Review Jon Lord, 20.May, Berlin
I've been to the Jon Lord Show at the Columbia-Halle in Berlin
A short word about the venue: The worst one on this tour by far. An old
factory or storage buildung which has been outfitted with a stage.
Unfortunately also outfitted with two bars *inside* the
hall................which happily sold drinks while the concert was
underway, especially in the quiet parts this was disturbing (to put it
mildly).
Who would buy drinks while Jon was playing on stage, I hear you ask? This
brings me to
The Audience (or at least part of them, I don't want to be unfair): The
worst on the tour so far. Several people run up to the stage during! the
concert, requesting autographs from Jon, the guys in the back happily
bought their drinks and chattet loudly about whatever was on their mind,
paying no attention to the music, some people supplied their own version of
Stop!, singing not only off-key but also off-sync, thus making an
"interesting" counterpoint to Sam's singing.
I won't get into this any further, but I'm still steaming with fury...........
Acoustics: Considering the circumstances the sound-engineers (or whatever
it is they are called) Jessie and Robbie (sp?) did an excellent sound, they
actually managed to get a decent sound.
Support Act was the A-Capella Formation "Vocaleros", this time 5 songs,
three of them new to their set.
The setlist:
First set:
Tune-up
Part 1 of PW: Sunrise, Pictured Within, From the Windmill
From Part 2 of PW: Evening song
Sarabande from the album "Sarabande"
From Part 4 of PW: Crytal Spa, A different Sky
Second set:
Tune-up
Breathe in Life (I'm pretty certain now) by Sam Brown
Before I forget from the album "Before I forget"
The Dream, an orchestral piece (don't know this one) leading to
Where are you? from the album "Before I forget"
"Unsquare Dance" by Dave Brubeck
From Part 3 of PW: Music for Miriam, Wait a while
Gigue from the album "Sarabande"
Stop from Sam Brown's first album "Stop!"
Bouree from the album "Sarabande"
Comments:
Another outstanding performance.
The playing is getting better and tighter with every show. They starting to
really make a show out of this, not only playing the music but feeling it
and showing it on the outside. Especially Hagen, the cellist has his act
dramatically improved, he leans into his cello, every moment you expect him
to get up and smash his cello in a grande finale. Excellent, really excellent.
This time I had for the first time the opportunity to see Jon up close at
the piano (have been on the wrong side of the stage the first three shows).
All I can say is: What a sight. What a musician.
There are no words to describe how Jon is playing, only that he is putting
his whole heart and soul into the songs.
Incredible.
What else??
The Gigue from Sarabande is getting longer from show to show, if it keeps
evolving at the same rate, we'll have a real monster at the last show.
Sam wasn't at her best, she avoided the really high notes (most noticebly
in Stop!) througout the show.
Hagen, the celllist again slipped the riff to Smoke into the Gigue, this
time a little bit longer.
This must be enough for now, I'm catching some sleep, then I will head to
Halle.
Christian Rutz