There are good front men and there are great front men. Fish is a great front
man. Coming to infamy as the lead singer of Marillion, Fish has been solo for
a good two decades, releasing a stellar bunch of CDs but rarely touring America.
With the help of organizers of the yearly prog rock festival Nearfest, Fish
and his crackerjack band bandied promoters and fan support to get over and play
club dates across America in 2008. The 18-song set of the Nearfest gig comprises
the DVD, In Search Of The 13th Star: Fish Live In The USA.
Opening with “Slainth Mhath” from Marllion’s Clutching At
Straws, the last studio album from the group to feature Fish, the crowd
is obviously in the singer’s skilled hands from the get-go. Fish can sometimes
come across as quite menacing on stage, donning a character pose and stance
on the first few tunes, many from his latest album at the time, 13th
Star. This is all relatively harder edged stuff with Fish’s band, especially
lead guitarist Frank Usher, cooking though songs like “Square Go,”
“Open Water” and the truly perfect “Manchmal.”
Following with more Clutching material — the selling
point at Nearfest was that Fish was going to play a lot of songs from this album
— with “Hotel Hobbies,” “Warm Wet Circles” and “That
Time Of The Night.” Sure the man’s voice might not be exactly up for some
of these tunes, but he’s so damn engaging, working so hard for the audience,
one doesn’t dismiss him for not hitting those high notes. Fish was diagnosed
with an irregular cell growth in his throat in 2008, which, was later determined
to be benign.
He gets into a storytelling mode before “Zoey 25.” His engaging patter
is at the root of his stage presence (his “Planet Rock” radio show
has won awards, so he can talk a good game as well as sing). Newer songs like
“Arc Of The Curve” and “Dark Star” roll along until Fish
jumps into the audience for a cover of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s “Faith
Healer.”
The encores rely heavily on Clutching, though there’s
a nice version of “Cliché,” from Fish’s first solo record,
along with a rousing “Incommunicado” and the sweet “Sugar Mice.”
With a truly engaging bonus disc featuring a long interview with Fish plus great
snippets of backstage and on-stage banter from the various North American shows,
In Search Of The 13th Star: Fish Live In The USA, available
exclusively at Fish’s web site, is a great document of the
all-too-infrequent swim over from Britain to U.S. shores.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
