So I saw Marillion at the Fillmore last night, and despite my doubts, I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
The band used an unusual formula: the show was split in two parts and the first part was entirely dedicated to the new material. They played pretty much the entire Marbles album except for a couple of songs which they saved for the encores. The second part featured some of their standard live songs and unfortunately, they didn’t play any Fish-era songs at all.
I can understand this decision (after all, Fish was only with Marillion for a few years and that was more than fifteen years ago), but there is no doubt that quite a few of the fans present last night would have loved to hear some Fish material. And after all, even Genesis was still covering some Peter Gabriel oldies in their last tours, so this is not unheard of in the prog circles.
The part I liked most was in the encores (there were two). After the first song, Steve Hogarth took he microphone and said:
“We were chatting in the dressing room and we couldn’t decide which song we were going to play now… Afraid of Sunlight, or The Great Escape”
Of course, the crowd was quick to indicate its preference vociferously and Steve teased us for a little while, switching from one to the other and back. Finally, he shrugged and said:
“Okay, fine. Both.”
The audience went berserk at this point, as you can imagine, and I happily joined in the screaming, as these two songs are definitely some of my favorites. Then he turned to Steven Rothery and asked him:
“What guitar are you using right now?”
Rothery mouthed “A-O-S”, Steve acknowledged and then, Marc Kelly started playing the hypnotic first bars of Afraid of Sunlight… Drive the road… to your surrender…
The Great Escape is always spectacular on stage, especially when Steve’s voice is up to it, and he fully delivered last night. Finally, the band closed the last encore with Easter, which Steve described as “one of the very first songs we wrote together, when I showed up circa 1989”.
A fitting closing act for a fine performance of progressive rock delight.
#1 by Brian Sletten on September 29, 2004 - 9:41 am
Heh, always great to see fellow Marillion fans out there. I was going to catch the show in D.C. next week but I can’t because I’m going to be out of town. I like Hoagie, but hearing that they didn’t do *ANY* Fish-era tunes makes me feel better about missing it! 🙂
#2 by Joe Shelby on September 29, 2004 - 11:04 am
(btw, I’m a friend of Brian Sletten above)
The lack of Fish-era tracks is actually fairly common nowadays, particularly on tours promoting new albums. They bring out the old stuff on special events like the fanclub conventions, the accoustic rare shows (like the Bass Museum DVD), and tours “in between” album promotional tours. Two of the last three major live releases have had only “new” stuff (Christmas in the Chapel DVD and Anorak in the UK double-live cd).
My issue wouldn’t so much be missing Fish-era stuff, its that they’ve released *4* albums since their last tour here (for Strange Engine), and already have retired much from 2 of them. Now it looks like they’ve thought of that, as the set list for Mexico shows that they’re doing 3 Minute Boy and Rich, so they’re at least somewhat represented.
However, this is definitely a promotional tour to sell copies of the new album, not a hits and misses tour for a country that hasn’t seen them in 7 years…
#3 by Hugo Pinto on September 30, 2004 - 5:30 am
Did they play Between you and me? Boy, do I love that song.
Cheers,
Hugo
#4 by Brian on September 30, 2004 - 4:47 pm
I was also at the Fillmore show, and since it has been roughly 13 years since I had seen them (Brave tour at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge, England, which was actually quite similar to the Fillmore), it was quite a treat to see them again! I was actually close enough to the stage to read Pete’s setlist, so I was a bit surprised when they didn’t start the encores with Afraid of Sunlight (as it was listed on the setlist)but very pleased with the reason for the change! The Great Escape was done with all of the heart that H could have put into it and it was quite enjoyable to listen to!
And, yes, they DID play Between You and Me!
As for them not playing Fish era songs, I was kind of glad for the decision as I feel, with a few exceptions, that H doesn’t do them the justice that Fish did. And with the large selection of H era albums that they now have to draw on, they can keep to the music that H can sing with the heart and feeling that I have come to expect from him. Besides, if you want to hear Fish era songs, go see Fish live! He’s still around and still recording! Now if HE would only come to SF!
Brian