And with that said... somehow I was completely oblivious to the release of The Grand Illusion/Pieces of Eight Live DVD until a couple of weeks ago (I know, I know...) and luckily my wife still listens to at least some of what I say because one of my gifts yesterday was that DVD! The cool part is I didn't even ask for it. She just remembered me talking about it when I discovered it had been released and knows I'm a fan. After 27 years of marriage I was gonna kick her to the curb right after new year's but that may have bought her another year, we'll see.
Anyway, I was really impressed with how incredibly well their performances were on some of the songs - especially some of the ones they hadn't ever played live. A couple of standouts were Superstars, Man in the Wilderness, Pieces of Eight and even the ever-cheesy I'm Okay!
I'm sure that, like any special project, extra rehearsal and fine-tuning goes into the preparation process for the performances which will ultimately be forever frozen in time once they're released on DVD/CD and you can certainly tell by the really, really tight vocals they delivered at this show. I've seen them live at least a dozen times over the 30+ years I've been a fan. Most every show left me with a new-found respect and admiration of their abilities both vocally and musically. A couple of them weren't their best but overall they always deliver. But this performance really knocked it out of the park.
A couple of days ago, there was a poll about singers from the 70's - 80's who have kept their vocal edge over the years and I submitted Tommy's name as being in the top 10 for sure but after seeing this, he's got to be in the top 3. I even did a comparison between the studio versions and the live performances from the DVD and the differences were minimal at best.
And Sucherman..... WOOF!! Is it just me or does he just keep getting better?! His performance was nothing short of perfectly amazing. So fast, so incredibly tight! Definitely a master of his craft!
If I absolutely had to find something I didn't absolutely love about the performance, it would have to be the absence of DDY's voice and its replacement with Gowan's. Don't get me wrong, Larry is an outstanding musician and performer, he just doesn't sound like Dennis and hearing his voice instead of Dennis' is noticeable.
