The ‘UK and Europe Tour 2024’
Ted Leonard (lead vocals, guitar) / Alan Morse (lead guitar, backing vocals) / Ryo Okumoto (keyboards) / Dave Meros (bass and backing vocals) / Mike Thorne (drums & percussion, backing vocals)
My first gig of the year and my first ever visit to Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms, a smaller venue situated alongside the more well-known Rock City. Cavernous it certainly isn’t; more… bijou. With a small bar at the back and a balcony (closed on this occasion) it has a very small capacity and is clearly used for the more “up and coming” bands which was a surprise given Spock’s Beard’s general standing, but the decision to present them here seemed about right given that the crowd couldn’t have numbered many more than 150-200 at the very most. To say that I was surprised would be a real understatement.
The term ‘prog-rock’ or ‘progressive rock music’ has broadened significantly over the last fifty years. I was firmly raised in the boomtime of melody and quasi-classicism of 70s prog-rock with exponents like Genesis, Yes, Caravan and, later, The Flower Kings. but now the category has widened so much as to encompass what I can only describe as almost grunge heavy music, ‘prog’ in name only because some of the songs last around ten minutes or more and have odd time changes etc. Spock’s Beard are considered prog-rock royalty in the music community and especially back home in the States, but I had heard only a couple of their songs and went to this gig firm in my impression that they lean very heavily towards those more modern aspects of the genre. I was told by my friend and ex-colleague Colin Rosenwould (with whom I met up at the gig, our first meeting in what must be ten years!) – and also by another punter not long before the gig actually started – that the band “are like Genesis”; well, this was no incarnation of that band that I recognised at all.
With a two hour setlist stretching all the way back to their debut album in 1995 for set-closer ‘Go The Way You Go’ and right up to date with 2018’s ‘Noise Floor’ providing ‘One So Wise’, the band used their entire back-catalogue to fill out the performance, and it proved a winner with the fans. For a neutral punter like myself it’s always difficult to enjoy a gig where every song is new and unheard, especially so when the vocals are always so low/drowned out as to be inaudible. Not that the gig was overloud, because it wasn’t; I just couldn’t make out what lead singer Ted Leonard was singing. He was ably assisted by three other member of the band on vocals, the only musician not contributing in that area being keyboards wizard Ryo Okumoto, more of whom later!
And so, yes, the two hours passed with only eleven/twelve songs, each of varying length and of obvious ‘prog’ proportions and elements. I was forewarned that “this one is a sing-along” (it wasn’t) and another had a “great guitar solo”; hmmm… I don’t want to appear dismissive because I could certainly appreciate the musicianship and I respect the fact that the band are very much admired around the world, so it was clearly me who was out of kilter where the gig was concerned. If I had to make comparisons I would say that Spock’s Beard are very similar to Dream Theater, a band that I have tried very hard to like but never quite managed it. I had four of their CDs and only ever really listened to one, ‘Ocatvarium‘. None of the SB songs actually stood out to me as being especially brilliant (again, probably because I didn’t know any of them). There were moments when they broke out into melody, others where there was a definite rhythm and we were encouraged to clap along (which we did) but these just seemed way too few and far between. But as I’ve said previously, the fans lapped it up so I presume that it was a really good gig in their eyes.
The highlight as far as I was concerned was caused by a malfunction. During the 16-minute encore rendition of fan favourite ‘The Light’ Okumoto lost power to his keyboards mid-way through, leaving the remainder of the band in limbo. When it was first announced that the power was down, Mike Thorne on drums humorously shouted out “Drum solo!” to gales of laughter (we’d just been ‘treated’ to one) before front man Leonard struck up the opening chords to ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’, the smash hit for Kansas in the late 70s. The rest of the band who were able soon joined in and it was just great – a song that I knew! Covering the time it took to restore power and re-boot Okumoto’s computers, it was a real surprise and, as I have already mentioned, a real highlight for me.
Colin stuck around at the end to meet the band and take a few selfies, but I hot-footed it out at the first opportunity; not for the first time my ageing back and calves were objecting to having stood for two and half hours with no break.
Here’s an online review from the SonicAbuse website; great photos but no mention whatsoever of the power failure!
Setlist: Tides of Time; The Good Don’t Last; Hiding Out; Waiting for Me; On a Perfect Day; Submerged; Harm’s Way; She Is Everything; One So Wise; Go the Way You Go (with drum solo); Encore: The Light (incl. Carry On My Wayward Son)
Gigs'n'Stuff 