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Mostly Autumn - Live at the Grand Opera House CD (album) cover

LIVE AT THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE

Mostly Autumn

 

Prog Folk

4.25 | 24 ratings

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Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars

Pink Floyd with Folk Touch? It might well be!

Oh yeah .!!! As usual during weekend I listen to variety of music that are not necessarily prog ones. For this morning I started my day with two albums of Lucky Peterson and one one album of Johny "Guitar" Watson. Were you there in the 70s? If so, you might hear an R&B song that was popular at that time by Johny "Guitar" Watson called "Real Mother Ya"? Then I watched the Opeth "Lamentations" DVD and spun Jamiroquai "Emergency on Planet Earth". Ha? Jamiroquai? What's wrong with it? I love this first album of the R&B band. Progger is human being who needs to refresh his mind with any kind of music that can cheer the day. Well, that was a bit of background about what I was doing this morning. And now, I'm watching the DVD that I have purchased long long time ago but never got a proper time to enjoy it .Mostly Autumn "at The Grand Opera House". I think this is my third viewing since I bought it. The previous two viewings were not done in a proper way and by that time I was just so engaged in heavier side of prog: progressive metal.

To my surprise this DVD gives me a full pleasant viewing. First off, I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of the band and the reason I purchased this DVD from Amazon at that time was due to efficient shipping charges if I ordered about three titles. So this DVD was just a leftover, sorry.! I only got one album of the band from "For All We Shared" album which I already reviewed at this site sometime in 2004. So, practically all songs performed right here from their studio work were not that I'm familiar with already. But the band give me a very good impression about their music as well as their performance here at this DVD.

The performance was held at The Grand Opera House, New York, in front off sold-out crowd who waited to acclaim the returning heroes on a magical evening which featured the full majesty of an extended Mostly Autumn augmented by a string quartet, choir and multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley. The original band members include Heather Findlay (vocals), Bryan Josh (guitar, vocals), Liam Davison (guitar), Iain Jennings (keyboards), Jonathon Blackmore (drums), Andy Smith (bass) and Angela Goldthorpe (flute, keyboards).

The first three tracks: "Caught In A Fold", "The Dark Before The Dawn", and "Answer The Question" flow beautifully with excellent performance by the band members. Key attraction for these was the performance of Heather Findlay and the excellent flute player Angela Goldthorpe. Her maneuvers of flute work on top of Mostly Autumn dynamic arrangements are very significant in contributing to the overall live performance. Her style is not categorized under Thijs van Leer or even Ian Anderson. She is a class of her own. Bryan Josh whom by physical look is similar to your David Gilmour provides his stunning guitar solo in Floydian style. The next tracks also excellent ones.

One track that really blows me away is track no. 6 "Distant Train" - an instrumental one. The composition is very strong: stunning Bryan Josh Floydian guitar solo work with totally symphonic orchestra background music. Wow! It's so elevating and it makes your adrenalin runs faster than usual pace. I can see now that this band is one of excellent ones in prog movement. Not only that, the following track "The Gap is Too Wide" includes the choir performance that makes the song so grandiose. What I also like about the band is that they use acoustic instruments like mandolin, and acoustic guitar quite a lot. The music is somewhat floating like Pink Floyd with additional touch on acoustic plus string quartet.

The performance also includes a cover of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" and Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb". The Pink Floyd's cover has been extended at the last part that makes the song quite long.

Overall, this is an excellent addition to any prog music collection. For those who are longing for Pink Floyd concert might compare with this DVD even though this was set much simpler with lesser crowd. This DVD leads me to explore other studio albums from the band. Keep on proggin' ..!

"Losers let life happen to them - winners make it happen."

Gatot | 4/5 |

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