What a show! Holy crap was that good. Man, where do I start? It
looked like somewhere around 500 people packed the House of
Blues in Orlando (place was pretty full, don't know the
capacity) in anticipation of seeing a bunch of old geezers
playing some classic tunes. What they got instead was a very
tight band that sounded excellent.
Five of the six musicians took turns on lead vocals and all six
often sang at the same time, weaving some rich harmonies.
Everyone had their moment to shine, and shine they did. I was
completely blown away. This was one of my top 10 shows ever!
After an interesting instrumental song from the album A Valid
Path, the band busted into "Damned if I Do." I could feel
myself grinning like an idiot as one of my favorite TAPP songs
filled the room. That idiotic grin no doubt got bigger during
"Breakdown"/"The Raven." The band threw in some tributary
flourishes all night. There were guitar riffs borrowed from Led
Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and even Aldo Nova, and tastefully
dropped into established classics. They even gave one song the
"Let it Be" ending (not the na-na's, just the final few notes).
The band consisted of:
Alan Parsons - Guitars, keyboards, vocals
P.J. Olsson - Vocals
Godfrey Townsend - Guitars, vocals
Manny Focarazzio - Keyboards
Steve Murphy - Drums, vocals
John Montagna - Bass, vocals
Here's the setlist as close as I can remember it:
Return to Tunguska
Damned if I Do
Breakdown/The Raven
Don't Answer Me
I Robot
What Goes Up
The Traveller (Days are Numbers)
More Lost Without You
We Play the Game
Psychobabble
I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You
Time
Prime Time (w/ guitar/keyboard duel and extended jam)
Sirius/Eye in the Sky
Lucifer
Don't Let it Show
Old and Wise
Games People Play
I might be missing a song. The show lasted two hours with no
breaks. Nothing from Gaudi (would have loved "La Grada
Familia"), but we got TWO songs from Eve! Also nothing
from Stereotomy (but I felt that album was pretty subpar
anyway), Try Anything Once or On Air.
All in all a fantastic night. What's even better is that I got
my tickets on "Two for Tuesday," which gave me two tickets for
$28.35 ($19.50 plus a service charge of $8.85). Having no one to
go with, I sold the extra for $20 at the venue and bought a
shirt with the money!
