Concert Review by Ralph Greco, Jr.
My friend Bob and I braved the murky depths that is New York City traffic, drove down to B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, and witnessed an ear-quenching two-hour concert from English progressive rock and ex-Marillion vocalist Fish.
Learning from two gentleman sitting at our table (Bob and I really are people persons) — and later from Fish himself — the big man and his band had been invited over by NEARfest, the annual summer progressive rock festival being held this year on the Lehigh University campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Since he was coming over anyway, Fish and the promoter (who we all sang happy birthday day to) concocted this tour. According to our table mates, Fish’s NEARfest appearance is built around him performing material from Marillion’s Clutching At Straws, the last album he made with the band, in what is being billed as Clutching At Stars.
It was no surprise then, but a delight all the same, that Fish and his five-piece band performed a ton of songs from Clutching, opening with “Slainte Mhath.” What followed was a night that focused heavily on this one Marillion album, as well as Fish’s latest CD, 13th Star.
I like B.B. King’s club — it’s a comfortable venue and the food is good (try the carrot cake), but the mix for this night wasn’t all that great. No matter where you were sitting or standing (Bob and I moved to the floor from our table about 20 minutes into Fish’s set), there was an overly loud and low bass hum and the big man’s vocals were buried. Though, as Bob and I agreed, this might have more to do with Fish’s dwindling vocal prowess than the fault of the sound man.
Like Ian Anderson before him, Fish has unfortunately lost a good amount of his high range. He leaned back off the mike more and more when those high notes came along, and there was a lot of that letting-the-audience-sing-along type of thing happening. Fish’s charisma was such that the crowd was with the guy the whole night — singing along and covering up. No one seemed to enjoy themselves any less helping him out.
He performed some great new tunes from 13th Star like “Circle Line,” “Arc Of The Curve,” and the particularly striking “Manchmal.” Chestnuts from Clutching such as “Warm Wet Circles” and “That Time Of Night,” were also featured. I would have liked to have seen Fish dip a bit into his other solo works. But he only did so once, pulling out “Cliché,” from his debut solo album, Vigil In Wilderness Of Mirrors, for his first encore.
The band also surprised everyone with a really raucous version of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s song “Faith Healer” with Fish jumping down into the crowd, walking among his faithful, and placing his meaty paws on audience members’ heads. After two encores, he ended the show with what I’ve always felt could have been a big single for Marillion, “Incommunicado.”
Fish is a wildly entertaining performer, in that old Ian Anderson, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie mold. Though his voice has seen better days (of course, on record he sounds pretty great), there is no denying that the guy puts on a high energy show. In fact, Fish claims on his web site tour diary that he can’t remember a tour being this much fun “for ages.” On that note, I’m right there with him. Thanks for a splashing fun night Fish.
