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Post by Lawrie on Mar 24, 2009 12:52:04 GMT
Albeit I would happily reintroduce any 2 out of Nimos/Apprentice/In Aurelia/Borgens (or some untested live ones like Bloodless/Goshens) to replace Voices In Winter/In The Realms Of The Divine if I were an evil puppeteer in control of PRR's marionette strings...  |
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Post by AlExMachina on Mar 24, 2009 15:30:27 GMT
Albeit I would happily reintroduce any 2 out of Nimos/Apprentice/In Aurelia/Borgens (or some untested live ones like Bloodless/Goshens) to replace Voices In Winter/In The Realms Of The Divine if I were an evil puppeteer in control of PRR's marionette strings... I think I've actually written this about 3 times as well! It has two really cool moments (the sampled drum intro and the beautiful swooning violin in transfer between the two songs) but any two of those songs would be loads better. |
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Post by guziec on Mar 24, 2009 16:13:52 GMT
Not Borgens, please. I don't like it. I don't "dislike" it, but I don't "like" it, if you know what I mean. At some point in the future, they are going to have to drop even Ambassadors to be able to play a new stuff. I don't think it's gonna be easy though. Steven Wilson still has to put up with Radioactive Toy requests on the shows (it must be annoying  Don't get me wrong, I bloody love Ambassadors and I hope they are going to play it as long as they can, but it's unavoidable. Right now, I would gladly drop VIW/ITROTD and replace it with my favourite Apprentice and one of the new songs. |
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Post by blondeambassador on Mar 24, 2009 17:04:07 GMT
I doubt it...I think it may be one of those that will live on in the sets...loads of bands have songs that no matter what they do, they just can't drop their most popular tracks and I think for PRR, Ambassadors is pretty much there to stay.
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Post by jemi on Mar 24, 2009 17:08:12 GMT
Additionally, I know this is very much an opinionated contribution, but I see Ambassadors as the "epitome" (using the word loosely) of their music. If PRR were to summarise themselves in a song, I think that Ambassadors is the one that defines them. I think for that reason, I agree with BA that it'll be around for a looooooong time. guziec is a bit of a freak for not liking Borgens though |
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Post by guziec on Mar 24, 2009 17:17:32 GMT
I doubt it...I think it may be one of those that will live on in the sets...loads of bands have songs that no matter what they do, they just can't drop their most popular tracks and I think for PRR, Ambassadors is pretty much there to stay. I hope you are right. This juicy hard part starting from 8:20 is an absolute killer and, next to DEM, a highlight of every show. guziec is a bit of a freak for not liking Borgens though It's just not as jaw-dropping as all the others, that's it. I don't skip in when I hear it, but I don't loop it either  |
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Post by jamesa on Mar 24, 2009 17:25:26 GMT
At the Nottingham gig on Opeth's last tour there was a girl shouting out between every track for a song which they never play - she ended up shouting 'I want you to play [song title]'. Now, their lead singer has a very dry (and funny) sense of humour, and he looks in her direction and says 'I want you to shut the f*** up, bitch' ;D It's a good way to deal with unwanted requests.
But bands do move on, and have to move on, and I am old enough to have followed some bands long enough to see their setlist completely change - even 'classics' get dropped in time. And Metallica have spoken before about leaving out Enter Sandman - I think they may even have done so for a few gigs recently over in the US.
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Post by the dark fourth on Mar 24, 2009 17:26:35 GMT
Additionally, I know this is very much an opinionated contribution, but I see Ambassadors as the "epitome" (using the word loosely) of their music. If PRR were to summarise themselves in a song, I think that Ambassadors is the one that defines them. I stongly disagree. I see Ambassadors as one extreem of PRR, with, say, Deus at the other extreme. I think somthing like Apogee or Bullitts, to take some random examples, would be a better overall definition. I know my dislike of Ambassadors (though let me be clear: it's only a LIVE SHOW dislike) is only a matter of opinion. And I totally respect other people enjoying it. For me it just lacks the necessary energy for a compelling live performance, unlike something like Enter Sandman, which is a genuinely cool live song (but point taken about it being the famous single). |
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Post by blondeambassador on Mar 24, 2009 17:36:05 GMT
But seriously, I've been to 4 shows on this tour sofar and at every single one, when they head off into Ambassadors, there are at least one or two people who make a special cheer...Personally, I've said before, I can find myself a little bored of it but thats my own silly fault for going to so many gigs and TDF, I think your problem with it may be similar, as we've both heard it live so many times. However, there are plenty of people who haven't.
I'm not sure I'd say PRR could possibly be defined by one track as a whole but it is, without a doubt, THE defining track of The Dark Third and therefore, unless there comes a day when they drop every single track from that album (which, of course, I never see happening) it won't go anywhere as I strongly sense it would be the last to go.
And one more thing, on a slightly different note...I just CANT get my head around this universal Bullits obsession...its a good song, of course, but its no better than most of their other stuff...I just don't really understand the obsession so many people seem to have with it...is it because they haven't played it live or something?
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Post by the dark fourth on Mar 24, 2009 17:45:59 GMT
Yeah I think it's like buying booze when you're under age. It seems special because it's forbidden. But once you're the right age it's just normal. So until they play Bullitts live, it'll seem like a special thing we're missing out on. Though it is a REALLY good song. One of the best from TDT, and so it's just weird that it's never played.
Btw, I meant to comment on the interesting thing nekroman mentioned about the backing track, or its lack. I asked Chloe at the end of the Berlin gig and she said that they still have a very little bit on the backing track, but they did "as much as humanly possible" manually, including Chloe's little midi keyboard which triggers the weird samples they need. On the machine beneath the laptop was a screen which said "Bristol" and then a timer which started at the beginning when Jon pressed a button. I assumed this was a backing track...
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Post by Lawrie on Mar 24, 2009 17:57:50 GMT
And one more thing, on a slightly different note...I just CANT get my head around this universal Bullits obsession...its a good song, of course, but its no better than most of their other stuff...I just don't really understand the obsession so many people seem to have with it...is it because they haven't played it live or something? Yep, like TDF said, a lot of it is due to it never EVER getting played before... for reasons that I have to say I can't really fathom: it doesn't seem to me that it's any more layered or difficult to play than many of the other tracks which regularly make their sets. Anyone who knows better, please tell me (genuinely interested to hear it), but I've never seen why the band couldn't play it if they wanted to. As well as that, I genuinely think it's one of the better numbers on TDT, certainly a *much* better song than Aeropause and Voices In Winter (IMO), which have both had extended periods in the setlists over the years. And while people's opinion on how much they like Bullitts and whether they prefer it to song X or song Y on TDT will obviously vary from person to person, I bet that if it was possible to ask all PRR fans across the board [afterthought - i.e. everywhere, not these forums!], Bullitts would probably rank pretty high in a consensus list of PRR's best tracks: I know 2 people (not on this forum) for whom Bullitts is categorically their favourite PRR song, and lots of people seem to really like it even if it isn't their absolute favourite. Anyway, screw Bullitts, I want to know why my own personal preferences of Goshens and HTTSTM! never get a look-in...  |
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Post by blondeambassador on Mar 24, 2009 18:05:11 GMT
I reckon I can take a guess as to why you won't hear it now. They're trying to phase out backing track as much as possible and lets face it, just for the violin part which is dominant throughout the track they'd be heavily reliant on the backing, something they don't want to do now.
As to why they didn't play it back in the days when they had live violin, who knows, but I'm getting to the point where I'd wish people would stop shouting it at gigs, as it's basically not likely to happen...people can't have it all ways, they can't whinge about the use of backing track and then want the band to play tracks which use instruments they no longer have live!
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Post by Lawrie on Mar 24, 2009 18:09:10 GMT
Fair point, but I don't see that the violin parts in it are any less prominent than in VIW. Not sure how it works out on the technical side of things, but just to the unscientific test of my ears, it's a toss up as to which track has more violin?
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Post by blondeambassador on Mar 24, 2009 18:12:06 GMT
It's not that. It's that, like I said, they're trying to cut back on it, so the last thing they want to be doing is having to make more backing tracks at this stage. I could, of course, be talking trash, but I just don't think going into the studio with a session musician to make backing tracks would be something PRR would fancy doing at the moment when they're trying to create this more 'live' feeling in the set.
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Post by Lawrie on Mar 24, 2009 18:13:39 GMT
So drop VIW, get Nimos and Apprentice/In Aurelia in: sorted! ;D |
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