Heartland

So that's the end of the US tour. Time for a de-brief.

Hot take: is that the most successful tour they've done since the 1990s?

Seems like uniformly good shows, with good sound, no problems and it seems like mostly great reviews?

I'm trying to remember when that last happened?

I feel like Ben has to know that posing for this picture is going to wind a load of people (including me!) up.

They are absolutely flying on this tour. Imagine an alternate timeline history where this was the standard consistently over the last 20 years.

It's the ability to write songs that I'm worried about. Dylan proved he was a singular talent in that department, and really seemed to get what makes a great SoM song - I've yet to see anything that shows either Ben, Chris or Kai has that ability to any significant degree (nor :von: , these days, f...

I've heard them play this track live and thought it was really good. Wasn't prepared for how much better it sounds with a full studio production.

Begs a question about a certain other group of performers who also play music that hasn't been recorded. Hmmm.

So, I've dug up this thread to say I've entirely changed my mind about Kai. I'm watching this with my morning coffee: https://youtu.be/RU5GojU7TGA Big thanks to whoever filmed and posted this, from Boston last night. This is as close to a flawless performance as I've ever seen from this band. The so...

Wow that sounds fantastic. Super tight, great vocals - that looks mint. Well done all.

ooh sounds great. Thanks all.

No vids yet? Kinda surprised. Normally this long after a gig, there's eye candy on Youtube.

Congrats Mark, smashing interview. Unusually frank for him, regarding Dylan etc. My guess is he sort of knew he'd be asked about it at some point, so better to lance the boil. Panic is an option, eh? I'll be looking forward to that. If they play that, Better Reptile, She's a Monster and potentially ...

No, that's not how it works. You have to make an argument for "if only they'd put out new recordings, which they haven't for 31 years, this wouldn't have happened". You might want to take into consideration all the other classic bands who put out albums of new material and no-one gives a ...

So I'm just gonna leave this here: If they'd released the new songs, they wouldn't be downsizing this US tour. An argument with absolutely zero evidence behind it apart from wishcasting and vibes. Sorry to put it bluntly, but yeah. Okay, i'm listening. Why do you think they've had to reduce the siz...

So I'm just gonna leave this here: If they'd released the new songs, they wouldn't be downsizing this US tour. Promoters would have something to push, old fans who'd fallen away would have something to let them re-engage with the band, and new fans would have something they could stream in advance o...

Interesting, Ticketmaster appeared to show me it was sold out earlier, but those links tell a different story.

Okay. So if I can sell them, I'll do that. If I can't, I'll give them to someone on the day.

So is this show sold out? It looks like I won't be able to go, so I have two tickets I'll probably have to shift.

Looking at Ticketmaster, it seems to be sold out.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - The Sisters are meant to be on a big stage. The songs just sound epic on a proper rig in front of a big crowd.

Also, Kai sounds properly dialled in here. The whole thing is polished. Fair play to him.

Burst of creativity came from Dylan's input. Did it though? Do we know for sure what actually happened, and in what sequence? To be clear, I'm not saying Dylan didn't trigger this and I'm not denigrating him or his contribution. I'm just making the point that correlation isn't the same as causation...

I agree. with the last poster. I think it's exactly what it looks like. It didn't work out the way he would have liked, and when it came to it, he decided he didn't want to do the things he would have had to do to make it happen. So he stepped away, took his ball and went home. He doesnt' release re...

I think there's a simpler explanation for how things have turned out. He's very clever and very clever people sadly are often more afflicted by mental health issues than others. My guess is that he does what works for him, and the current situation is the best tradeoff for him personally between act...

Stumbled across the other day, and while it's old, it's new to me. I think this is absolutely fantastic.

Quite different from the original, but just epic.

Still was written by Chris Catalyst, to the best of my recollection. Well after the Pearson era.

It's a solid riff in a decent little song, but it suffered from Sisters expectations. It was played at a time when bugger all new was happening and so it didn't really 'land' as well with fans as it might have. If it had dropped as part of the 2022 'album' (sorry, but you know what I mean, the batch...

The Black Planet play through is kinda okay. Like, just playing over the record etc.

But the version of RAAHP Kai is playing slaps. It sounds like he's playing over a meaty actual backing track. It sounds muscular. Love it.

Fair play to him. I gotta say, the idea of learning all the guitar parts to a sisters gig at three days notice using downloaded phone videos on Youtube Premium while sitting on a plane sounds like the stuff of nightmares to me. I would have thought the band would have at least clean soundboard stems...

Have I missed something or has NO video of this gig surfaced?