The concert began almost punctual with opening "Life Is A Long Song", which was interesting difference to me. It was splitted into two half (with interval), like in US last year - quite acoustic first (with Doane Perry playing small drum kit in front of the stage) and semi-electric second. I found it pretty strange. I think I prefer good mix of acoustic and electric pieces. Contrasts would make the gig more interesting to watch.
My main disappointment is the set list. Very uninspired, to say at least! It's the first time EVER when I didn't get a chance to listen to something exceptional, trust me! I have to admit I was bored sometimes... If you forget very frequently played "Budapest", the encore bits ("Protect Finale" & "Cheerio" performed for the 500th time), then you can notice that the most recent Tull song played was "Skating Away" from 1974! From the newer material we got some IA solo stuff - "Griminelli's Lament" and "Boris Dancing" with the button'n'vodka joke, again. The only song which I didn't hear live before was less than one minute long "Slipstream" with new acoustic guitar outro. No more rare stuff from the early years. Well, "Up To Me" and "Hymn 43" are great to hear live, I am still not bored with them, but can we call them "rare stuff", anymore? Just notice that I had a chance to hear the rare stuff every time, during every Tull show before. "Teacher", "To Cry You A Song", "Weathercock", "Acres Wild", "Someday The Sun Won't Shine For You", "Love Story", "Sweet Dream" and MANY more. Not this time, though! What the hell, what has happened? Shit...
They changed some bits, like bass solo in "Bouree" (very good new one!), added Martin's guitar solo in "Hymn 43" (I always thought that this remake needs more Martin!) and the song "Budapest" had more electric guitar playing than I heard before. But it was just a little too less to not being bitter in this case... I am glad they played the whole "Aqualung" album live, for the first time ever in the UK. I find it OK as it's already 35th Anniversary of the record release and they have "Aqualung Live" CD to promote. During previous 7 Tull gigs which I attended, they always played some newer stuff here and there, between the "old shit" (Ian's words!). "Dangerous Veils", "Awol", "Hunt By Numbers", "Roots To Branches", "Dot Com", "We Five Kings", "This Is Not Love" are just a few tracks amongst big catalogue of more recent stuff which I used to hear live, over the years, since my very first Tull live adventure in memorable summer of 1997. I feel big connection with post-1995 era, as it's time when I was already Tull fan. So you can imagine what I exactly felt in the Usher Hall... You know what I mean? They looked like living IN the past, not living WITH the past. It has been also the first time when Martin Barre didn't play his own instrumental (for me, anyway). If you compare the Edinburgh set list to Perth one from two days before, you can see that "Morris Minus" has been replaced by... "Moz' Art Medley", which in my opinion is not the best choice for Tull gig. Damn it!
I liked "the special integrated guest", 22-year old violinist Lucia Micarelli (my peer!). She looked good even in that horrible pink dress! I am not going to write more about her look as I know that James Duncan used to log on here, from time to time
No doubt, she's very talented. Her contributions to tracks like "Griminelli's Lament", "Wond'ring Aloud" (touching highlight!) and "Budapest" were really superb and added some fresh air to the stuff. I didn't feel she is overexposed during the Tull/IA songs. Sometimes you even could forget that she's playing ("Mother Goose", "Locomotive Breath"). So surely Tull playing the Tull/IA stuff with Lucia Micarelli is a good change, I think! But then I find strange listening to her solo stuff during Tull part, with Tullies leaving stage again and yet again - it would be better to listen to her very decent tracks (I have to admit!) during regular support part, definitely! I think it's reason of some audience members' reactions, which Stuart already mentioned. "Kashmir" could be exception, as it sounded pretty tullish, really great... It didn't sound "out of the place", as "Aurora", "Nocturne/Bohemians Rhapsody", "She Is Like The Swallow". Fortunately, Lucia's stuff didn't mean less Tull material. We got circa 20 Tull/IA tunes, as usual. I just didn't like idea of putting the violin solo stuff into Tull part. My pre-show fears turned to be true. I don't know, maybe I am just bit too conservative?On the positive side, these guys ROCKED during the second half! OK, they did few spectacular mistakes (see Stuart's review for more details), but who cares
They looked inspired. Ian was quite chatty and made some goods jokes about Cliff Richard's 5/4 dancing to "Living In The Past", the glockenspiel (used on "Slipstream") and Sibelious' creative toilet adventures But the most of jokes were the old ones, repeated over and over again. Old man syndrome?The fluted guy was more animated than during last three times when I've seen him (I mean during the second part, of course). He was kind enough to change pair of his trousers, but other clothes were the same as in Lithuania, in March 2005. I enjoyed "Ian's solo" version of "Living In The Past" with harmonica intro, this time played by Tull
IA made a fantastic flute solo in the finale. Jonathan Noyce seemed to be more in background than usual, maybe because of the stage's large size, maybe because of Lucia. James Duncan made some good lightnings and sound was OK. The Usher Hall reminded me of Warsaw' Congress Hall - it looked quite similar (ornamental!) and capacity is pretty same. The crowd made standing ovations at the end. Very good atmosphere on that evening. There was some (locally) well-known Scottish Parliament member from Conservatives in the audience. I got two black t-shirts, worth Ł15 each - with new colorful 'celtic' Tull logo and IA standing on one leg signature & three flutes.After the concert I had another chance to meet the band, close to back doors of the venue. I mentioned need of the new Tull album while talking to the Doanster guy, but he didn't say anything - which could be quite meaningful... I told Ian about my visiting the Ianesque Trails in Edinburgh and he seemed happy with that and even asked where I am from
Only Mr. Bald didn't come to us.I enjoyed Tull chat with some fans before and after the gig, especially with Michael from Germany, who's planning to see all 19 dates of the UK tour. What a crazy bastard!
Summary: the show was bit STRANGE. It wasn't entirely bad, I am glad they're still touring and rocking, but the set list was a big disappointment and I didn't like this format too much. Maybe it's yet another sign that it's really time to go to studio.
Please take a look at this Edinburgh Evening News review of that night: http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=319202006
It may sound bizarre, but the concert wasn't highlight of my Edinburgh visit. The Ianesque Places were a bigger treat. I hope you will read my special article dedicated to them, soon! As for now, it's available on the official Tull webboard only...
All the best from Poland,
Lukas Was
Ps. I've seen Lucia and James outside the venue, five hours before show. I found it strange that Lucia wasn't barefoot...
I don't think I got it all wrong - just got it on my own subjective way