My Vancouver concert report notes, Part Deux:
* In person, Hammer To Fall was much better opener than I expected. It is not too fast, so following the short WWRY intro it keeps on hitting you like a hammer.
* I have always loved the improvisations before IWIA, but did not expect to enjoy the live version of the song as much as I did this time around. It was very powerful, no wonder it was used in the pre-tour TV promo both in 2015 and 2017...
* I am a particular stickler for precision and hate lyric fails as much as Simon Cowell. Most of the show was rather perfect, but there was one moment during "It's Late" where Adam messed up the lyrics, improvised a bit, laughed it off, and I did not give 2F about it
![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
The magic of a live show at work.
* I noticed he did not do the first Two Fux bridge in falsetto again, but I believe it works better that way.
* The thing that REALLY gets lost in videos is how well the lighting works as a 3D effect. Unfortunately, the VR The Champions recording which has quite a limited depth effect cannot convey how utterly wonderful the beams around the stage are. (*)
* The above is especially true when seen frontally along the line of the mixing desk. I have seen most concerts of most groups from the side, and you get a bird's view idea of what is going on, but seeing the stage along its central axis is an absolutely engulfing experience.
* Similarly, I have been wondering for the last few years what the point of the lasers during WWTLF was, as most videos showed them from the side, and they did not seem to paint any logical picture. Now that I saw them from the right vantage point, I finally understood.
* The lasers during Brian's solo were reduced to just one color at a time, and only matched the color palette of the show - either only red, or only blue. In the 2014 design, they had red, green and blue mixed together at the same time, and I felt it was a bit too colorful and overwhelming. Now they paint different moods according to the music being played, which worked so much better.
* I was surprised by the improvements in the stage lift / trapdoors department. It was obvious that Frank's head is coming up on a lift, but they also used the technology to bring up the various props like the tricycle, the second drum kit, etc. I did not know from watching videos that Adam would go down the trap door in a slow-motion version of the ending of his AI tour show, pointing up at the single spotlight at the end of WWTLF. It was one of the most powerful moments, even better than last year's pointing at the disco ball...
* Speaking of WWTLF, I am happy to report that I had a lucky exception in the chipmunk department during that song, it sounded as awesome as always to me, and as I already proclaimed 3 years ago after my first QAL in Vancouver concert, I would gladly pay the entry price for that one song alone.
* I felt that Adam bringing out the Red Special after Brian's stereoscopic selfie moment had a very powerful message to me. He is being trusted to hold that instrument which is more precious than a Stradivarius... I suspect the number of people allowed to touch that object can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Hope Talon might provide more info here?
(*) Off Topic, but for anyone watching "VR The Champions" on a phone with Cardboard VR, be sure to set your phone's resolution to maximum for best quality. On my new S8, the battery saving mode was set to Medium, which reduces the screen resolution automatically. Once I switched battery savings off and set the resolution to maximum, all the banding/aliasing in laser beams in Radio GaGa went away and looking around was a lot more enjoyable. Still no substitute for the real thing, but the AUDIO of the VR experience is absolutely mind-blowing to me... I wish they would release a full concert album with such a good mix.