The Neal Morse Band / Morsefest 2017 - Testimony of a Dream......

[LarryD]

I could just write - " I am stunned by the quality of this show " and leave it at that and let the people know who have already own or seen this and show how lame I am for passing this by when it came out .......

So I already had the " Live in Tilburg 2017 " Similitude show, which is one of the best I've seen to date emotionally speaking ....... I can't count the number of times I yelled over to my wife - " this is freaking awesome " or " you gotta see this " ....... she finally said we would watch it together .......in the meantime, this one showed up from The Lasers Edge (great price btw if you're looking for it) and there are two shows ..... one is the Testimony II show, and the other is another Similitude show ......I played about 15 of the Testimony show and switched over to the Similitude show ...... I am just stunned at how good this is. I want to say that the live blurays of Neal Morse go over better with me than the CDs do, but so far I've loved what I heard on CD - seeing it translated live just makes it better imo.

The audio / video quality of these blurays is stunning ...... I keep thinking back to the Rush / Clockwork Angels bluray in which the audio is absolutely horrible for a band with so many $$$$$$ to spend on it ... and here is Neal Morse with TWO shows on one bluray and both audio and video blow the Rush bluray away in every category.....it just boggles my mind.......

I have to give a shout out to the band - who, imo, is like the prog rock version of Dream Theater ...... but especially Eric Gillette - guitarist extraordinaire and singer in the band - pure class, and more than a passing similarity to John Petrucci's style of playing ........I think I have found new musical heroes ..... and also I'm getting such a newfound respect for Neal Morse than ever before ..... also give me something to focus on in the music world, discovering this guy in depth and thinking that this may be the spot I am in musically .......

[LarryD]

My wife and I watched this all the way through last night - just the Similitude part. After we picked up our jaws from the floor, we determined that it was better than a Dream Theater show ......we could not believe the intensity and emotion that comes off of this show .......even Mike Portnoy seems to be completely happy being where he is at and fits in perfectly.....

Just a fabulous show ..... the audio / video quality is 10 / 10 ...... I can't remember a previous bluray show in recent memory that sounded like this one ......Portnoy's drums sound much better here than on any DT show or disc .....

My take away from this show is that Neal Morse is the ultimate performer - regardless what you think of the lyrics, and that Eric Gillette is pure class on the guitar and vocals......those two guys are stunning performers...... I haven't even watched the Testimony II show yet, but that's coming .......I do believe that after an A / B comparison this show is even better in audio / video quality than the Live in Tilburg show ......

This band rivals Dream Theater in chops and musicality - and I was astounded at the technicality these guys possess...... you hear it on disc, but you don't appreciate as much until you see it played live ...... and my suggestion is that if you don't have this show, get it at all costs........

[RickyRock]

Seeing this post reminded me to watch the show again. Well I watched disc one and boy howdy it is mind blowingly good. Eric Gillette is flawless on voice and guitar. Wish I had an ounce of his talent. The religious theme of this bothers me none, just like the satanic theme of Ghost…bothers me none. Kind of shows you where I stand. Sing about the rash on your ass and I wont care as long as the music moves me!!!

[LarryD]

Seeing this post reminded me to watch the show again. Well I watched disc one and boy howdy it is mind blowingly good. Eric Gillette is flawless on voice and guitar. Wish I had an ounce of his talent. The religious theme of this bothers me none, just like the satanic theme of Ghost…bothers me none. Kind of shows you where I stand. Sing about the rash on your ass and I wont care as long as the music moves me!!!

****Now seeing this post made me realize that I need to watch Disc 1 still ....... I didn't want it to be anti-climatic coming off the Similitude show, but your comments have inspired me to make some time to put this one on ...... like you, the lyrics don't bother me unless they are repulsive or anti-human, so I'm sure I'm good with Neal Morse...

[Sir Exar Kun]

****Now seeing this post made me realize that I need to watch Disc 1 still ....... I didn't want it to be anti-climatic coming off the Similitude show, but your comments have inspired me to make some time to put this one on ...... like you, the lyrics don't bother me unless they are repulsive or anti-human, so I'm sure I'm good with Neal Morse...

Get MorseFest 2014 first, then come back to this one...

[LarryD]

****Now seeing this post made me realize that I need to watch Disc 1 still ....... I didn't want it to be anti-climatic coming off the Similitude show, but your comments have inspired me to make some time to put this one on ...... like you, the lyrics don't bother me unless they are repulsive or anti-human, so I'm sure I'm good with Neal Morse...

Get MorseFest 2014 first, then come back to this one...

***Jay are you saying that the 2014 Testimony show is better than this one ?

[Sir Exar Kun]

***Jay are you saying that the 2014 Testimony show is better than this one ?

2014 has Testimony 1 live in its entirety as well as "One" in its entirety, plus some odds and ends including a few Spockss songs. I haven't watched the 2017 show in awhile, but my recollection is most of the MorseFest recordings are comparable quality. I'm recommending the 2014 show first so you can see / experience Testimony 1 before Testimony 2. My personal opinion is its the stronger of the two by a fairly healthy margin, but you may hear differently.

[LarryD]

***Jay are you saying that the 2014 Testimony show is better than this one ?

2014 has Testimony 1 live in its entirety as well as "One" in its entirety, plus some odds and ends including a few Spockss songs. I haven't watched the 2017 show in awhile, but my recollection is most of the MorseFest recordings are comparable quality. I'm recommending the 2014 show first so you can see / experience Testimony 1 before Testimony 2. My personal opinion is its the stronger of the two by a fairly healthy margin, but you may hear differently.

***Ok cool - I'll check it out ..... I see that it is a very expensive show ....... I'll have to hunt it down somewhere reasonable if there is such a thing .......ah, snd I see that the Lasers Edge has it for a great price !!!! So it is written.......

[LarryD]

2014 has Testimony 1 live in its entirety as well as "One" in its entirety, plus some odds and ends including a few Spockss songs. I haven't watched the 2017 show in awhile, but my recollection is most of the MorseFest recordings are comparable quality. I'm recommending the 2014 show first so you can see / experience Testimony 1 before Testimony 2. My personal opinion is its the stronger of the two by a fairly healthy margin, but you may hear differently.

***I managed to watch Parts 1,2,4 of the One show ...... I have to admit that I didn't care for most of it ....... to me it didn't have the emotion or the power of the Similitude show did ...... when Portnoy talks and praises Neal for being great, then calls him the "pop-diddy master" as well ..... and then they launch into that happy, poppy song, they lost me .......Eric Gillette doesn't seem to be a huge part of the show like he is in Similitude, and it seems that One doesn't have the power of Similitude either..... it could be me, watching the show on You Tube instead of a bluray, but tha'ts what I took away from what I saw .......

[Sir Exar Kun]

***I managed to watch Parts 1,2,4 of the One show ...... I have to admit that I didn't care for most of it ....... to me it didn't have the emotion or the power of the Similitude show did ...... when Portnoy talks and praises Neal for being great, then calls him the "pop-diddy master" as well ..... and then they launch into that happy, poppy song, they lost me .......Eric Gillette doesn't seem to be a huge part of the show like he is in Similitude, and it seems that One doesn't have the power of Similitude either..... it could be me, watching the show on You Tube instead of a bluray, but tha'ts what I took away from what I saw .......

I think that's a side effect of the band becoming more of a BAND over the years, rather than the hired gun approach. It may also have to do with when you come into the discography; if "Similitude" is the hook that brought you into the music, it may be hard to top. For me that's going to always be Testimony 1, with Similitude falling behind that one....

[LarryD]

I think that's a side effect of the band becoming more of a BAND over the years, rather than the hired gun approach. It may also have to do with when you come into the discography; if "Similitude" is the hook that brought you into the music, it may be hard to top. For me that's going to always be Testimony 1, with Similitude falling behind that one....

****I'm sure this is exactly what happened ..... I came into the game with Similitude ...... my bar was really high after that. Now I have to measure each show and music against that one, and I'm stacking the deck against me....... its not going to stop me from going backwards, as I'm on a mission to check it all out ...... and again, I only saw the One show on you tube, and only parts at that. I'll still grab the bluray and keep on going because his shows are just amazing to me ..... I haven't seen many guys who can play like he does and have such a good time at doing it.

[sez]

You at least have to watch the encore performance of Transatlantic's Stranger in Your Soul on that 2014 disc. It's hands down the best live performance of that song EVER, and I thank high, holy Providence it was captured for us all who weren't there to re-live.

For those who don't want to buy the disc, somebody uploaded it to YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjnDoRp2q0Y