Purchased the tickets months ago as soon as they became available, and got the best seats that were for sale. So fast forward a little bit, and I start gathering info on the venue, and it turns out Marksville, LA is actually a very small little rural town (pop. approx. 6,000), with a big casino right in the middle! Right away I hoped the venue might be pyramid-shaped, maybe with a pair of eyes at the top, but alas… that was not the case.
So my group of 4 arrives last weekend, and it's raining pretty steadily, as it would for most of the weekend. A small, rainy town, and I'm trapped at the Paragon Casino Resort – with ASIA!
This worked quite well as I'd been hoping to meet the band, and ended up meeting each of them in passing at different times – at a coffee bar, in a hallway, etc. The real highlight was finally meeting Geoff Downes, who asked me how the synthesizer he'd sold me several years ago was holding up.
Now it starts really getting cool – due to the generosity of Casino staff, we were given the VIP treatment and allowed to watch the crew set up the stage and all the equipment, as well as stay for the soundcheck! What a blast! I ended up meeting several great people on the crew as well, and all were very nice and professional. Now as for setup, soon after the drums were being unpacked, Carl Palmer himself walked in to assist – he was hands-on all the way with his equipment, even polishing them with a cloth at one point. A beautiful translucent Ludwig set with the Carl Palmer logo on both bass drum heads. I was also amazed at how in shape he appeared to be – as if he'd been lifting weights. My wife even commented that he was "hot"! Anyway, at this time, we were seated on the far end of the front row, right smack in front of a set of floor speakers. When Carl started testing that kick drum – wow! It made our chests rattle and just about knocked us out of our seats! We were laughing at that, and had to move back several rows before we sustained permanent damage… LOL! And let me tell ya, the guy also has an ear for what he needs to hear in his mix. His choice description of the minute amount by which he needed a certain element fine-tuned had us cracking up in our seats!
We took a break for about 30 minutes, then returned right before soundcheck commenced. Mind you, we were the ONLY non-staff fans present, and really got a nice, private, mini-concert! Each band member entered and walked right past us, then Carl tested first, followed by Steve Howe (practicing an acoustic solo), then Geoff Downes, and finally John Wetton with a 12-string acoustic playing "Voice Of America", next joined by Geoff for a bit of "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes". Directly afterward, the whole band broke into full versions of songs such as "Daylight" and "Here Comes The Feeling". We were just in awe at how great they sounded. But the real bonuss was watching all the outtakes and humorous interaction between the band mates as they practiced – at one point, they were passing around what appeared to be a jester's hat, and took turns wearing it and clowning around with their instruments – really hilarious! That would have made for a great DVD extra…
Once the band finished, we took a break to eat and clean up before the concert. We learned that the venue holds 2,700 people, and also that unfortunately, many of the locals weren't familiar with the band. I'm guessing that most of the attendees traveled to make this gig, and even at that, only probably half the seats were filled. This is understandable, but I hope it doesn't keep the band from returning to the South, because they've been enjoying sellout shows at many other stops in the tour. But those that attended were fully into the show, and man, did it sound INCREDIBLE! Huge ASIA sound, and they played much louder than I would have guessed.
The stage and lighting was fairly basic, with a big projector screen on either side of the stage to display images and even mixed in clips from some of their videos to accompany the songs.
They opened with a bang, breaking into "Daylight" – great opener, even though it originally was a B-side track from the album Alpha. Second tune was "Only Time Will Tell", followed by over 2 hours of great music including a few well-received songs from the new album Phoenix. I do have the full track listing and will post it later if anyone is interested, but a real treat was hearing some historical songs from each member's past projects, including "Roundabout" (Steve Howe, YES), "Fanfare For The Common Man" (Carl Palmer, ELP), "The Court of the Crimson King" (John Wetton, King Crimson), and "Video Killed The Radio Star" (Geoff Downes, The Buggles). Each was an incredible and energetic performance, with the last featuring Wetton singing thru a bullhorn to get that vocal effect, and Downes clad in a glittery silver jacket and shades.
Way too many cool things about this show to mention, but here are a few – Wetton sounded the best I've ever heard him, with his big voice filling the room, and holding out notes to their fullest to give the songs the treatment they really need. Howe is a SPRY guy and was all over the place! For a few songs, he alternated between playing the guitar he was holding and another one mounted on a stand, or then moving to a steel guitar. Downes is just the man, with his hands flying all over the place, or arms fully extended outward in opposite directions as he played two keyboards at once. But Palmer – dang! I've seen his basic solo several times, but never live, and the guy was on fire! He's like a Hibachi chef in a Japanese restaurant, with all the tricks he does. Even outside the solo, he's one of the hardest working drummers I've ever seen on stage…
After leaving the stage briefly, the band returned for a double encore of "Don't Cry" and "Soul Survivor", during which several fans rushed the stage – there were about 50-70 of us up there just a few feet away from these guys and singing at the tops of our lungs. Great way to end the show!
Afterwards, there were tons of fans crowded around the merchandise table, and I got a very cool item that was just being featured for the first time that night – a USB flash drive mounted inside a silicone ASIA wristband, and containing a copy of that night's concert! Super cool! I was one of the first fans to have purchased one of these, and am including pictures below. I later listened to some of the tracks at the hotel and was astounded at how good they sounded – for the first 20 seconds or so of "Only Time Will Tell", the performance and sound were so spot-on that I couldn't tell I wasn't listening to the album – yes, it was that good. And a bonus for me – I landed an ASIA tour laminate from a venue staffer that we'd befriended.
After leaving the show, I met up with a few other fans, who as it turned out live in my home town! And one of them is a keyboard player who has even worked on song ideas with Jon Anderson of YES! I've since heard the samples, and they are excellent! We went to grab a bite in one of the hotel's restaurants, and spied one of the band members sitting at the bar eating dinner. I called our waitress over and arranged to very discreetly and anonymously pay for his dinner, and she later returned to say he was surprised and asked who did it. She said, "Just a fan", to which he sent back a "Please tell them, thank you very, very much."
So that was my weekend with ASIA – if you have the opportunity to catch one of the remaining dates, I consider this a MUST-SEE show… incredible!!!
