The Tangent - Going Off On One
Performance 
Production
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The Tangent - Going Off On One
Performance |
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The Tangent was formed in 2002 when British keyboard wizard Andy Tillison, and his then Parallel Or 90 Degrees' band mate Sam Baine, teamed up with The Flower Kings' Roine Stolt, Jonas Reingold, and Zoltan Csörsz. They would later bring in Van der Graaf Generator saxophonist David Jackson and multi-instrumentalist Guy Manning to round out this very promising British-Swedish septet. In 2003 the band released their debut album The Music That Died Alone, which garnered numerous accolades and awards throughout the progressive rock community. Before the end of the 2000's decade, they would release four more studio albums, a couple of live albums, and the subject of this review, their Going Off On One concert DVD. Along the way, the band experienced numerous personnel changes, most notably losing Roine Stolt after the release of their second album, The World That We Drive Through. Going Off On One was recorded in September 2006 at the Club Riga in Southend On Sea, England, and it features the seven key Tangent band members that performed on their most recent album at the time, A Place In The Queue. The first thing that really sticks out after starting this video is how tiny the stage is. The band is literally jam packed on stage and barely have room to move - there would be no Pete Townsend-like guitar god maneuvering this night or someone might have gotten their eye poked out. This was especially problematic for Andy Tillison, whose extensive keyboard rig could not all fit on the stage, and he had to leave his '72 minimoog and other pieces behind. Aside from all of the technical and logistical difficulties the band encountered leading up to this gig, which are all described in the excellent booklet that accompanies this DVD, the band soldiered on and turned in an impressive 98 minute performance. I was a little concerned that this DVD might have a short running time after seeing that the set was only nine songs deep, but, silly me, this is prog-rock at its finest, and 20-plus minute tracks are a dime a dozen in this genre. The Tangent had just released their third album, A Place In The Queue, a few months prior to this performance, and they would play three tracks from that album, as well as a song that was only included on the special edition, titled "Forsaken Cathedrals." This song, along with "GPS Culture," and "In Earnest," from that album, were my favorite performances of the night. The Tangent's music has some obvious Yes and ELP influences, thanks mainly to Tillison's heroic keyboard work, but you can also hear bits of Supertramp and Al Stewart in their Canterbury jazz-rock. With the absence of Stolt on the last few albums, the keyboards, sax, and flute have become a little more prominent, and Tillison is now responsible for all of the lead vocals - with some occasional help from Guy Manning. Tillison's merely adequate vocals are probably not what is going to inspire you to listen to The Tangent, but they do suit this style of neo-progressive rock fairly well. The musicianship of all of the band members, however, is second to none. To close out the show, they split up their multipart epic, "In Darkest Dreams," from The Music That Died Alone, into two parts that are linked by a three minute keyboard showcase titled "After Rubycon," which is a direct homage to the Tangerine Dream album/song Rubycon. The production quality of this DVD is relatively low budget in that the only audio mix provided was Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and the picture was shot in 4:3 full screen instead of widescreen. The Dolby stereo mix does sound very good though, especially if you have a surround amplifier with a Dolby Pro Logic decoder, which made this sound as good as many of the 5.1 surround mixes I have heard. The picture was not particularly sharp or detailed and there was an abundance of ridiculous video effects added throughout the performance. Bonus material included about five minutes worth of tour rehearsal footage, shot two days before the gig, and some 1981 footage of Andy Tillison performing live with his band A New Opera. The ten page color booklet includes an essay written by Andy Tillison that provides a little history of the band and also describes the last few days leading up to this gig. The Tangent has done a nice job at mixing jazz and progressive-rock to come up with something that is quite accessible and easy to absorb. It's a shame these seven guys had to be squeezed onto such a small stage in front of such a small crowd to record their first and only concert DVD. Hopefully in the near future they can record another video at a better venue, with better production quality, and maybe even get Roine Stolt to make a guest appearance. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - February 2010 |
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Running Time: 98 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - September
2006 |