Someone uploaded the stream to youtube, it's one where the connection isn't great during some songs, but you get a good idea of what the dvd/blu ray will be like, with better sound I'd imagine.

I guess I should've looked first, just found it And yeah, the stream yesterday left a bit to be desired but I didn't expect it to be perfect. I was just thrilled and honestly surprised to see that it was big enough of a gig to warrant a live-stream. Very awesome

[Blazingmonga]

Crazy gig. Had a great time, although the set could have been a little more diverse in respect to the neglected albums. And I wonder if they will fix the video audio sync in the DVD? Worth it all for the Ziltoid section, bit of an indication where Z2 is going?

Also, some of those dancer cat girls were gorgeous Would have loved to meet them at the aftershow!

That was a bit of a bummer about the video sync but hopefully they can fix it in editting for the DVD release.

I hope Mrs Ziltoid is on Z2

I

Ok, having had a day to digest that... I still feel like a bug on a windscreen. But in a good way.

The Harold story line that (tried to) link things together - I don't think that worked. Luckily after the first few songs it started being ignored. I can see why they might have wanted a framing storyline, or something to hold things together, but it was such a wide range of material that it was never going to work well as the links just got so tenuous. Nothing against the general sentiments of it mind you, I just feel it didn't really add anything, while at the same time confusing the hell out of anyone who was trying to follow it as a proper story and relate it to the songs. (Steve Vai's skull worked much better, as did Dev talking to himself at the end)

The theatrics on the other hand I thought worked pretty well. There was usually far too much going on to keep track of all of it, and keep an eye on Dev at the same time. But the aim seemed to be to give various impressions and themes, and it did that very well. The ziltoid stuff, where there was a bit more focus on particular performers and more of an actual story, also worked very well, and for those songs where the music itself was less theatrical (the strapping stuff), the theatrics went away entirely.

Some technical glitches (the Steve Vai video and audio were way out of sync most of the time, as were some of the music videos such as Vampira), but the sound was pretty awesome. I was upstairs in the seated section, and you could really feel the bass through your feet and the seat without it losing clarity or drowning everything out. Some of the vocal volume was a little low in places (but I understand those watching the stream had the reverse problem).

A decent performance from Dev, although I think he sang better at the London shows last year (and, ironically, at Cambridge last Wednesday), but his voice was still holding up well by the end.

The setlist was just odd - definitely not good coverage of the back catalogue. I think there was some attempt to avoid repeating stuff done last year, hence the very different version of Hyperdrive, and lack of material from Ki or Ghost. But there really should have been something from Terria and Accelerated Evolution, and more than just the one track from Ocean Machine.

All in all, with By a Thread, the emphasis was mostly on intimate, especially for Ki and Ghost. With Retinal Circus, the emphasis seemed to be on spectacle, rather than purely music. As a spectacle, it was very very good.

As I say, I think BaT was (collectively) a better performance, but I expect RC to be rather more fixed up for the bluray than BaT was, largely because it's meant to be a high-production-values spectacle, rather than a perfectly accurate record of what happened. Then again they might go for warts-and-all for some reason (budget, most likely, or time).

Seeing strapping again was awesome in one sense, but I also kind of wish he hadn't done that, because now the questions about when will SYL play again / reform / etc will just keep coming back, because he's brought it back to life once and shown that the current DTP is perfectly capable of playing it. And I'm not convinced he really wanted to do it. When SYL were winding up they should have done a proper farewell tour or at least a farewell show, to draw a sharper line under it. Personally, I've always liked SYL, but Solo/DTB/DTP has always been where the really interesting stuff is going on. Dev's best stuff (in my view) comes when he does whatever the hell he feels like doing, and the more pressure there is to relight the SYL fire, the harder that gets.

Oh yes - a missed opportunity - there were Dev facemasks all over the place. They were on sale at the merch stand but I also saw one of the performers handing them out. But nothing was made of that. I was expecting Steve to ask everyone to put their mask on and mess with Dev's head, or a load of people to come onstage wearing Dev masks (and one of them turn out to be Dev). But none of that happened.

tl;dr version:

There's some nits to pick at, but it was still awesome.

Crazy gig. Had a great time, although the set could have been a little more diverse in respect to the neglected albums. And I wonder if they will fix the video audio sync in the DVD? Worth it all for the Ziltoid section, bit of an indication where Z2 is going?

Also, some of those dancer cat girls were gorgeous Would have loved to meet them at the aftershow!

Try see if this link works for you, funny pic of the girls with Dev. Hayley, on the right, has a show at TotalRock.com on tuesdays so will probably be talking about it!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151484737083747&set=a.10151411779568747.578508.580473746&type=1&relevant_count=1

Here's some photos, mostly from the pre-show VIP stuff, art exhibition, and a short video of what was presumably the last of any of the rehearsals (around 5:30pm):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69790097@N02/sets/72157631874631555/

Also, while we were being taken around the upper part of the venue as part of the pre-show tour, Tracy and Reyner were around on the ground floor. Not exactly a child-friendly show so I dunno if they stayed.

Crazy gig. Had a great time, although the set could have been a little more diverse in respect to the neglected albums. And I wonder if they will fix the video audio sync in the DVD? Worth it all for the Ziltoid section, bit of an indication where Z2 is going?

Also, some of those dancer cat girls were gorgeous Would have loved to meet them at the aftershow!

That was a bit of a bummer about the video sync but hopefully they can fix it in editting for the DVD release.

I hope Mrs Ziltoid is on Z2

What if he redoes Babysong with Anneke for Z2? :v

That'd be fuckin' glorious. Anneke's parts on that song was seriously one of my favorite parts of the show. He should make a "revisions" album with her, hah.

[Octillus]

Ok, having had a day to digest that... I still feel like a bug on a windscreen. But in a good way.

The Harold story line that (tried to) link things together - I don't think that worked. Luckily after the first few songs it started being ignored. I can see why they might have wanted a framing storyline, or something to hold things together, but it was such a wide range of material that it was never going to work well as the links just got so tenuous. Nothing against the general sentiments of it mind you, I just feel it didn't really add anything, while at the same time confusing the hell out of anyone who was trying to follow it as a proper story and relate it to the songs. (Steve Vai's skull worked much better, as did Dev talking to himself at the end)

The theatrics on the other hand I thought worked pretty well. There was usually far too much going on to keep track of all of it, and keep an eye on Dev at the same time. But the aim seemed to be to give various impressions and themes, and it did that very well. The ziltoid stuff, where there was a bit more focus on particular performers and more of an actual story, also worked very well, and for those songs where the music itself was less theatrical (the strapping stuff), the theatrics went away entirely.

Some technical glitches (the Steve Vai video and audio were way out of sync most of the time, as were some of the music videos such as Vampira), but the sound was pretty awesome. I was upstairs in the seated section, and you could really feel the bass through your feet and the seat without it losing clarity or drowning everything out. Some of the vocal volume was a little low in places (but I understand those watching the stream had the reverse problem).

A decent performance from Dev, although I think he sang better at the London shows last year (and, ironically, at Cambridge last Wednesday), but his voice was still holding up well by the end.

The setlist was just odd - definitely not good coverage of the back catalogue. I think there was some attempt to avoid repeating stuff done last year, hence the very different version of Hyperdrive, and lack of material from Ki or Ghost. But there really should have been something from Terria and Accelerated Evolution, and more than just the one track from Ocean Machine.

All in all, with By a Thread, the emphasis was mostly on intimate, especially for Ki and Ghost. With Retinal Circus, the emphasis seemed to be on spectacle, rather than purely music. As a spectacle, it was very very good.

As I say, I think BaT was (collectively) a better performance, but I expect RC to be rather more fixed up for the bluray than BaT was, largely because it's meant to be a high-production-values spectacle, rather than a perfectly accurate record of what happened. Then again they might go for warts-and-all for some reason (budget, most likely, or time).

Seeing strapping again was awesome in one sense, but I also kind of wish he hadn't done that, because now the questions about when will SYL play again / reform / etc will just keep coming back, because he's brought it back to life once and shown that the current DTP is perfectly capable of playing it. And I'm not convinced he really wanted to do it. When SYL were winding up they should have done a proper farewell tour or at least a farewell show, to draw a sharper line under it. Personally, I've always liked SYL, but Solo/DTB/DTP has always been where the really interesting stuff is going on. Dev's best stuff (in my view) comes when he does whatever the hell he feels like doing, and the more pressure there is to relight the SYL fire, the harder that gets.

Oh yes - a missed opportunity - there were Dev facemasks all over the place. They were on sale at the merch stand but I also saw one of the performers handing them out. But nothing was made of that. I was expecting Steve to ask everyone to put their mask on and mess with Dev's head, or a load of people to come onstage wearing Dev masks (and one of them turn out to be Dev). But none of that happened.

Thank you for saving me the time of including almost all of my thoughts on the whole thing.

I agree with the post that said they should have advertised it differently. Not a full retrospective at all, but the parts of the stream I have thus far watched are very very cool indeed.

Now that I can finally logon to the frickin forums, my thoughts...

What a spectacle. It was whacky, all over the place, and totally Dev. I do agree on the musical choices, could have done without Vampira for example and had something else in its place. I would have liked to have heard at least one song from each album, especially ones that haven't been played. That said, hearing Planet Smasher, The Greys, SYL, and LITTLE PIG was fucking awesome. The story I didn't mind all that much, as Dev himself poked at its flimsyness and really-- isn't that what defines majority of Dev's story arcs? Their convuluted, all over the place aspects? To me that's Dev, so it was fine by me and I quite enjoyed it.

All of that said, I see this as he somewhat flawed first step to the bigger shows Dev is wanting to do. It was disjointed (for the most part in a good way) and crazy, and I feel like it'll lead to so much more awesome stuff down the road. I also enjoyed how it felt like a huge five back to he fans, as fans were actors on stage and the humor was what fans who've been following forever would understand. I quite respect/enjoyed that.

The Harold story line that (tried to) link things together - I don't think that worked. Luckily after the first few songs it started being ignored. I can see why they might have wanted a framing storyline, or something to hold things together, but it was such a wide range of material that it was never going to work well as the links just got so tenuous. Nothing against the general sentiments of it mind you, I just feel it didn't really add anything, while at the same time confusing the hell out of anyone who was trying to follow it as a proper story and relate it to the songs.

You know, in all honesty this also sums up the Ziltoid album for me. Like Ziltoid, the theme and direction started off alright, but the songs went off in directions the narration couldn't seem to guide or control. Then it comes back at the end, but by then you forgot there was even a story going on. It didn't take away from the music at all, though.

1. My expectations based on the advertising and Devin

My two pennies. To put it in context I've been a fan since Vai and have seen Dev in a bunch of guises in a bunch of venues over the years. If it was my first time I'm sure it would've been the best thing ever. Overall I really enjoyed the show, though 99% of that was for the music.

Positives

1, My biggest impression I'll take away is seeing the look of joy on Dev's face throughout most of the show. I know he doesn't tend to enjoy touring and I see him playing shows and getting into the spirit of it, but in interviews he says how he really feels. This is the first time I've seen him just look full-on uncontrollably happy at a show. Worth the ticket price for that alone

2, Anneke. Wow! She added to everything and her live voice is beyond incredible. I saw her with The Gathering in 2000 and was blown away by how she was somehow better live than on record, and she did it again. I wish she could tour with Dev full-time as she really adds a different dimension and made the old stuff shine as well as repeating her recorded performances perfectly. The acoustic version of Ih-Ah was probably the highlight of the show for me.

3, Seeing SYL songs and Jed again was great. The sound suddenly got way tighter and more powerful for the 2 SYL songs. I've still yet to see a better gig by anyone than the City tour in '98 and it was a treat. If they'd played All Hail The New Flesh I'd have jizzed myself inside out. In my dream of how the show would go it would've been chronological through all the solo and SYL albums, starting with the intro to S.Y.L. and I would've died happy.

Negatives

1, There wasn't a choir. It was a bunch of people in t-shirts miming and dancing out of time. That was pretty disappointing considering it was advertised and would have added really well to the show.

2, The dancing girls (the ones in catsuits). Were they strippers / lapdancers? Felt sleazy. Urgh.

3, Out of sync video was surprising - especially when it wasn't fixed over the course of 3 hours. Made the show element feel out of whack from the get go. Did this happen in rehearsal too? Like others have been saying I hope it's fixed somehow for the DVD but I'm not sure how that'd work on parts where Dev's conversing with the screen behind him.

4, I'm still on the fence as to whether the story was deliberately over-explaining and beating us over the head with concept/metaphor early on, to illustrate that that's how Dev used to think before he grew up and learned to chill out. It was definitely toned down in the second half. I found the most of the story and stageshow pretty cringeworthy and had to try to ignore it after a while and concentrate on the musicians, who were all amazing.


Overall it was a really enjoyable night but (for me) more in spite of the stageshow than because of it. I'm sure it was a very difficult thing to pull off and he was organising most of it remotely so it must've been really hard to make all his ideas reality. Sadly, to me the show element came across as a big mess, and the lack of the advertised choir was weird. I can only hope they dropped out last minute unavoidably, as otherwise it's not really on. That would be my only genuine un-subjective complaint, as it was advertised. Sure there were songs / albums I'd like to have seen played (Triumph, Life Is All Dynamics) but you can't please everyone on that front so no complaint there. I heard a ton of people talking enthusiastically about the stageshow afterwards so I probably wasn't in the majority on that front anyway.

Anyway, as always huge thanks to Dev for his music, which has enriched my life no end over the last near 20 years. Only 6 weeks to seeing him again with Fear Factory and Sylosis!

The Harold story line that (tried to) link things together - I don't think that worked. Luckily after the first few songs it started being ignored. ...

You know, in all honesty this also sums up the Ziltoid album for me. Like Ziltoid, the theme and direction started off alright, but the songs went off in directions the narration couldn't seem to guide or control. Then it comes back at the end, but by then you forgot there was even a story going on. It didn't take away from the music at all, though.

Yes, ziltoid doesn't really work story-wise either, even with the extra bits that the booklet gives. However, ZTO was (originally) just a one-off album Dev did in his bedroom with a 2p budget, and so it didn't really matter, and as you say the songs work anyway. It's a bit more of a big deal when you have lots of performers and proper actors and all that. It needed to either not bother with the story (which works perfectly well with the circus metaphor, circuses don't have storylines either), or do a much more complete story structure (which would have been very hard to do given that these were existing songs that weren't written for that).

Still, this is a minor thing - when it concentrated on being a spectacle rather than a story, which it did most of the time, it worked very well.