock, then it’s with the emphasis very much on the word rock. The whole band gave strong performances; Paul Davies was on particularly good form on lead guitar with some shredding solos and melodic fills, Jon Edwards’ keys added swathes of colour, and Yatim Halimi and Gavin Griffiths are possibly the best rhythm section in any band at this level. Not that there was any hint of self-indulgence; despite all being virtuoso musicians they never spoil the songs by unnecessary overplaying.

Finally Anne-Marie Helder gave the performance of her life, and showed just why she was voted best female vocalist by readers of Classic Rock Presents Prog. This was one of those gigs with feedback between the energy and enthusiasm on stage and in the audience; this is what live music is all about, an experience you can’t repeat by sitting at home and listening to a CD.

Setwise the band took aim at the future by opening with the powerful twin-guitar “Song for Tomorrow”, an as-yet unrecorded song premiered back in February. After that, the bulk of their 100-minute set came from their second album “Satellite”, including a very entertaining rendition of the slightly bonkers “I Am A Cat”. A second new song, “Promises” came over very powerfully indeed, and one unexpected surprise was a great full band version of “Exodus”, a song from Anne-Marie’s solo EP “The Contact”. Very little from their debut “Visionary Position”, though I hope some of those songs are merely being rested rather than retired altogether. With the band going into the studio to record a new album in November this may be the last outing for the set they’ve been playing for the last couple of years.  The strength of the new material certainly augers well for the future.

Since the first time I saw Panic Room in Lydney back in 2008 I’ve watched this band get better and better as a live act. I’ve always thought their energetic mix of prog, hard rock, folk, jazz and pop has the potential to cross over to wider audiences beyond the prog ghetto, and on the basis of performance like this one, they deserve to be playing on far bigger stages.

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Halo Blind/Heather Findlay, Kennedy’s Basement York, 8th June 2011

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Tim Hall

A round trip of well over four hundred miles seems a long way go for a midweek gig that’s a fiver on the door, but when it’s Halo Blind supported by Heather Findlay, it’s worth making the journey. The headliners were playing a low-key warm-up for their appearance two days later at the prestigious Isle of Wight Festival, and the late addition of Heather to the bill gave fans an added incentive to turn out.

Halo Blind, put together by Chris Johnson, were originally called Parade. They had to change their name to avoid confusion with the reportedly awful but much-hyped girl band who stole their name. As Parade they’ve always been a great live band. And as for Heather, after more than a year since that emotional night in Leamington, it’s been far too long since I last saw her perform. It’s not the first time she’s played live since leaving Mostly Autumn, but it was the first of her low-key acoustic gigs I’ve been able to get to.

The basement bar at Kennedy’s was tiny; the capacity can’t have been much more than a hundred or so. It was one of those gigs where I recognised probably three-quarters of the audience by sight, if not by name. I’ve always loved this sort of gig.

It was great to see Heather back on stage again. Even though this was “only” an acoustic gig, she’s lost none of that magic, and was on fine form vocally. Without the backing of a full band there’s nowhere to hide, and the whole thing depends on the strength of the vocalist and the quality of the songs. Not that there were really any doubts in this case.

Her set was a mix of new material from her debut EP “The Phoenix Suite” and a few older Mostly Autumn and Odin Dragonfly songs. The songs from The Phoenix Suite came over very well live, and didn’t seem to lose anything when pared down to acoustic duo format. If anything, they came over more strongly, and  I was more aware of the absence of the flute in the Odin Dragonfly songs than the lack of an electric rhythm section in the new songs. Some of this was down to Chris Johnson’s talent as a rhythm guitarist; even on a battered acoustic his playing has a lot of power, particularly evident on songs like “Red Dust”.

Interestingly both Mostly Autumn songs were Chris Johnson compositions from “Heart Full of Sky” rather than Heather’s own. “Gaze”, a song I’d never heard performed live before, was beautiful, and I loved the way Heather sang the clarinet line on “Blue Light”.

Headliners Halo Blind are difficult to categorise musically; Chris Johnson has played in indie, prog and even country & western bands over the years, and elements of all of these have found their way to the band’s music. Tonight was their first gig under the new name, as well as marking the debut of their new bassist, ex-Seahorse Stuart Fletcher.

Their set was a run-through of the setlist for the festival, drawn entirely from “The Fabric“. Short but sweet, and they simply rocked. The technical problems when the keyboard went wibbly couldn’t take the edge off things. Stuart Fletcher and the powerhouse drumming of Gavin Griffiths make for an impressive rhythm section, Chris Farrell plays some ferocious lead guitar, and Chris Johnson and Anne-Marie Helder’s voices combine to produce some sublime harmonies. At the time of writing this I haven’t heard how well they went down at the Isle of Wight Festival, but on the strength of a performance like this, they deserved to go down a storm.

Only complaint about the whole evening that it was all over too quickly – I’d have loved both bands to have played all night.

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Mostly Autumn at Bury

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Tim Hall

Mostly Autumn’s annual visit to Bury Met last month was the first time I’ve ever travelled to a gig by kettle. Bury Met used to be a local gig for me, but now I’ve moved down south. Because all the affordable hotels in Bury were full, I ended up staying in the delightfully-named town of Ramsbottom, reached by means of the East Lancashire Railway. May well be the first time I’ve used a preserved railway as a means of getting from A to B rather than just for the ride.

It does feel like I’ve I’m living the blog tagline here – especially when The Trackside Inn at Bury serves an excellent selection of real ales, including one brewed by The Phoenix Brewery.

I won’t write an in-depth review since I wrote one for Salisbury in April.  But I will say the gig itself was another superb performance. The band are really on form on this tour, and Bury Met always has a great audience. Not for nothing did the band record this gig for a planned live album.  Olivia Sparnenn is now far more confident as the band’s frontwoman, and everyone else was on great form too, aided by a really good mix.

As well as the sound, I’ve got to compliment the lighting engineer too. Often when photographing gigs I find some band members, especially Iain Jennings, get hidden in shadows at the side of the stage. This time it was possible to get good photos of everyone. even the drummer. I’ve put a lot more photos on my post-Fotopic photo site – http://kalyr.smugmug.com

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Mostly Autumn – Salisbury City Hall, 1st April 2011

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Tim Hall

Photo © Howard Rankin

On Friday, April 1st, Mostly Autumn played a special show in aid of the charity Pilgrim Bandits.  The guest of honour was Ben Parkinson, a Mostly Autumn fan critically injured while serving in Afghanistan. The title track of “Go Well Diamond Heart” is dedicated to his story. Whatever your feeling on the rights and wrongs of the war in Afghanistan, you can’t fault his indomitable spirit in coping with something far more traumatic that most of us will ever face.  “A man with a mountain on his back”, as the lyrics say.

I had a gut feeling this was going to be a very special event, and the band did not let us down.

The band chose a very interesting way to open the show. Instead of rolling an intro tape they began with keyboard player Iain Jennings alone on stage kicking off the looping rhythm track that heralds the instrumental “Distant Train”. The rest of the band came on stage one by one, first Anne-Marie on flute, then Bryan on guitar, until Olivia Sparnenn made her dramatic entrance as the band segued into “Answer the Question”.

What we witnessed over the next two and a half hours was a band absolutely on fire. Olivia Sparnenn has grown in self-confidence over the past year, and has now stamped her own personality on things. She’s taken older songs such as “Evergreen” or “Fading Colours” and made them hers, and really shines on the newer material written for her voice. Bryan Josh was on equally superb form on guitar, his solos alternately soaring and shredding with a style that transcends his obvious influences. It’s a very different Mostly Autumn to the band of a year ago, but on the strengths of performances like this, they’ve every bit as good as they were when fronted by Heather Findlay.  And like all the best gigs, it was clear the band were enjoying every minute their time on stage, all seven members giving it everything to contribute to Mostly Autumn’s multi-layered and hugely melodic sound, benefiting from a mix in which you could hear every voice and instrument clearly.

The setlist was a near-perfect mix of old and new. Naturally the new album “Go Well Diamond Heart” featured very heavily, the band playing all but one song from the first disk plus the two obvious standouts from the bonus disk. “Forever Young” and the emotionally powerful “And When The War Is Over” are well on their way to becoming live favourites. It’s nice to hear “Violet Skies” played live at last, even if the shimmering pop number didn’t quite work as well live as I’d hoped.  Given the amount of new material most of the older songs were the obvious standards, but the band still threw in a surprise in “First Thought”, a seldom-played song from “Passengers”. But yet again, one of the real high spots was the former Breathing Space epic “Questioning Eyes”.

Given the nature of the gig as a charity event rather than a stop on a regular tour, in a city the band have never played before, it was a different sort of audience, with a great many unfamiliar faces in the crowd. The band deserve to have picked up plenty of new fans. The only sad note was that so many of the former front-row regulars appear have stopped supporting the band since the change of singer a year ago – they really don’t know what they’re missing.

The band will be touring in May and June, culminating in some festival appearances in July and August. On this sort of form, they’re a band not to be missed.

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Touchstone, Islington Academy 2, 5th March 2011

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Tim Hall


Photo © Roger Allen

Islington O2 Academy saw the final night of the “Prog 2.0 tour” came to London, with rising stars Touchstone topping the bill.

On record at least, openers Enochian Theory are a prog-metal act with a nice line in atmospherics, and have been compared with the mighty Opeth. But tonight’s performance suffered from a very poor mix, with overpoweringly loud drums drowning out the guitar and bass, losing a lot of the subtlety. While they’re clearly talented musicians, their songwriting and compositional skills have yet to reach the level where their music can survive that sort of treatment from the soundman. I’m sure I’ve seen their frontman before somewhere – he certainly looked as though he wouldn’t have looked out of place behind a model railway layout at DEMU Showcase. Saying that, I certainly wouldn’t write them off, and there’s a lot of potential for the future.

Jurojin were a very different beast. They started as a straightforward four-piece prog-metal act, up to the last few numbers when they were joined first by a tabla player, than by virtuoso violinist Anna Phoebe. At that point they morphed into a kind of folk-metal-world music fusion that sounded like an utterly different band from what we’d heard at the beginning of the set. Like IOEarth when I saw them last summer, there music is going off in many different directions, and they need to pick one and run with it. The last part of the set was genuinely exciting, and that feels to me like the direction in which they ought to go.

As for Touchstone, well, they were the band everyone came to see, and their tight high-energy performance delivered in spades. As for most of the past year and a half, the setlist drew heavily from their second album “Wintercoast” with a few selected songs from their earlier “Discordant Dreams”, including a great version of “Being Hannah”, a song I don’t think I’ve heard live for a while.  As always, Kim Seviour makes an great frontwoman and visual focus for the band, but one thing that was very obvious this time was how much Moo Bass’ playing dominates the sound. From the machine-gun riff of the title track of “Wintercoast” onwards, his bass both drives the rhythm and acts as a principal lead instrument, leaving Rob Cottingham’s keys and Adam Hodgson’s lead guitar to add colour to fill in the sound. Like Panic Room the weekend before, with performances like this they seem destined for far bigger things.

While I’d hardly say the O2, with it’s overpriced beer and often indifferent sound and atmosphere was a favourite venue of mine, this was certainly the best gig at this venue I’ve seen to date. With the tour promoted by Classic Rock Presents Prog, attendance was very good indeed, with over two-hundred and fifty through the doors. And nice to see Porcupine Tree’s Steve Wilson in the crowd.

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Panic Room, The Peel, 26th Feb 2011

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Tim Hall

I hadn’t originally intended to write a review of this gig, having already reviewed two earlier gigs on this tour. But in the end the gig was such a blinder I just couldn’t let it go without mentioning it.

Support was Matt Stevens, the “one man wall of sound”. I’ve known him through Twitter (he’s a friend of former Panic Room bassist Alun Vaughan) and seen him before, supporting the John Lees Barclay James Harvest last November. He plays looped guitar, playing acoustic guitar through loops to build up a bigger sound; he’ll typically play a chord progression, loop it, then solo over the top. It’s remarkably effective, and far more interesting as a support than the often mediocre singer-songwriters who are all-too-common as supports for gigs at this sort of level.

Panic Room were good at York, but tonight they were just at another level, and the band simply blew the roof off. Everything I’ve said about their gigs two weeks ago is still true, only more so. Without a strict curfew there was time for a couple of extra songs, so we got to hear the bonkers “I Am A Cat”, and “Go!”, neither of which were in the set for earlier gigs. The two new songs, “Song for Tomorrow” and “Promises” are already starting to lodge themselves in the brain, and the former has all the makings of a Panic Room classic.

Good crowd too; the place was at least three-quarters full, and everyone was really enthusiastic for the music. None of the loud talkers or oblivious drunks who marred the last London gig at the O2 Academy 2. And, as Anne-Marie herself said from the stage, it’s great to be in a proper rock venue, not some place that turns into a nightclub seconds after the band finish.

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Panic Room, York and Manchester

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Tim Hall

So the two gig-free months come to an end, and the gigging season begins again. Yet again, I’ve been putting in serious amounts of rail miles to see two gigs by Panic Room, the first at Fibbers in York, the second the following night at The Factory in Manchester. Are they really worth spending so many hours on board Arriva Cross-Country Voyagers to see? I think so, or I wouldn’t keep doing it.

Friday night was was the second time I’ve been to the recently refurbished Fibbers. It’s now more of a nightclub than a rock club, no draft beers any more, and decor that seems to lack character, and focuses on the dancefloor rather than the stage. Still, unlike in December where what turned out to have been Breathing Space’s final gig was spoiled by very poor sound, this time the venue seems to have got it’s act together in that respect, and the sound was excellent, good separation with every instrument clear.

The Factory in Manchester the following night didn’t have quite as good sound as the night before, a little bit too loud. But we did have one of the most enthusiastic audiences I’ve seen at a Panic Room gig to date. The Magnum-style arm-waving during “Satellite” was a new one on me. There was one downside, though, which I’ll come to later.

A few words on the support acts. Friday’s support was a solo acoustic singer-songwriter who’s name I forget. I find these sorts of performers rather hit-and-miss. Marc Atkinson, Chris Johnson, or for that matter Anne-Marie herself, can win over audiences with strong performances and good songs. But this guy wasn’t really in the same league. To give him some credit, he did write his own songs rather than take the easy route and play covers, but his act really needs a bit more work. Saturday’s support was David R Black, fronting an indie/metal trio who brought along a lot of their own fans and helped sell tickets for the gig. They didn’t do an awful lot for me, I’m afraid. They were musically competent, and pretty tight too, but their songs rather generic to my ears. But they weren’t really my kind of music, so I might not be the best person to judge.

As for Panic Room themselves, they more or less picked up where they left off last year. As I know I’ve said before, Yatim Halimi’s arrival as their new bass player seems to be the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle that has turned them from being a good live band to having all the makings of a great one. They’re now got the magical combination of tightness and onstage energy, all five members giving it absolutely everything and making an equally important contribution. Gavin and Yatim make a powerful rhythm section, Jon and Paul on keys and guitar perfect foils for each other, especially with a set that alternates between guitar-led and keyboard-led numbers. And of course Anne-Marie demonstrating just why she was voted Female Vocalist of the Year by readers of Classic Rock Presents Prog. And while their music has plenty of depth and complexity to satisfy progressive rock audiences, many of their songs are direct enough to give them crossover appeal.

Much as on their tour last autumn, the bulk of the set came from “Satellite”, with just two or three songs from their debut album. They’re still playing their as-yet unreleased swamp-blues cover of ELP’s “Bitches Crystal”, which I find far superior to the original. Since several songs from “Satellite” had become live favourites long before the band went into the studio to record them, there was the feeling that it was about time some new material started appearing in the set. And we got two brand-new songs, of which one, a twin-guitar prog-metal epic with a working title of “Song for Tomorrow” has all the makings of a future classic. My only regret is they’ve retired the lengthy epics from the first album. I’m not suggesting they exhume “The Dreaming”, which never really worked that well live, but “Endgame” used to be a live highlight, and it’s a song that means a lot to me personally.

One annoying thing about both venues was the way they turned into nightclubs after the gig, and the DJs started up at a volume at least twice as loud as the band had been the second the band finished playing. In this respect The Factory was far worse than Fibbers in that they started letting clubbers into the venue while the band were still on stage, which meant fans had to fight their way through the crowd to reach the exit at the end. And this was after a truncated set due to of a very strict curfew. I’ve since been told they started letting them in a good half-hour before the band finished, and their chatter was drowning out the band for those towards the back. Some were even making juvenile attempts to take the piss out of band and audience. The atmosphere as I was leaving the venue was felt vaguely threatening; it certainly wasn’t the sort of place I wanted to hang around for any time. I would recommend that Panic Room, and other bands in the same scene, give venues like this a wide berth in future. No band should be playing in a venue where their own fans do not feel safe.

Panic Room have one more gig on this leg of the tour, at The Peel in Kingston on Saturday 26th. I know the place is a bit of dive, but at least it won’t be full of lagered-up yoof at the end. Be there and see a band who I believe are now on the edge of something bigger.

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A Year in Live Music

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Tim Hall

My musical year has been defined more by live music than by albums, with something like 40 gigs this year. It’s almost impossible to chose the best of these, but here are a dozen of the most memorable, in chronological order.

Mostly Autumn at Leamington Assembly

This gig on Good Friday was Heather Findlay’s farewell performance with the band she’d fronted for twelve years, the whole thing superbly captured on the DVD “That Night In Leamington”. It was a very emotional night for those of us who were there, but also one of the best performances I’ve seen by the band to date; certainly a fitting close for an era of the band.

Breathing Space at Bilston Robin 2

Two days later, on Easter Sunday, Olivia Sparnenn played her last gig with her old band Breathing Space before leaving to replace Heather in Mostly Autumn. The Robin is always a great gig and this was no exception; Olivia certainly ended her time with the band on a high. The whole thing had a great vibe and I can remember how positive everyone was after the gig.

Protect the Beat at the Mumbles Jazz Festival

When a gig is billed as jazz-fusion played by top rock and pop session musicians, one could be excused for fearing the worst. But the energy and enthusiasm of the five musicians made this instrumental set one of the gigs of the year. The key factor was that it was abundantly clear that they were enjoying every minute on stage, and that enthusiasm was infectious. This is what live music is all about.

Transatlantic at Manchester Academy 1

The prog-rock supergroup proved every bit as enthusiastic about being on stage as had Protect The Beat a couple of weeks earlier. The three and a half hour set comprised just seven songs of grandiose swirling epic prog, including their 70-minute “The Whirlwind”. The word “progtastic” is the only way to describe an evening like this, even if the song to set length ratio is enough to give Guardian music journalists the vapours.

Mostly Autumn and Panic Room at Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Just a week after those two farewell gigs Mostly Autumn took to the stage with Olivia Sparnenn fronting the band. I saw them a number of times on that tour; the best of the lot was when they and Panic Room supported Wishbone Ash in London in mid-May. Panic Room played a short and sweet opening set, then Mostly Autumn went absolutely full-tilt for a special guest spot of just under an hour. The headline act just could not follow that; the consensus was that they ended up the third-best band of the night.

Fish at The Band on the Wall, Manchester

After taking the best part of a year out, the former Marillion frontman has been touring with a stripped-down acoustic show in small intimate venues backed by just Frank Usher on guitar and Foss Patterson on keys. Despite having suffered from throat problems in recent years, Fish proved that he’s very much still got it as a live performer both as a singer and a charismatic frontman. Most memorable moment was when he looked me in the eye when he mentioned an earlier gig in York, and didn’t make any mention of his ex.

High Voltage festival at Victoria Park, London

While this big commercial festival had it’s downsides of long queues to get in, overpriced beer, and a yawn-inducing Saturday headliner, the upsides were some superb bands, of whom Touchstone, The Reasoning, Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash, BigElf, Zappa Plays Zappa, Opeth and Transatlantic stood out. The whole thing ended with a gloriously ridiculous show by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, which was probably the only way to end such a festival.

Cambridge Rock Festival

This small friendly festival was a complete contrast to the commercialism of High Voltage. No big name headliners, but the vibe of the festival was such that it didn’t really need it. The best day was undoubtedly the Sunday, headlined by Mostly Autumn (them again!) and also featured great sets from Panic Room and Breathing Space, the latter being the début for their new singer Heidi Widdop. But it was the special guests The Enid who stole the show with an utterly mesmerising set.

Therion at Shepherds Bush Empire, London

I went to this gig having heard a couple of their albums, not really knowing what to expect. Seeing a band whose lyricist apparently heads a magickal order on Halloween night makes you wonder if they would attempt to summon Great Cthulhu at some point in the show, but what we got was epic symphonic metal with elaborate but hugely melodic multi-part vocal arrangements from four classically-trained singers. An amazing gig, quite unlike anything else I’ve heard all year

Steve Hackett at Shepherds Bush Empire, London

The Godfather of prog guitar gave us one of the most prog gigs of the year, mixing material from his excellent recent album with 70s Genesis classics like “Watcher of the Skies” and “Firth of Fifth”. Nick Beggs (of Kajagoogoo fame) on bass and Chapman stick managed to make himself the centre of attention as a cross-dressing steampunk Gandalf, but it was Hackett’s distinctive liquid guitar playing that reminded us just how influential his guitar sound has been in the progressive rock world.

Mostly Autumn at The Fleece and Firkin, Bristol

I got to see Mostly Autumn several times on their Autumn tour, when they laid to rest many of their old standards to play a set drawing very heavily from their superb new album “Go Well Diamond Heart”. Of the shows I saw, their return to Bristol after an absence of several years was the best; good sound, spirited and enthusiastic performance, and a lengthy set ending with some Christmas standards. I do love their rockier take of Greg Lake’s “I believe in Father Christmas” in particular.

Panic Room and Touchstone at Bilston Robin 2

Some people don’t like the idea of double headliners where both bands play 70-80 minute sets instead of a full-length headline set, but this one pulled a vastly bigger crowd than I’ve ever seen either band draw on their own. And they got their money’s worth; both bands pulled out all the stops and gave as good a performance as I’ve ever seen them play. High spot, if there was any single one, was Anne-Marie Helder’s spine-tingling rendition of “O Holy Night”.

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Mostly Autumn, The Globe, Cardiff, 14-Nov-2010

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Tim Hall

Olivia Sparnenn at Cardiff The Point

Mostly Autumn are a band who have undergone a major change in the past year, with the departure of much-loved lead singer Heather Findlay and her replacement by former backing singer Olivia Sparnenn.  The new incarnation had already won over a large proportion of their fanbase when toured earlier in the year playing a set of existing material.  Now, with their new double album “Go Well Diamond Heart” released, they completed their transformation to what is has become a completely new band.  As Rachel Cohen of The Reasoning said on stage two days earlier, one shouldn’t fear change, but embrace the opportunities it offers. And Mostly Autumn have done just that.

This was the first time Mostly Autumn have played in Wales for more than three years, and they were met by an enthusiastic crowd. And the band did not let them down.  This was a powerful, impassioned set by a band who were clearly enjoying every moment on stage. Bryan Josh was on fire on guitar, playing as well as I’ve ever heard him play.  Olivia Sparnenn was on equally fine form vocally, emotive one moment, and soaringly powerful the next. Gavin Griffiths kicked up an absolute storm on drums, giving the set a great energy level, and hats off to Anne-Marie Helder, who as well as singing superb harmony vocals still managed to play keys and even flute on a couple of songs despite still having her right arm in a cast because of broken wrist!

I’ve been critical of Mostly Autumn in the past for being rather conservative with their tour setlists, playing too little recent material in favour of established standards. This time they’ve more or less torn up the old setlist, at least by their standards.; Of the two and a half hour set, more than half came from the new album, almost the whole of the first disk plus half the second bonus disk.  Add to that the fact that they’ve retained “Slow Down” from Bryan Josh’s solo album, and the former Breathing Space epic “Questioning Eyes”, and the oldies were very much in the minority.

Pretty much all of the new material comes over extremely well live, and went down well with an audience the majority of whom were probably hearing these songs for the first time. Songs like opener “Deep in Borrowdale” and “Something Better” rocked hard, “Coming Back to Life” and “Forever Young” soared, and perhaps the high spot of the entire evening was the emotional rendition of “When The War Is Over”, a very appropriate song for Remembrance Sunday.

They finished, as they always do, with “Heroes Never Die”, this time with a completely new instrumental beginning arranged because or the absence of Anne-Marie’s flute at the beginning of the tour.  A superb gig, enchanting new and old fans alike, and well rewarding those who’ve stayed loyal to the new lineup. There are quite a few more shows coming up including the showcase of York Grand Opera House on December 4th.  And I can’t wait for that one.

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The Reasoning, The Fleece and Firkin, Bristol, 12-Nov-2010

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Tim Hall

Rachel Cohen at The Fleece and Firkin in Bristol

“And then there were five”, said Rachel Cohen at the start of The Reasoning’s gig at The Fleece and Firkin in Bristol. The departure of guitarist, vocalist and founder member Dylan Thompson on the eve of the tour came as something as a shock. The band’s decision to rehearse and tour as a five-piece rather than postpone the tour was a brave one, which left quite a few people wondering quite how they’d reproduce much of their complex multi-layered material live.  So I set out to for Bristol, a new venue for me, not quite knowing what to expect from them.

As soon as they took the stage and launched into the prog-metal of “Dark Angel”, it was clear that they’d pulled it off. Far from having obvious holes in the sound, the slimmed-down incarnation of The Reasoning simply gives each of the musicians more space.  Less was indeed more. As they always have been, the band were both tight and had really high energy level.

Naturally they played a much rearranged setlist, dropping many of the songs that relied on Dylan’s lead vocals in favour of songs with Rachel singing lead. So we saw the return of songs like “Within Cold Glass” from their first album, and the first UK appearance of the Dream Theater-esque 14 from their most recent album “Adverse Camber”.  Keyboardist Tony Turrell, who’s previously only sung backing vocals, took the male lead vocal on “Awakening” and “A Musing Dream”, while Matt Cohen, who’d previously not been let near a microphone, added some backing vocals. Owain Roberts did a superb job as sole guitarist, nailing the solos he hadn’t previously played.  Tony Turrell’s keys weren’t always that prominent in the mix, but his solo spot, with sections of Fish’s “Plague of Ghosts” and bits of assorted Marillion tunes went down extremely well with a certain section of the crowd.

As one of the band said, when their backs are against the wall, they come out fighting. The slimmed-down Reasoning still rock, and it will be interesting to hear where go next, especially when they return to the studio.

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