Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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A little light on Procol Harum

Spectacular subtlety at the House of Blues


Tom Frohlichstein writes (May 2003) to BtP:

Perhaps the crowning moment of the Procol Harum performance at the House of Blues came from the unexpected.

Picture sent in by Matthew Fisher

As they played The Blink of an Eye the performance and sound truly captured the spirit of the piece; enough so that I was totally wrapped into the song.

At the last chorus the disco ball was again lit and lighting the room. Although usually pretentious, this time the lighting effect made sense, felt appropriate and elevated the emotional aspect of what the whole song is about. For the sphere now looked like the world, aglow and shining on brightly. [Imagine that, Procol Harum stepping over into multilevels via multimedia…a bit beyond the pale?]

Then, still captivated by the visual enhancement, as the song began to fade so did the bright light.

The white light faded into a red light and the globe became a glowing fiery red.

The burning turning earth was the image.

There, in motion, above us all, while Procol Harum engulfed us into The Blink of an Eye, was the imagery that graces the album cover of The Well’s On Fire

It was all brought together at that moment.

I wonder who else, if anyone, caught the spectacular subtlety of the night?

Illustrated: Procol's lighting tech, Tony, at the controls


Procol Harum concerts in 2003: index page

 


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