However Spock’s Beard envisaged their encore going, it probably wasn’t like this: They’re reaching the bit in “The Light” where Ryo Okumoto is about to do his solo: “Who’s ready for a party?” Ted Leonard had asked, and …..well, nothing. The power has gone. Spock’s Beard have been so good even the plug has exploded you might say.
Lesser bands would throw a strop. Not these lads. No rather, they just start up “Carry On My Wayward Son” – first acoustic then with more or less full power. Don’t you cry no more, indeed.
That incident in many ways sums Spock’s Beard up. To watch them is to watch a band who absolutely loves playing these songs. They never stop smiling throughout the two hours plus they are on stage. As it happens MV finds itself on Alan Morse’s side of the stage and to watch him is an education. The man might have the best guitar faces on the planet, never mind he can play like a God.
As for the music itself, well the end was the start, as it were. This show is a special celebration of what, as singer Ted Leonard describes, is the “three eras of Spock’s” (“They’re all the me era” he jokes). With “The Light” taking us right back to the beginning.
It’d started with “Tides Of Time” from their wonderful “The Oblivion Particle” record and never mind the wonderful, exemplary playing, this is not a clinical prog show. This is a band who is not just enjoying themselves- but crucially carrying the audience with them too.
But you cannot and must not ignore the sheer baffling wizardry that’s on show. “The Good Don’t Last” has a heavy breakdown before becoming light and airy almost, and it’s tempting to think of these as some kind of soundtrack to a film that’s playing somewhere just out of view. Certainly “Hiding Out” comes in with what amounts to an overture, while “On A Perfect Day” is almost the centrepiece of this. The way it swirls about like Pink Floyd is a joy to behold.
Yet, as much as it is possible to lose yourselves in this, every time you get carried off into a trance-like state, there’s something that comes along reminding you almost not to take it too seriously. Whether that’s Ted Leonard explaining that new drummer Mike Thorne is “kept in the dark for everyone’s benefit”, or just as you get sucked into Okumoto’s glorious organ in “Harm’s Way” the frontman doing what he terms “Japanese Karaoke”, it’s there and it reminds you that this is ultimately only rock n roll but they like it.
That they play for over two hours and only manage 11 songs is par for the Prog course, but it does mean two things. 1) “She is Everything” feels almost like a pop song, and 2) it only serves to make “Oh So Wise” even better.
The best of the lot, though, is the last song of the main set “Go The Way You Go”. It’s harmonies, it’s almost jazz jam, whatever it is, it’s a showstopper.
Which brings us back to the encore and where we came in. Power restored, Okumoto gets to do his Keytar solo and prove yet again that all keys men are actually just frustrated guitar players at heart.
More importantly, though, the show proves something else. And this holds true for every time you ever watch Spock’s Beard: they might go under the radar a little bit, but if there’s a better Prog Rock band around, then I’ve never seen them.
