FLYING COLORS
VENUE Ventura theatre, Ventura, California
DATE 05/09/2019
For a band that don’t play often, Flying Colors certainly can play. Since forming in 2012, the prog supergroup have performed live just two dozen times prior to arriving in Ventura, a quaint, oceanside town located an hour northwest of Los Angeles (where, at the Wiltern theatre the night before, guitarist Steve Morse helped Deep Purple continue their long farewell). The band’s infrequent performances due to their members’ commitments with numerous other projects is humorously acknowledged by drummer Mike Portnoy soon after the show kicks off. “Welcome to the rarest of all sightings – rarer than Sasquatch, rarer than a UFO!” he quips.
The Ventura concert marks Flying Colors’ lone West Coast appearance of 2019 and, along with a London show in midDecember, is one of just nine they scheduled this year in support of their recently released new album, Third Degree. But despite such scarcity, the band show no signs of rust during their 13-song, 100-minute set, which features knockout performances by Steve and his longtime Dixie Dregs bandmate, bassist Dave LaRue.
That’s not to take anything away from the efforts of Portnoy, keyboardist Neal Morse and vocalist Casey McPherson, but LaRue’s driving bass serves as a locomotive that powers
“DAVE LARUE’S DRIVING BASS SERVES AS A LOCOMOTIVE THAT POWERS SHOW OPENER BLUE OCEAN, ENCORE FINALE MASK MACHINE AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN IMPRESSIVELY.”
show opener Blue Ocean, encore finale Mask Machine and everything in between impressively. Steve, meanwhile, delivers one scintillating solo after another, somehow managing to be tasteful and fluid yet also aggressive.
Admittedly, it’s a bit awkward seeing Neal relegated to a keyboard riser at the back left of the stage, given that he’s one of the genre’s great frontmen. His effortless charisma is still on full display, however, as he leads frequent clap-alongs, smiles perpetually and appears to be having more fun than any soon-to-be-60-year-old rightfully should.
In addition to his frequent sharing of lead vocal duties with McPherson and his nonstop threepart harmonising with McPherson and Portnoy, Neal manages to sneak in a fun, mad scientistworthy keyboard solo during the bouncy, playful new track, More.
The song also features stop-ona-dime tandem playing by Steve and LaRue, but sadly, none of the blacklight effects from the song’s memorable music video.
The crowd sing along loudly during the chorus of Kayla, which sees McPherson – whose choice of wardrobe might be best described as convict beatnik – join Steve for an uplifting harmonised guitar solo. Afterwards, McPherson greets the audience for the first time, acknowledging attendees from as far away as Korea and Chile (to which Portnoy deadpans, “I came from Pennsylvania – does that count for anything?”).
He then introduces the evening’s most chilling performance, new track You Are Not Alone, inspired by the devastation wreaked by 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. The haunting video footage that accompanies the song – which shows McPherson admirably volunteering in Houston at a time when the city was more than one-third underwater – looks like outtakes from a Hollywood disaster movie, but drives home the song’s message in poignant fashion. Another classy, pitch-perfect solo by Steve serves as the proverbial cherry on top.
Other highlights include the irresistible melodicism of A Place In Your World, the accessible yet deceptively complex Forever In A Daze and the borderline power-pop of The Storm, which gives Steve another chance to dazzle with the purity of his tone. It’s McPherson, however, who steals the spotlight on the plaintive Peaceful Harbor, as he leads
the crowd in a three-part harmony of the song’s wordless vocal refrain. It doesn’t quite rival the transcendence of his bandmates’ shoot-for-the-stars moments in classics such as Dream Theater’s The Spirit Carries On and Transatlantic’s We All Need Some Light, but the moon isn’t a bad consolation prize.