Review Jon Lord, 16.May, Luxembourg
I've been to the Jon Lord Show at the Conservatoire de Musique de Ville
Luxembourg and wanted to share my impressions with you.
First some words about the venue: It was a rather small hall, about
thousands seats which weren't all occupied (though there weren't much empty
seats, probably people who had tickets but didn't make it to the show).
Stage was a kind of a circle, with the first row of the seats only one
meter away and the seats ascending from the front half of the stage, kind
of an Amphitheater.
Acoustics were excellent.
The show was in two parts each around one hour with a break of half an hour
in between. Support Act was a A-Capella group called (I think) "Les
Vocaleros", just twenty minutes but great stuff, there are enough
TopTen-Bands which could use some of the vocals talents displayed.
The setlist (as I remember it, probably some mistakes here):
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" (yes! and more to come)
From Part 4 of PW: Crytal Spa
Some comments of mine: Jon acted as a kind of host, he introduced the
songs, talked with the audience, made some jokes and was really a sight in
his padre-like black clothes (you really had to be there to know what I
mean) and white hair. A impressive sight.
Musically the first set had some flaws. Jon talked before the set about how
nervous they all were since it was the first night and suchlike and it
showed, Jon was giving cues all the time to the other members and had even
the "Evening song" stopped in the middle and started again. Even I could
hear some little mistakes here and there when someone of the band started
too early or too late his or her part.
You could feel how nervous they were, but when they found their way it was
beautiful, then the music really flowed.
Little Note of mine: I arrived early at the show, so after I checked that I
was at the right venue and were to get my ticket I sat outside on a bench
in the sun, looking up in the clouds. About one hour before they opened the
ticket-booth two people went out of the venue, one of them talking about
some unexpected difficulties they had with the rehearsals. When I looked up
it was Jon Lord with someone else talking......walking by about one meter
from where I was sitting! I was so surprised about this that I didn't even
say hello, but instead sat there staring ;-)
Anyway, point is, Jon seemed not to be in the best mood, from the few words
he spoke I gathered that the rehearsals (he later mentioned that they have
rehearsed for three days before this show) didn't went down too well and I
think it showed in this first hour.
Still, when it "clicked" (especially "Crystal Spa") it was great.
Second set:
Tune-up
a song sung and played on the piano by Sam Brown (sans JL) which according
to her introduction "is a new song and has never been played before",
unfortunately I didn't catch the title
Before I forget from the album "Before I forget"
Where are you? from the album "Before I forget"
From Part 3 of PW: Music for Miriam, Wait a while
Gigue from the album "Sarabande"
Stop from Sam Brown's first album "Stop!", mostly A-capella with only
scarce instruments
Bouree from the album "Sarabande" (where Jon's piano part always reminds me
of David Brubeck's "Take Five", a steady rhythm played over the percussion)
Again some comments of mine: this second set was better, they had more
confidence and sounded more together than in the first set. Jon still did
give his cues, but I didn't notice any more mistakes and the overall feel
was much improved.
Outstanding were Before I forget, the gigue from Sarabande and Sam's
performance of Wait a while.
The overall mood was, although they were nervous, very relaxed, they made
jokes between the songs and the atmoshere were very friendly. They were
clearly enjoying themselves and took their mistakes with humour.
Audience reaction was very enthusiastic, they got a standing ovation after
Stop and Bouree.
I didn't catch the names of the band members, so I just give a short
rundown by instruments:
4 strings
1 horn (probably wrong description, can't find my dictionary)
2 keyboard players (one of them doubling as singer)
3 female singers (including Sam Brown, which sung backing and lead vocals)
1 percussion
and
1 piano player (guess who)
Conclusion: A great evening and it will be interesting to see how they will
progress in the next five shows (I bet they will use the day off (monday)
for more rehearsals).
Christian Rutz