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Gaia
Posts : 1016 Points : 1258 Join date : 2009-11-13
| Subject: DTP Royal Albert Performance Review Wed Apr 15, 2015 7:05 pm | |
| [Copy of review I did for the Royal Albert performance for a few sites:]
Here is my, review of the show. I think Devin and the Band will appreciate this:
It was a good show and the overall performance was quite entertaining and pretty spectacular visually - probably one of the largest and most outlandish of DTP shows. The band played very well and Devin managed to keep a lid on the talking for most of it, although there was some slippage into juvenile attributes unfortunately.
It was however good to see that for once - out of virtually all the shows I've been to of his, he has started to finally put a stop to technical glitches holding things up / delaying or cutting out mid song. The main issues this time instead were the sound production - not totally bad, but the least desirable part of all was the CHOICE OF SETLIST (thanks fans!). I'll speak about those 2 main issues I had with the show that stopped it being super great, as opposed to just good to-very good.
SOUND ISSUES:
For the entire first half, the rythm guitars were highly burried - so much so that it was affecting a lot of audience participation I felt. It just didn't "sound" like a heavy concert should, save for the lead work that stuck out reasonably enough, as it always does at live events. And this isn't just my thoughts on the matter - other people, skilled musicians I had with me agreed. It was so burried that I suspect maybe Devin was actually deliberately going for that sound somehow, or perhaps something went wrong but - whatever it was, it didn't sound right or metal enough. So the first half whilst good and most spectacular musically, was often a bit burried beneath the usual (typical metal band sound) avalanche of bass and drums (as per a lot of metal/rock concerts).
Anyway, this was somewhat corrected and improved for the 2nd half - no doubt in part due to the fact I spoke to some of the guys on the boards and instructed them to inform the sound men of the issue, whereby it improved for the 2nd half. And it seemed as if they turned it up further towards the end - at which point by some of the last half dozen tracks, it was at a fairly acceptable, good level. And it sounded bloody good their.
The other major annoyance was that throughout a lot of it, especially the 2nd half.... the BACKING TRACKS almost VANISHED for a lot of the songs. On "Christeen" and "Supercrush!" and "Heatwave" amongst others for example, you could hear almost NOTHING of the backing tracks (which for huge tracks like Heatwave make up a lot of the entire essence!) and for ones like Supercrush.... almost total lack of Annekes vocals - bad move there. Still fun tracks but - not the quality you'd expect of Devin or The Royal Albert. Yet for some reason, backing tracks came out fine for other tracks like "Night" from memory so - I don't know what they were doing.
SETLIST ISSUES:
The choice of Setlist was in my view (and that of others) not that great, and perhaps the least great aspect of the show. So the idea of letting the majority fans choose the setlist for the 2nd half was a poor idea in my view - don't do that again is my thought DTP! Even Devin himself sounded a bit *nervously surprised* when he announced the fans choice of tracks for ones like "Funeral" - and not just because they were tracks he hadn't played for a while, but I'm fairly sure because he thought it was not an ideal or close to ideal setlist himself by his mild nervousness.
In short - , for the 2nd half their were far too many of the light/airy/poppy tracks, and then it went worse (from a setlist perspective) into all the quietest tracks off Ocean Machine... and had 3 or 4 of them in a sodding row. Not a good idea! 1 at most would have been sufficient.
You see... For a 2hour + set, there are countless great tracks that could have been done and sounded incredible in that venue with great sound done right - and instead he spent probably 40+ mins playing some of the corniest / quietest / slowests songs based around themes about death and depression and misery. Wonderful. What about tracks like... Mental Tan/Gaia. What about Sunshine and happiness. What about Triumph. What about Resolve! What about Universe in a Ball, What about sodding Woah No! or Socialisation or Ki for example. Those would have sounded immense - and seeing as they are rarely ever played it would have been the perfect venue. And other people agreed with me. I also think for the first half, he only needed to do half a dozen of the best Z2 tracks - not the entire album, which would have provided more time to perform best tracks from his entire catalogue.
Having said all that, that 2nd half and especially those last half dozen tracks where the rythm guitars really stood out properly, were probably some of the best performances you'll ever see of those particular tracks - and not just the guitars but the vocal performance and all. Deadhead, Funeral, Bastard & The Death of Music all probably get a 9.5/10 in that regard.
Devin did a little speech about how they all put in so much work and did a lot of practice - no doubt true... but get this.... I don't think the band need any more song practice as Musicians (maybe Devin himself but, not the band)....... RYAN VAN POODEROYN IS A SODDING ROBOT - LITERALLY. And they were all tight musicians. But the sound itself - almost every time I've been to see DTP over 3-4 years, there has been some sound issue or other. GETTING THE SODDING SOUND / MIX RIGHT, now that DOES *INDEED NEED A FAIR DEAL OF PRACTICE*. Not much the musicians.
So I'd like to see him back there or somewhere similar ASAP... and this time getting it much more right *SOUND-WISE*! So overall Good show, here's some ratings:
Sound Quality: 7.3 or 7.9/10 on Average..... Which increased to 8.9/10 best as Rythm guitars improved in second half, and sounded good on occasional songs where Backing Tracks weren't burried.
Choice of Setlist (Least Best Part): 7.0 or 7.8/10 tops.
Visuals/Atmosphere: 9.5/10 (best DTP show from this aspect for sure)
Band Performance/Musicianship: 9.5/10
Amongst his somewhat decreased and improved blabber, Devin did make one crucial and vital comment:
"From the bottom of my heart at the hallowed halls of the Royal Albert, I think we are the first act officially to have a farting ball-bag shriek across the stage." | |
| | | Gaia
Posts : 1016 Points : 1258 Join date : 2009-11-13
| Subject: Re: DTP Royal Albert Performance Review Wed Apr 15, 2015 7:06 pm | |
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| | | blastrealmz Admin
Posts : 294 Points : 359 Join date : 2009-10-29 Age : 47 Location : hyperspace
| Subject: Re: DTP Royal Albert Performance Review Sun Apr 19, 2015 2:26 pm | |
| I agree with the above ratings, that was dissected and broken down very well Gaia, and was cool to meet as well! The adventure over the last couple of weeks in the UK will always be a cherished top shelf memory, can't thank Mazta Ben and the family for the hospitality and amazing experiences enough, seriously!!!!!!!! Z2 in it's entirety would've been much more digestible had he worked some of the best tracks off the 1st Ziltoid and had ANNNNNNEKE there! WTF?!! As soon as I realized she wasn't there when Dev started singing her parts on "From Sleep Awake (Dominate, dominate, dominate...)" I felt let down a bit... Dominique was cool to see and did a great job performing and playing the dogging War Princess. He made no comment about Anneke and maybe it has to do with her being on the other past shows/dvds + her touring obligations with The Gentle Storm etc. She did have 2 days off on her schedule that I thought for certain was for the show... you can't please everyone I suppose, whatever the case was, that would've made the show soo much more epic! icing/splurmin on da cake!!! (gayyy fanboy!) haha Overall it was the most epic visual metal show I have seen hands down, the musicianship was fukn ace! I have to give props for a few of the "by request" tracks, Bastard has always been one of my favs. Here are some tracks I think that would've pushed it over the top - BY YOUR COMMAND!!! (DUUUH its not on any of the dvds and its the staple Ziltoid track!) Mountain off Terria, Fallout, Warrior, Rain City, and also agree GAIA would've been an ace selection(love playing along to that track!)... delete the fukn gay "Lucky Animals"(already on Retinal Circus twaat!) and Supercrush(NO ANNEKE NO FOOKIN SUPERCRRRRUSH!) shoulda/woulda/coulda... | |
| | | Bijimitsu Admin
Posts : 1255 Points : 1837 Join date : 2009-10-27 Age : 42 Location : Orbethian Architect - guitarist, drummer, keyboard slayer, bass slapper, vocalist, producer............... I am but a thought.................
| Subject: Re: DTP Royal Albert Performance Review Mon Apr 20, 2015 7:54 am | |
| Some good reviews ! Thanks for posting. Agreed for the most part. This is the first time I've seen DTP and am slightly glad Clif strong-armed me into going to see it !!!!!!! Overall It was, as Clif stated, the most over the top visual metal show I've ever seen. Like Disney meets Devin or something. Visually the show blew me away, as to be expected for a large production company. For the most part I'm sure all the die hard DTP fans had a very good time (being on the receiving end of Ziltoid puppet cannons and Poozer balloons etc) Personally I'm not massively into DTP and the 2.5 hour set did start feeling like too much towards the end and I began to switch off. The sound could have been improved at the start as the guitars weren't loud enough. This got better later on (this is coming from me who's half deaf in one ear). Agreed it would have been good to hear some of Z1 also and maybe some SYL!!!!!! Grrrrrrr Overall a good show i'd say with Devin doing what he does best and very well. Here's a good vid of the gear that he uses with his team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjBPYPIuvT8 - No wonder the production values are way up there! The Albert Hall is also an awesome venue and exceeded all of my expectations! Good to see Gaia there, sat down haha! It's a shame we all couldn't catch up for a bevvy afterward due to having to catch trains etc! \m/\m/ Now if only we could do this with Orbeth! | |
| | | Gaia
Posts : 1016 Points : 1258 Join date : 2009-11-13
| Subject: Re: DTP Royal Albert Performance Review Thu Apr 30, 2015 3:47 pm | |
| - blastrealmz wrote:
- I agree with the above ratings, that was dissected and broken down very well Gaia, and was cool to meet as well!
Thanks man, you 2! - blastrealmz wrote:
- Z2 in it's entirety would've been much more digestible had he worked some of the best tracks off the 1st Ziltoid and had ANNNNNNEKE there! WTF?!! As soon as I realized she wasn't there when Dev started singing her parts on "From Sleep Awake (Dominate, dominate, dominate...)" I felt let down a bit...
True. Perhaps she wants a break from attending his shows as she has been with him for most major UK shows for the last 2-3 years or so. Shame she couldn't have attended for that also. - Bijimitsu wrote:
- Agreed for the most part. This is the first time I've seen DTP and am slightly glad Clif strong-armed me into going to see it Wink!!!!!!!
Nicely worded sir. - Bijimitsu wrote:
- Overall It was, as Clif stated, the most over the top visual metal show I've ever seen. Like Disney meets Devin or something. Visually the show blew me away
Yes. In fact I am confident in saying that in this regard, it was more epic and over-the-top than most of the competition out their for all sorts of things, from Coldplay to Prodigy at massive sellout audiences like Download and Reading festival, or even Glastonbury. They can't match that visual assault from any angle to my knowledge, visually, thematically, or philosophically (if you are that way inclined to looking at it). They just don't have the noggin or interest for it. - Bijimitsu wrote:
- The Albert Hall is also an awesome venue and exceeded all of my expectations!
Indeed. - Bijimitsu wrote:
- Good to see Gaia there, sat down haha! It's a shame we all couldn't catch up for a bevvy afterward due to having to catch trains etc!
Yes, sat down at the heavy/extreme metal show with beer in hand, as many a fan. I did wonder how that would work but, it seemed to go well. People were positively jumping in their seats at various points. I caught glimpse of cliff going a bit nuts a few times, shaking his seat to the bones lol, he has good taste. I don't imagine they see that too often there but, it suited the DTP type of crowd fairly well I think. Argh! Next time it will be so for afters. | |
| | | Bijimitsu Admin
Posts : 1255 Points : 1837 Join date : 2009-10-27 Age : 42 Location : Orbethian Architect - guitarist, drummer, keyboard slayer, bass slapper, vocalist, producer............... I am but a thought.................
| Subject: Re: DTP Royal Albert Performance Review Wed Oct 28, 2015 6:12 pm | |
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