TRANSATLANTIC
Supergroup’s last hoorah (for now) captured.
There was something about Transatlantic’s 2021 performances that felt like special events, largely because they’re a band that only seem to get together roughly once a decade. Add to that the extra wait imposed by the pandemic, and the ever-nagging fear that they may not end up reconvening again at all, and the final show of the 2022 tour, recorded and presented here in full, seems even more of a momentous occasion.
“Can you handle a three-hour show?” asks Mike Portnoy, before quipping: “Well, we can’t.” It seems he may only be half-joking, as Roine Stolt also admitted recently: “Now that I am getting slightly older, I was a little worried about playing for that long – it requires a lot of concentration.”
There are zero lapses in this performance from Paris, though, as they play the whole of the extended version of 2021’s The Absolute Universe before reversing back in time to tackling passages from 2009’s The Whirlwind and their earliest LPs, SMTP:e and Bridge Across Forever.
The sonic limitations of a live recording actually allow these renditions of the tracks to highlight elements of the songs that might have been less prominent in the studio versions fans will know. Pete Trewavas’ elastic bass lines and Neal Morse’s slippery synth patterns light up The Darkness In The Light, the former particularly prominent throughout the mix that’s recorded here, and elsewhere there’s an extra crackle of kinetic energy afoot.
Take Now My Soul, for instance, has a more joyous feel for being that bit less polished, and whether or not you buy into the faith underpinning Morse’s lyrics, the spiritual sentiments were clearly made to be sung-along-with by an arena-sized congregation. At other times the influence of Genesis is on the Foxtrot-style romp of Bully or the Supertramp-channelling piano jaunt of Rainbow Sky. Then there are the four-part harmonies that open The Sun Comes Up Today, which have never sounded more like an open homage to The Beatles’ Because.
Of the older material, the abridged 30-minute take on The Whirlwind does an admirable job of focusing on its punchiest moments, shot through with an urgency that reflects an awareness that they don’t often get the chance to celebrate on the formidable back catalogue they’ve now built up.
Portnoy tells the audience Transatlantic are “some of the proudest stuff we’ve ever been a part of” – no mean statement given their CVs. This album is a reminder that they’ve got every right to rest on their laurels. Until, we hope, the next time.
IT SEEMS EVEN MORE OF A MOMENTOUS OCCASION.