Live Review - Eagles, "History of the Eagles" Tour, London O2 Arena (17th June 2014)

The Eagles land in London for the first of several nights at the O2 Arena. Billed as the “History Of The Eagles” tour, evidently to tie in with the rather excellent documentary of the same name, the first half of the show in particular feels more like a Broadway show than your average rock gig. They take you chronologically through the first few years, relating stories and background information, sometimes directly and sometimes rather bizarrely, through filmed on-screen narration.

In theory it starts rather nicely with just Henley and Frey on-stage together in a sitting-on-flight-cases kind of way, but there's addition instrumentation coming from...somewhere. Band members gradually get added, Schmidt, Walsh, and a return to the fold for Bernie Leadon which is lovely to see. Bernie was a member of The Flying Burrito Brothers back in the day, so you can't argue with that. He was on the first four Eagles albums and left the band in a blaze of glory in 1975, pouring a beer over Glenn Frey's head; I can't say I blame him.

Frey's ego precedes him, but he does little on-stage to warrant it. The night seems to belong to Don Henley who is in fine voice, and heavily featured throughout. When Joe Walsh gets a chance to let rip, he brings some fire and energy to otherwise rather sedate proceedings. Not that there's anything wrong with a Eagles concert being relatively sedate, of course.

They're undoubtedly a talented bunch of guys, which is why it's somewhat frustrating to see five additional musicians on-stage with them. It doesn't seem necessary. This is compounded particularly when they let the session guitarist play featured solos; are you really telling me Walsh or Leadon couldn't play something equally worthy?

Leadon is dismissed for the second half of the show, which is overall a bit more raucous, covering ground from Hotel California and The Long Run era, with some solo Joe Walsh thrown in for good measure (although if they're going to dip in to solo territory, surely Henley's “The Boys of Summer” could blow the roof off?). A track from the reunion-era “Hell Freezes Over” record provides an ideal bathroom break. Talking of newer material, it's interesting to note that this “History” show includes nothing from their 2007 effort, “Long Road Out Of Eden” (maybe because it sucks).

A friend of mine commented to me after the show that they appreciate their audiences expectations. I guess this is true, although they pitch the show pretty heavily at the casual fan. It's full of hits which, if you're only going to see the band once, is fine, but they do little to encourage you to come back. The prohibitive ticket prices don't help, but it's also the feeling that they're doing to same thing every night; playing the same songs, telling the same stories, cracking the same jokes. I'm glad I went, but I have no intention of going again.

Henley proclaims during the show that they're not touring because they're bored, they do it because “it's the best flipping job in the world”; looking at the ticket prices it's certainly among the better paid ones. You wish though that everything felt a bit more... real, maybe? It's possible that the documentary has soured my perception of them, but it's hard not to think of Frey and Henley in particular, as calculating businessmen rather than passionate musicians.

I doubt many went home too unhappy though. The last encore brings Leadon back to the stage for a few songs, and they launch into “Take It Easy”; what's not to like? They covered a lot of ground, and they played for ages too. Their voices still blend beautifully. It's one for the bucket list, but time to move on to the next one.

Live Review - Yes, Southend Cliffs Pavilion (30th April 2014)

2014 sees Yes tour, performing 3 full albums, “The Yes Album”, “Going For The One”, and career-benchmark “Close To The Edge”; a prospect that should have prog-fans making that sound Homer Simpson made when he spots that rare gummy Venus de Milo stuck to the posterior of….well, never mind; except, wait, there’s no Jon Anderson. That’s okay, you could argue; they’ve overcome that obstacle before, drafting in Trevor Horn of all people, but that, of course, resulted in a strong new album,”Drama”, and didn’t involve a tour performing three classic albums in full featuring another singer. Prog is a funny business, and often the vocalist is less a focal point than in other bands. There’s a strong history of prog bands successfully transitioning through singers; Genesis, Pink Floyd, erm…Marillion, for starters, but this is a late career change and sustaining credibility is going to be a challenge, although commercial success is probably not high on their agenda right now.

American Jon Davison stepped up to the plate as vocalist in 2012, after Anderson’s previous replacement Benoit David left the band due to illness. To be fair, he’s pretty impressive, and sounds remarkably like Jon Anderson in fact. It’s hard to imagine anyone else doing a better job of recreating the vocal parts. What muddies the waters somewhat is the fact that they’ve recorded a new album with Davison, “Heaven and Earth”. Choosing a singer that sounds like your old singer in order to perform old material is one thing, but surely making a new album with him is a strange proposition. Can they really strive for anything individual or fresh?

That’s a debate for another time anyway, and for tonight he does a perfectly able job, if you can ignore your inner voice that’s shouting, “But it’s not Anderson”.

Steve Howe is fascinating to watch. He’s like a mad professor, with his long grey hair and receding hairline. You have to laugh at some of his exaggerated moves and gestures. His guitar sounds a little too clean in places, and there’s a nagging feeling that he’s only just managing to fit all the notes in sometimes. Rather than sporting a double-necked guitar he seems to favour a second guitar on a stand, which he can play while still wearing another guitar. His solo “Clap” is obviously a little highlight of the evening too.

Chris Squire, who has the distinction of being the only member of the band to survive their ever-changing line ups, and appears on every Yes release, is on fine form throughout. It wouldn’t be Yes without him. He’s looking bloomin’ old now; his long white hair being gently blown, evidently by an electric fan, which I find inexplicably hilarious. In an ultimate display of prog-ishness, he plays a TRIPLE-necked guitar at one point, which is worth the admission price alone. Fun fact; his wife’s name is Scotland.

Geoff Downs was handling Rick Wakeman’s parts, who’s busy trudging his Journey To The Centre Of The Earth folly around the country at the moment. He’s obviously a prog stalwart, and has been a member of Yes in the past, but he feels like an 80’s throwback, with his banks of synths and terminally un-cool look. This is the guy, after all, who once entered the Guiness Book of Records for performing with the most keyboards on stage for a performance (28, if you’re interested). He does little to impress; you miss Wakeman.

Quite often, the problem with bands as they get older is that they slow down, tempo-wise. They might see this a virtue; that tearing through songs too fast is a result of inexperience and the folly of youth, but it means the sense of urgency and intensity is missing. There’s no edge tonight. They were playing some of the greatest prog music ever made, but I felt strangely unmoved by it.

The problem was partly me (although Jon Davison playing electric bongos didn’t help). I realised my benchmark for live Yes is the live album “Yessongs” recorded in 1972. Although 3 of the 5 members that performed the bulk of that album are still sharing the stage on this tour, it’s 42 years later. Is it reasonable to expect the same energy, the same spark of a band in their prime years? Probably not. That said, plenty of veteran artists are pulling out thrilling and compelling live shows late into their careers (although probably not with a new front-man). Drummer Alan White has nowhere near the energy and power he used to have. Maybe he was never the same after breaking his foot in a, and I am not making this up, roller-skating accident in 1979.

Still, I’ll take what I can get. They were literally playing down my road. I sat feet away from Steve Howe, saw 3 amazing albums performed live, with an encore of Roundabout thrown in. Sometimes you can over-think these things.

Live Review - These New Puritans, London Barbican (17th April 2014)

Last year’s “Field of Reeds” was one of the most challenging, yet ultimately rewarding albums of last year. The attention to detail present on the record provided a plentiful pool for journalists to fish from. Stories abounded of the band apparently spending hours breaking glass to achieve just the “right” sound, and bringing a live hawk into the studio to sample the sound of its wings flapping. A picture got built up of an obsessed band in search of perfection. You’d be seriously pushing it to classify them as a “rock” band; they reside in an almost uncategorizable world between classical and art-rock. The thought of seeing the album performed live under the “TNP Expanded” banner, with the strings and horns and choir was too exciting a prospect to miss. There were about 30 additional members on stage in the end, tantalizingly including Elisa Rodrigues whose additional vocals are an essential part of the album, and Adrian Peacock, the UK’s deepest baritone, along with members of Synergy Vocals and the Heritage Orchestra. The night was a meticulous recreation of a staggering album. No hawk appeared onstage unfortunately, although a percussionist was noticed donning a full facial mask, evidently to smash some glass. The Barbican provided the perfect reverent setting. You can imagine what a train-wreck the show would have been if they’d chosen Brixton Academy or something. I was left with the feeling that it was tragic that this was to be a one-off. I wanted to go again. I also wondered how on earth they’d been performing these songs all this time without all the additional musicians. This did not feel like a radical reworking of an album, with an orchestra tacked on; all the elements seemed to be combining to try and recreate the album as closely as possible. That’s not to say there weren’t deviations. V (Island Song) is stretched to a powerful 9- minute epic, for example. The second-half of the night addressed the old and the new. A thunderous We Want War along with Three Thousand from previous album “Hidden” injected a surge of adrenalin into proceedings. In a sense, it felt like a massive relief. As stunning as “Field of Reeds” is, it almost felt like you’d been holding your breath throughout the first half. TNP also decided to debut some new music, which at this stage would seem to continue in a similar vein to “Field of Reeds” rather than betray another radical change of direction. Either way, TNP remain a fascinating proposition. In fact, it’s hard to think of a more genuinely progressive and forward-thinking contemporary band around. The sheer ambition of these three lads from Southend should be a call to arms for more bands; perfection may just be attainable.