TRANSATLANTIC’S VERY FINAL FLIGHT?
Mike Portnoy confirms the supergroup’s new live record marks “the end of an era”.
The upcoming live album release from Transatlantic will also mark the end of the prog supergroup’s time together as a working unit.
Landing on February 17 via InsideOut, The Final Flight:
Live At L’Olympia captures Neal Morse, Pete Trewavas, Roine Stolt and Mike Portnoy at the Paris venue on the last night of their The Absolute Universe Tour in July 2022.
Portnoy says that, while some fans will be disappointed at the news, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. “It’s no secret,” the drum star tells Prog. “We alluded to it several times on social media throughout the tour. It really feels like the end of an era. We all felt a tremendous sense of finality, like we were taking this as far as it can go, both in the studio and on stage. We couldn’t have been happier with the way it ended.”
The band began as a side-project for the four members in 1999, and they went on to release five studio albums and numerous live records, proving to be a strong draw on the live circuit.
Performing 2021’s ambitious LP The Absolute Universe live involved weaving together the two studio versions of the album – Forevermore and The Breath Of Life – alongside an additional set covering the band’s extensive back catalogue.
Portnoy reckons the Olympia concert showed the band firing on all cylinders: “This was one of those nights where all the stars aligned,” he says. “I think it was the best we played on the entire run. The ovations between the songs and at the end of the show were just spine-tingling. Neal was broken down crying, everybody really felt the emotions in the air. If it indeed ends up being the last show we ever play, we could not have ended on a higher note.”
The Final Flight will be released as both a three-CD/single Blu-ray Digipak and a mammoth four-LP gatefold package, covering over three hours of music. However, Portnoy reveals that despite the band calling it a day, this won’t be the last Transatlantic record to emerge. In late 2023 they plan to release recordings of their weekend performances at Morsefest, back in April. “We did two nights,” Portnoy says. “Not only was there The Absolute Universe in its entirety but The Whirlwind too, as well as a few other songs that we had never played live, accompanied with strings and a choir and all that. It’s really another musthave for the completists.”
“If it’s the last show we ever play, we could not have ended on a higher note.”