I rode the dragon's wing!

For you Rochesterians who missed out (and you know who you are!) on the Asia show at the Water Street Music Hall, you totally missed out! They played at Avalon last night, and totally rocked, a bunch of progrock fogeys having a terrific time. Here's my review:

Walking past Avalon on my way to meet my friend Blake, I notice that there's a growing line of older, balding, fat, geeky looking men (and a middle-aged woman) streaming out of the club door. Oh my god, I think to myself, this could end up being an absolutely horrific experience. At the very least, though, it will be interesting!

Arriving at Avalon laer on with Blake, we see that the male/female ratio at the show is something like 4 to 1. The over-30/under-30 ratio is probably like 9 to1, with the 1 being a Berklee guitar student who wants to take a gander at Legendary Guitar God Steve Howe. Finding myself among a crowd as different from me as when I saw Helmet at Axis, I giggle a little and start wondering if this is going to be disastrous show.

Prog-pomp classical music belts out of the speakers. Literally, seeing as how the tune is "Pomp and Circumstance" by Elgar. It's good to see these guys have a sense of humor (it's generally true that the older prog musicians get, the more they understand how pompous a lot of their music is. But they still revel in it). The band gets on stage to cheers and applause - Steve Howe as rail thin and ugly as ever, sporting a very 70s flowery shirt, John Wetton fat and drunk looking, Carl Palmer in amazingly good shape for his age (I guess that probaby goes with drumming), and Geoff Downes looking like he never left the 80s. John Wetton wore a shirt that read "ALEA JACTA EST," which upon investigation I found to mean "the die is cast," as said by Julius Caesar at some point in his career.

The first song begins - I'd been guessing with Blake what would be the opener, we were both wrong - and I can't remember what it is, but it sounds familiar. It turns out that it's one of my favorite tunes from their first album that I've totally forgotten about, "Time and Time Again." The mix is really bass and drum heavy, the guitars get a bit louder, but the keys are lost in the mix unless it's a solo (the mix was fixed later on, not perfectly, but good enough).

They were all rocking, and it was pretty fantastic. John Wetton played like a bass ace who'd had one drink too many. Carl Palmer was crazy on the drums. Steve Howe made his funny faces during his guitar solos. They were all a bit rusty and having a good time of it.

They played every single song off of their debut, and just a couple from their second album. During "Sole Survivor," John Wetton kept on raising his index finger in the air as if to indicate, "Just one, single, sole survivor," in case we were confused about that. It was pretty funny. One of the tunes they played, "Cutting It Fine," I had again totally forgotten about, and it totally rocked. So many arpeggios and riffs to fit into a 4 to 5 minute tune!

And then there were the non-Asia tunes they played. "Roundabout" was a predictable choice, and they did an OK job with it. Steve Howe got 2 old tunes to play, as he did "The Clap," also, which of course everyone clapped along to. Carl Palmer's tune was "Fanfare for the Common Man," which made for a surprisingly entertaining prog-jam. It really rocked. John Wetton's bass shook the place. In a strange move, they played "In the Court of the Crimson King," which is a huge mystery since Wetton didn't even play on that; Greg Lake did. Who knows? The 80s Moment of Zen came when the band played "Video Killed the Radio Star," which was a surprise, though I guess it shouldn't have been. It was one of those audience bonding moments. Good Times. John Wetton sang through a megaphone, and Geoff Downes brought out his Synthaxe. Brought the house down. They hadn't had this good a time since 1982.

Not surprisingly, they ended with "Heat of the Moment," which the crowd of course went totally nuts for. The concert was well worth the money, and my only regret is that I wasn't able to meet up with John Wetton for a pint after the show. He seemed half in the bag already.