Photo by Mike Rengel.
Marillion: the band that gives your heart a booster pack. An emotional night that can only be described as mutual communion. Many artists have great fans, but I’ve never been a part of anything like the way Marillion loves their fans as strongly and passionately as we love them. It’s a room full of strangers joined at the heart by these songs that emanate from and touch the soul.
This is a band that, at its core, is about connecting the metaphysical dots into powerful, soaring, lump in your throat moments of unfettered humanity that bind us. When I listen to Marillion, and even more so when I see them live, they remind me, in this ever increasingly coarse world, of the human potential to understand, forgive, seek, and love.
“El Dorado” crushed xenophobia. “The Leavers” spoke to the isolation of the touring musician and unshakable connection between artist and audience. Lead singer Steve “H” Hogarth was hoodie-cloaked and looking like an emo Jedi during a dramatic, cathartic “Mad.” “King” was a neutron bomb of a hymn to the way the commoditization of fame has cost lives and cut short artistic careers. The band dug out “Seasons End” to mourn our warming globe. Maybe their best song ever, the dramatic, explosive, and darkly/beautifully draining “The Invisible Man,” unexpectedly showed up in the encore (it’s usually a show opener). This show was, as H so perfectly put it, “the strength to melt our guns.”
“This Strange Engine” was a heartbreaking, MIDI cricket bat-equipped, squaring your upbringing with your present and future origin story in the second encore. (Including snippets of “Running Up That Hill.” Yes, many of these songs are 15 minutes long.)
H and guitarist Steve Rothery have never looked nor sounded better. Bassist Peter Trewavas was 1990 springy. My favorite little thing is that no matter where you set up shop, if you’re honest and open, you make new friends. I struck up a convo with my neighbor and forged a bond. Javier and his mate have lived in Tulsa for the last 15 years but last saw Marillion in Mexico in 1999. And we cheered and embraced and sang along like members of a secret club with a secret handshake that is sitting there for the taking, if you’re open to accepting it.
If you think I’m overselling it…try it. You might just discover a portal to a sonic hug; to a heretofore undiscovered part of yourself. “We come together—we’re all one tonight.” | Mike Rengel
Mike – I’m a Marillion fan here in Oklahoma City, and was thinking they were in Dallas playing at the Majestic Theater (we just got tickets to see David Gray in 2/25). But found your review of Marillion at the Granada. That was a concert I was excited to have the “chance of a lifetime” to see them in the USA, but a snow/ice storm curtailed that opportunity. But reading your excellent review put me there in the Granada. Hopefully, there will be another chance in my lifetime to see them. May just have to travel across the pond, or make the trip to Montreal for that to happen. Of course, I can always pop in the DVD of their epic concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Regards,
Jarrette M
Hi Jarrette! Thanks for finding my review and commenting, I deeply appreciate the kind words. I’m so sorry you missed the Dallas show. The weather wasn’t great that day, I got lucky that I’d already arrived in town a few days prior (I was down visiting my sister) and it stayed all rain in DFW. Hopefully the band decides to do one more North American tour before all is said and done. They were doing a decent job of touring over here from 2015-2019, but the pandemic seems to have put the cost of touring across the pond out of reach for them again.
That said, I heartily endorse either flying to the UK for a show, or taking in one of the Weekends. I made a vacation out of the 2015 UK Weekend in Wolverhampton and it was simply magical. Making it to one of the Montreal Weekends is on my bucket list, for sure.
The Albert Hall show on the FEAR tour was one for the ages, I wish I could’ve been there, but I feel lucky that they decided to film it. That DVD never gets old. I always get chills when all the confetti comes out during “The Leavers!”
All the best,
Mike
PS I love David Gray too – I was briefly considering going down to Dallas to see his show there on the just-announced tour. No STL date this time. He’s another longtime favorite of mine. I haven’t seen him live for 10 years at least, probably closer to 15.