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Neal Morse - Testimony - LiveNeal Morse is a gifted man. He has the rare gift of both being one of the most talented musicians on earth And having one of the finest voices out there. The result of the combination has been quality album after quality album for over 10 years. I discovered him with Spock's Beard(before he was a christian) and I've been impressed with every thing has been involved in.As you might know his latest album, Testimony, was my favourite release in the year 2003. So, I had some quite high expectations on this double DVD. And when discovering the setlist, which is the entire testimony album plus three other songs, it grew even higher. The clocking time is a whopping 255minutes! Of them 189 is music and the rest is a funny and must-see tour documentary. As said the play the whole testimony album but the encore songs are almost as impressive. First off is the audience favourite "We All Need Some Light", from Transatlantic, then the title track from Spock Beard's first album "The Light" and finally my Transatlantic favourite, "Stranger In Your Soul". Well, we got the titles but it'll require some REALLY talented musicians to performe these things. In addition to Neal himself we get, Mike Portnoy, Eric Benton, John Krovosa, Bert Baldwin, Rick Altizer, Randy George and Mark Leniger. Of these, only Mike Portnoy(Dream Theater), Mark Leniger(solo CD, which Neal once sent me) and Randy George(Ajalon) were known to me. But when the concert starts it AMAZES me that I've NEVER EVER heard about Mr. Eric Benton before. Man, what an incredible musician he is. Whatever instrument needed, he plays it! Guitar, violon, flute, steel guitar, mandolin...you name it! He was the biggest surprise for me, but let's not forghet that everyone of these delivered top notch stuff. Almost scary at times how good they were. My favourite song from Testimony was "Somber day" and when they played that song it brought tears into my eyes. Staggering performance. It was brilliant before(in my alltime top10 songs list) but somehow they succeeded to improve it on stage. And "Oh, to feel Him" was another tearbringer. Especially when Neal told the story about how God healed his daughter from a bad heart condition. I had goosebumps all over my skin! Right after that "God's theme" arrives and also that is better(I still don't understand how it can be) than the album version. Only one thing disturbes me here and that is the camera-men. At times I don't understand what they are doing(or not doing)! When a person, besides Neal, is singing it's quite obvious that the camera should be focused on him. But nope. I'd have loved to get a zoom on Mike when he sings in "Somber days". There is some small singing errors here and there but I think it just spices up the whole live experience. This is a great performance and I wish I could catch them up next time they arrive in Europe. If it wasn't for the slight crappy camera-handlings(shame on you!) this had been a perfect DVD. But with a three hours journey into progressive heaven, this is still a close call! |
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| Style: Progressive Rock | |
Overall:
 
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| Year: 2004 | |
| Review by: Victory | |
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