Just as a good burger with all the trimmings never becomes haute cuisine, American group Spock's Beard uses many ingredients from the heyday of symphonic rock without approaching the mystical or profound side of groups like Yes or King Crimson. They often get stuck too much in musical powerhouse and thus come closest to the powerprog of supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer. No wonder their frontman
… Neal Morse once left them after receiving a religious revelation. This DVD, which was recorded in the Zoetermeer prog temple De Boerderij, mercilessly exposes the above. It is an excellent reflection of this group, which after the departure of Morse is mainly led by drummer, guitarist, keyboardist and singer Nick D'Virgilio. We see him running around between his instruments, for example to start a drum duel with second drummer Jimmy Keegan, who in turn crowdsurfs (!) when he doesn't have to play for a while. The virtuoso Japanese keyboardist Ryo Okumoto is also a real crowd pleaser with his hard rock motor skills, but his piano solo in Hereafter lacks any form of layering. Virtuoso band, great compositions and arrangements, but it doesn't get any more than 'cozy'. (MR)more
