:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Thursday, April 20, 2006 ::

Gig Review: The War of the Worlds Live @ NEC, Birmingham, 19.04.06

The Martian invaders may well have overlooked Bristol, but that didn't stop me, or Dash for that matter (bumped into him on the way out), running off to Birmingham to catch the spectacle.

Oh, and what a show it was. The cult '70s prog-rock-sci-fi musical relived in all its original splendour, and more. This album terrified me as a child, fascinated me later, may have introduced me to synthesisers, and inspired me read H.G. Wells. I've loved it for all of those reasons ever since. On top of all of that, we get a set designed by Jonathan Park, of Fisher/Park fame, see Rock Sets, The Astonishing Art of Rock Concert Design by Sutherland Lyall (OOP) or this two page article from Roger Waters' website 1 2.

Among other things the set is endowed with a giant floating model of Richard Burton's head, speaking recordings of his lines as narrator, and a giant tripod towering over the stage. Not the full animatronic-aliens live show that is planned for the Chinese New Year event in 2007, but impressive none-the-less.

Jeff Wayne conducts the live orchestra and band, including bass legend Herbie Flowers (Walk on the Wild Side), vocals were provided by Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) from the original cast and many other younger faces, who all stepped into their predecessors' shoes brilliantly. The Parson Nathaniel (Russell Watson or Daniel Boys, I'm not sure?) and the Parson's wife (Tara Blaise) were especially good.

The gurgling electronic atmospheric audio set the mood perfectly before the show and during the interval. This is why I love electronic music. The show started very slowly with a projected CG scene setter explaining why Martians so coveted Earth (used up all their own natural resources, blah blah) and then into the familiar refrains. More graphics at the end, for the NASA epilogue, also distracted from the big ending. Musically it was performed brilliantly and the sound and visuals were all amazing*. It was almost worth the entry fee alone for the occasional eyebrow raises from the Richard Burton head (actually a look-abit-alike projected onto a screen modelled on his head). The head didn't blink quite often enough for my liking, only about once every ten seconds, six seconds is the usual rule of thumb in animation and anything longer becomes unsettling if you watch it too long, as I obviously did what with being pedantic enough to time it.

* Well, if I was going to be picky, and I am, I'd point out that the lead guitarist messed up the rhythm during one of the quiet spooky builds, the lip sync on the Richard Burton projection was awful, when the Burton voice over was panned to the rear it became unintelligible where I was sitting (near the back), and there were a few radio mic glitches. All stuff that could be ironed out and it didn't distract from the overall show.

Anyway, that's enough picking hairs. They were all tiny points. The show was amazing. I took my parents along, and my dad wants to see it again.
There is a phenomenon known in our household as "Neighbours Face." This is the fixed stare, mouth half open, expression that Amanda seems to fall into when allowing an Australian soap (it also works with Home and Away) to wash over her senses, like streaming brainwashing data directly into her cranium. Every sense open but only to that one stimulus, and no other response is visible. Half way through the first half of the show last night she turned to me and said "I've just realised I've been doing my Neighbours Face for the last 20 minutes." At that point I realised, so had I. This show is that good. The only question that remains unanswered is why this hadn't been done before?

:: Dan 20.4.06 [Arc] [3 comments] [links to this post]    ::
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