LIVE MOMENTUM

Neal Morse is one of my favourite artists and he delivers so much with every album but his live albums seem to be the pinnacle of his craft. I ordered this one some years ago and it was a gift to me at the time. It is a massive package with 2 DVDs of awesome live material and the whole concert available as a 3 CD set to treasure.

It is a long concert of course but it features the very best of Morse up to that point in his career. Opening with a killer version of Momentum it is a promise of things to come. The musicianship is absolutely brilliant, Neal Morse on keyboards, guitar, Mike Portnoy on drums, Randy George on bass, Adson Sodr on guitar, Eric Gillette on guitar, keyboards, percussion, and Bill Hubauer on keyboards, violin, and sax. The concert was a New York night of nights of over 3 solid hours of prog excess.

There are some amazing treats to delight in such as Author Of Confusion with Gentle Giant like acapella on the live stage, and the Testimony Suite (Sleeping Jesus, Prince Of The Power Of The Air, The Promise, Wasted Life) is the very best of arguably the greatest Morse album.

Thoughts Part 5 never disappoints and the utterly brilliant The Conflict from Sola Scriptura is amazing. The Question Mark Suite (The Temple Of The Living God, Another World, Entrance, Inside His Presence) is of course a definitive highlight and the wonderful World Without End is unforgettable. A bit of fun can be had with Portnoy at his silliest on The Osmonds' Crazy Horses, perhaps best forgotten. But the concert culminates in a praise to God with the Christian inspired Sing It High and King Jesus. The DVD is well filmed and worth a look especially the behind the scenes tour vid bonus feature: A Long Strange Journey - Tour Documentary that has been edited By Randy George. Overall this is a masterful musical journey showing the greatness of Morse and his band, definitely worth checking out, and one of my favourite concert vids.