Interesting gig last night.
After not seeing Marillion live for over a year, Steve and I made our way to London and the oddly named ‘Koko‘. The journey consisted of us considering our feelings about the forthcoming album, ‘Somewhere Else‘. We were finding it difficult to summon up a great deal of excitement about the release. After the excellent ‘Marbles‘ in 2004, this album has been 3 years in the works. A lot of momentum seems to have been lost after such a strong album, and it’s commonly known that a number of the tracks are left-over material from the Marbles sessions. Nevertheless, it was time to get our Marillion heads on and enjoy the evening.
The venue was quite odd. Balconies all over the place with a 19th century theatre feel about it. I can’t help but feel that the venue used to be a theatre in its own right.
As it’s the convention warm-up show, we weren’t sure if we were going to be treated to the complete track list from ‘This Strange Engine‘, or if there were any new songs to be played.
Once the band opened with ‘Splintering Heart’, I knew this wasn’t going to be a run-of-the-mill setlist that dogged live shows up to and including the Anoraknophobia tour.
The show was a pleasant surprise for me. TSE wasn’t played in it’s entirety, but a number of tracks were represented: ‘One Fine Day’, ‘Hope for the Future’, and ‘This Strange Engine’. The former two I had not heard live before.
As well as that, the alternative version of ‘I Will Walk on Water’ was rolled out. The big shock of the night – and certainly a track that I never thought that I’d hear live.
Two tracks from the forthcoming album were played, one entitled ‘Last Century for Man’, which I thought was a commentary regarding the state of the planet and our destruction of it – a political piece. I couldn’t really get to grips with them though. Unfortunately, having songs played for the first time like this makes it difficult to be objective.
On the whole, the set rolled in at under 2 hours (Steve felt short changed), including 5 minutes of Steve H talking a to fan on the phone while on stage. I enjoyed it (which was impressive considering I was starting to feel flu grabbing hold of me as the day progressed), and Steve did too. “A couple to cross off the list,” He said to me as we left.
One warning if you’re overweight and visiting the Koko – forget about using the balcony gents. If you can’t see your feet, you’ll never be able to comfortably pee…