Post Description

Level 42 at the Hague Jazz

AUD www.zoishethelemaal.nl

1CDR
 
01. Foundation & Empire
02. A Physical Presence
03. A Floating Life
04. True Believers
05. Kansas City Milkman
06. Hot Water
07. Love Games
08. Love Meeting Love
09. Starchild
10. Something About You
11. Lessons in Love
12. The Chinese Way


Location:
World Forum Convention Center, the Hague, the Netherlands
Date:
2008-05-24
Lineage:
SP-CMC-2 (AT831) cardioids mics-->SP-SPSB-6-C -->Sony MZ-N707 MD rec.-->Audition 2.0 -->CD wav


Right from the start there were things going wrong:
- Mike couldn't get his mike (...) right. It gave a high squeaky pitch every now and then until halfway the gig
- Roadies had to swap a mike at Billy's rig while playing
- Sean didn't look too happy, his sound did not come forward in the mix too well.
- Roadie fiddled with Mark's monitors all the way through the gig
The band had some cockups previously with the sequencer, but that was, as far as I can recall, only on one song in a gig. Not tonight....
But here's where their craftsmanship comes in! Where other bands surely would have stopped a song and started over, not Level 42! So here's a big cheers to the guys, well saved lads!
The sequencing went all wrong in several songs, amongst which Hot Water and Lessons in Love... and in several other songs they skipped some counts to get into the sequence again. Mike was looking annoyed, and Mark looked past annoyed, looked like he'd accepted they'd never got things right again. For the encore (TCW), Mark started off with a small bass solo where Billy could pick up, so at least that one went well...
At the end, Mark apologized and thanked the audience for their patience. And Billy Cobham even grabbed the microphone, saying "it was a war up here!". 
Billy Cobham's drumming was impressive, but it was all too clear that he hadn't practiced the songs very often. Billy did a 1-2-3-4 countdown for Hot Water, but that didn't prevent them getting off-sequence. Nathan gave a hand signal every now and then, to point out to Billy a break was coming up. And during Lessons in Love, Mark even put the entire band to a stop, until the point where you could only hear the sequencer so he could pick up again and the band with him - impressive though, (review Robert)
(concert fits one 80 min CD with overburn)