TD at UCLA

On Friday I headed down to LA to watch Tangerine dream play from the first time in America for about 12 years. They had been due to play a tour just after 9/11 but canceled the trip after it happened. When US foreign policies under the Bush administration became clear I think Edgar decided not to bother coming at all until GWB was going out of office. So I don't think it was in any way a coincidence that the band ended up playing its first gig in America a couple of days after a new president was chosen.

It was usual a very enjoyable concert for me. The hall was a bit bigger than I had expected and so I ended up a lot further back than I had intended. This sadly made taking pictures impractical. It was a bit odd to be at the concert on my own. All but one of the TD concerts I have attended over the years have been with Andy and so it felt a little strange.

The Dream played in their usual format- a nonstop wall of music for 3 hours. However a few of the pieces were quite gentle including a couple of nice duets between Linda Spa the saxophonist and the guitarists.

A lot of the pieces were updated version of some of their previous material (ironically created when some of the current band members were probably still schoolchildren). The updated versions were heavier with a lot more percussion (back in the 80's TD didn't really undestand what drum was for). This can work quite well, in fact for a live concert and it did indeed work well most of time apart from a couple of pieces were it really didn't work. It would be nice if they could leave what was classic alone and focus on making some new music with the instruments of this new century.

Edgar himself is now looking his age and seemed decidedly stiff when he got up from his console to play lead guitar. Still, I guess he is old and at some point he is simply going to give up all this performing lark and retire, and for me that will indeed be a sad day. Still I guess he has earned it (from the cash that I and a few thousand other folk have willingly given him over the years).



The YouTube video is of Cloudburst Flight the last piece they played. The piece always reminds me of riding my motorcycle between Cambridge and Kettering in the pouring rain, where every time I passed a truck it felt like I was having entire buckets of water thrown directly at me. I think the piece came off extremely well with the bass sequences the really driving hard and the guitarist and keyboard leads be played perfectly "correct" without unnecessary embellishment.