Artist: Marillion
Venue: Irving Plaza (New York, NY)
Date: 10-06-2004
Opener: unknown
Label: Racket Records
Genre: Progressive Rock
I have to be quite honest with you in admitting that I attended this show both expecting to be disappointed and for it not to be all that good. I must also say that I was completely wrong on both counts. You might wonder what made me come to such a drastic conclusion so early. Well, Marillion has been a tad difficult to follow here in the United States as it is very hard to get their CD’s which are all imports and hence on the expensive side. The last few albums they released also simply did not do it for me beyond one or two songs. When you add to the fact that they seldom tour the United States you get the picture. All of this was to change tonight. I stopped at a local pub first and ran into some visiting Brits who had actually followed the group from the UK to the USA. That was impressive and after several pints and these enthusiastic Brits I found myself inside a jam-packed Irving Plaza. The Venue is a nice place to see a group as it offers a decent sized floor area and some room on a balcony. Over 1,000 dedicated Marillion fans were in attendance and it was interesting to find out that the trip was fan club supported. This would be the bands first return in about seven years.
This return found the group in support of their newest release on Racket Records, an epic entitled “Marbles”. It is a double CD set, and if you are stateside you will most likely only see the single disk version. While it was not available in the States prior to this show, I was happy to find one at the bands Merchandise table. Oddly enough the band chose to perform the new CD in pretty much its entirety as the larger part of the first half of their show. They might have left a number or two off, but one cannot tell before listening to the new CD. In any case, it was excellent. Whether you were new or old to this piece, it wins you over very quickly in the live setting. It is passionate and pure in its best description. Normally I don’t enjoy this being done yet I found myself enthralled by the music they had worked out for the CD. The CD has a number of Pink Floyd like moments to it and one song flows seamlessly to the next. I felt this was the best that I have experienced the band in the three times that I had caught them in concert.
The band took a short breather and returned with the performance of many of their classic numbers. Among them were “Uninvited Guest”, “Between You and Me”, & “Cover My Eyes”. They even did a brief snippet of “Hey Jude”. While I did not time the show, it definitely seemed as though they performed well over two hours. Clearly you were getting your moneys worth. The original fans of the group who still hang on the Fish years will find it interesting that none of his songs were featured. While I felt Hogarth the more powerful Singer overall, it always seemed like he was putting his material up against that of Fish. Hogarth has been in the band now for more than twice the amount of time as his predecessor was and now seems to be in total command of the unit. All the other members are the same; Mark Kelly, Ian Mosely, Peter Trewavas and Steve Rothery have been keeping this fine Progressive Rock act in full swing for over a dozen years. I look forward to their continued input.
Set List:
1. The Invisible Man
2. Marbles I
3. You’re Gone
4. Angelina
5. Marbles II
6. Don’t Hurt Yourself
7. Fantastic Place
8. Marbles III
9. Drilling Holes
10. Marbles IV
11. Neverland
12. Bridge
13. Living With The Big Lie
14. Quartz
15. Estonia
16. Three Minute Boy
17. Between You And Me
18. Afraid Of Sunlight
19. Uninvited Guest
20. Beautiful
21. Cover My Eyes
Official Web site: www.marillion.com
Editor’s Note: This article was written for another medium prior to the 2005 launch of PiercingMetal.com and has been added to our content for your enjoyment.