Tull with Lucia Micarelli Oct 7th 2005

[Adam]

Jethro Tull and Lucia Micarelli at the Fox Theatre in the Foxwoods Casino, Ledyard CT Oct. 7, 2005
I feel that this forum needs a review of this year’s North American tour from a real Tull fan so here it is.
A little about myself first, I’m 21 years old and have been a Tull fan for about 10 years and I’ve been to 5 Tull concerts, this was my first concert since ’03 another reason for me to be really excited about this one. My father has been a fan since 1971 and he has been to 30+ shows starting in ’75, I also went with my brother he is 17 and plays bass guitar and had just seen Paul McCartney at Madison Square Garden a week before. Ok now some comments on the set list, I forgot my pen and didn’t write it down but it was very much like the set played in Toronto, with a few changes, the list below is the best that I can remember, so there may be a few errors.

Life’s a Long Song
Skating Away
Slipstream
Beggar’s Farm
Weathercock
Up To Me
Griminelli’s Lament*
Godfather Theme**
Wond’ring Aloud*
Cheap Day Return*
Mother Goose*
Bouree*

Intermission

Nocturne/Bohemian Rhapsody**
Kashmir**
She is Like the Swallow**
Cross Eyed Mary
In the Grip of Stronger Stuff
Hymn 43
Flying Dutchman intro/My God
Budapest*
Aqualung

Encore

Locomotive Breath*
Protect and Survive*
Cheerio

Like I said the order of a few of those may be incorrect but that is as best as I can remember, and * means that Lucia played with the band ** means that she lead the band.

Song by song reviews
Life’s a Long Song- this was a great way to start the show the stage was all black and some one walked out to the middle of the stage, it was Ian with his guitar, without saying anything he started playing the opening chords. Then as the song progressed, each band member came out separately when it was their time to join in the song, first Andy then Doane, then Martin and finally Jonathan. This was cool because it gave every band member a chance to get their own ovation at the start of the show. And it is a great song.

Skating Away – This is one that I’ve never seen live before so it was a treat nothing extraordinary musically but it was good

Slipstream – Another new one for me and for the band too. It was at this point that Ian announced they would be highlighting the Aqualung album. Ian called it this a “suicidal attempt” at slipstream, it did sound a little off but it was interesting none the less.

Beggar’s Farm – This was the first really good song of the show, Martin was great on this song and the bluesy flute part in the middle of the song sounded great, this was the first song that the crowd really got into, and again it was another new one for me.

Weathercock – I believe this was played in the Christmas Album arrangement, never one of my favorites, Martin played mandolin and it seemed like it was a little too loud and kind of overpowered the other instruments and Ian’s vocals.

Up To Me – This was a really good song featuring Doane on a small drum set that they had in the front of the stage which he used on many of the lighter songs that Tull played during this half of the show. Ian started the song with the laugh part and a joke about how they would be laughing if Doane messed up the drumming on the song, but he sounded fine to me.

Griminelli’s Lament – This song provided the introduction of Lucia Micarelli and by the time the song was over I knew that the show was going to be something special. She is an amazing violinist, and that is coming from some one who isn’t really a fan of violin music, and she is pretty good looking too.

Godfather Theme – This was a good little song featuring Martin and Lucia, Ian pretty much stayed out of the spotlight for a good part of this one.

Wond’ring Aloud – I’ve always been a fan of the Aqualung album not for the heavy songs that non Tull fans like (Aqualung, Cross-eyed Mary, Locomotive Breath) but for the completeness of the album and the way that the heavy songs are balanced by the short acoustic pieces and Wond’ring Aloud is one of those great acoustic songs so hearing this one was a treat.

Cheap Day Return – Another of the light pieces from Aqualung that was really nice with the live violin it sounded just like the performance on the Living With the Past album, with the additional bass of course.

Mother Goose - This was the second highlight of the opening half of the show it started out sounding just like the album version and then went into a really cool jam in the middle that featured Jon’s bass solo for the night, it was really impressive, it was my brother’s favorite song of the night and it was one of my top 5.

Bouree – This was same version of the song that is on the Christmas album so it was a little disappointing, no bass solo, but this one was really well played and a pretty good way to end the first half of the show.

First half impressions – It quickly became apparent that the band sounded great, everybody was on form Ian’s flute play was amazing although his voice was a little strained as it normally is when they play back to back nights. Martin was a little overshadowed in the first half of the show because of all the lighter songs and all of the violin. Doane spent a lot of time down in the front of the stage on this little drum kit too so there wasn’t much earth shaking drumming in the first part of the show either.

Nocturne/Bohemian Rhapsody – this started with just Lucia and Andy on stage playing nocturne a nice classical piece and then the rest of the band came out and they jumped right into the middle of Rhapsody, this really rocked no Ian didn’t sing but he used his flute to play the vocal line the song finished by them switching back to the end of nocturne.

Kashmir – Definitely a high point of the show, this was Lucia’s arrangement of Kashmir and seeing her sawing away on the opening part of the song was amazing. Now I’ve never really liked Zeppelin so my next statement may be a little biased but I would say Tull and Lucia played a better version of this song than Zeppelin ever did, it was absolutely amazing. The whole theatre was rocking for this song and it received a standing ovation. Once again no one sang but the violin and flute covered the vocal line with the rest of the band playing the song Martin, Jon, and Doane all really sounded great on this one.

She is Like the Swallow – This one was nice mainly just Lucia, Ian and Andy on this one a nice little melody to calm things down after Kashmir.

Cross-eyed Mary – It was good but you hear it every year. Really nice flute play in this one though.

In the Grip of Stronger Stuff – I’ve always liked this song a great flute piece Ian really nailed it.

Hymn 43 - Now this one was strange. The song started off completely reworked into a really folky, Irish sound with Martin on mandolin again. It sounded really fresh and interesting the crowd kind of grumbled though, expecting the hard rocking version but after about 2 or 3 minutes of the folk sound Tull switched it over and played the rocking version this was a cool song.

Flying Dutchman/My God – With stormwatch not being one of my favorite albums it took me a few seconds to recognize what Andy was playing he only played about 1 minute of Flying Dutchman then they cut to Ian with his guitar for the opening of My God. This is my favorite song off Aqualung and it is always a highlight at a Tull concert, and once again, they did it really well.

Budapest – This has always been one of my favorite Tull songs to hear live, Lucia played but didn’t really add much to this one. They did play a great jam at the end of the song another impressive song as always.

Aqualung – not much to say here, Martin really had his time to shine on this one as always that solo never gets old.

Locomotive Breath – the classic encore song, Ian was amazing on the flute again.

Second half impressions – as you can see from the set list the second half of this show was much heavier than the first half, which isn’t a bad thing. We are used to seeing Ian take a classical instrument and play rock music with it but seeing someone play hard rock on a violin was really crazy. The highlights of the second half were My God, Hymn 43 and Budapest.

Final notes – ok I don’ know if I can call this the best Tull show I’ve ever been too but it was really good. Now one thing I didn’t like was the fact that they didn’t play any of the hit songs from the mid seventies, minstrel, songs from the wood, heavy horses, that kind of stuff because they focused so much on Aqualung, and playing 4 songs that aren’t Tull songs. Now that being said what they played was played very well and the fact that I heard so many songs that I’ve never heard live before I really thought that this show was something special. I really feel sad for all of the European Tull fans who are going to be missing Lucia, she is amazing and really added a whole new dimension to the performance. You could really tell that they were having fun together Lucia looked like she was really into playing the stuff and she really seemed to be enjoying herself. Ian was joking as usual and the band looked really comfortable. For a final grade out of 100 I would give this show a 93 it was really something special. Laufi if you could ever get your hands on some video from this tour you would really be doing European fans a great service.

[Whistling Catfish]

Hi,

thanks a lot for this excellent review. I wish I was there!

Unfortunately you are right and it is very unlikely that we european fans get the chance to hear something similar over here hence Lucia will not come over with the boys. But anyway, I think we all will get some special treats from Mr. Anderson and the boys in the years to come since he seems to enjoy all these different approaches (orchestral shows / musical guests and now these "cover" songs) to his music in the most recent time.

Regards,
J.

[Laufi]

Hi:

Adam, thanks a lot for this fine review! Good to hear that you had a good time
As for the video: if anyone knows about one, please let me know ....

cheers,

Laufi

[CaptainFalcon]

I'm really curious about that version of Kashmir. I always liked that song and as described above this version really seems to rock!