veronicathingy

“Innocence and undying love will reign.
The world will soon be right again.”
(from part V, song 1 on SMPTe)

So, right now I’m listening to a so-called “super group”. Transatlantic.
Lots of people find Transatlantic a bit boring or bland, I kind of thought that about their second cd (Bridge across forever) as well. That is, until I gave it another shot, on a long bus ride, and found myself almost crying by the beauty of it.

“There – walking into walls
Piercing through the pain
Here we are”

So yeah, now I’m a Fangirl, I guess. But how could I withstand this band project with the members that it has?

The members and why I love them:

Roine Stolt: The brain and muscle (that’s my words, not theirs) behind The Flower Kings. I don’t love that band, and that’s because of the vocals. Roine’s vocals. But I’ve gotten used to it. It does help that on some of their CDs, Daniel Gildenlöw sings a little bit. Gives me a break. Anyway, Roines musicianship is undoubtedly very good. I liked him much better when I got to see them live at Blæst.

Story: When we were waiting to get in to Blæst, I was blocking the whole entrance door. Some guy said “ursäkta” (Probably spelled that wrong. It’s Swedish for “excuse me”) and I moved so he could slip by. Husband said to me something like “you saw who that was, right”? And I went blank.
Why should I recognize some random Swedish guy? …oh.
So that’s how I blocked the way for Roine Stolt and didn’t even recognize him.

I didn’t say it was an exiting story!

Neal Morse: ex- Spock’s Beard. He went solo after God told him to (basically). He has continued with prog, but the lyrics are really God-focused now. He does church tours, and so I’ve seen him live three times. He does one Transatlantic song live:

“Hey you on the brink
Waiting to fall
To become human surplus
The movie’s still shooting
You might still get the roll
And man it’s all just a circus”

I love Spock’s Beard, I like his solo stuff (I’m just a bit ambivalent, heh. It’s all good, but not all of it fully tickles my ears) and I admire his guts.
He’s why there haven’t been a Transatlantic cd since 2001.

Story: When I first heard Spock’s Beard it was a friend who told me I needed to listen to this brand-new album, Snow, and shoved it in my hands. So I borrowed it a couple of weeks. Devoured it. Read the lyrics so many times I think I still know most of them. And I read the name Neal Morse in the booklet, the guy who wrote most of the lyrics.
And then I had a thought. “He needs your prayers. Big transition. He’s on the edge of something. Pray for him”.
So I did. I had no idea what was happening to him, but hey, it couldn’t hurt!
About a year later the friend I borrowed that cd from told me he’d heard Neal Morse quit Spock’s Beard. Even later I read about the fans of Spock’s Beard’s fury about this. (Somewhere in between here I became a fan) Even later than that I heard Neal himself talking about that time and how difficult that was.
I haven’t told him I prayed for him back then. I’ve wanted to every time he’s been in Trondheim, but I haven’t. Maybe I should just find some contact info and send him to this post, heh.

Yes I know I’m weird thankyouverymuch.

Mike Portnoy: Drummer of Dream Theater. My gateway to drugs prog. No, I’m not a big fan of their latest efforts, people have different tastes and all that.
But I still remember sitting in front of the computer (an old compaq presario) the summer of ’99, downloading (Shame On Me!) Learning To Live and Metropolis pt.1 because a friend told me to.
The metropolis download never finished, so I only had until “The third arrives”. Didn’t get to hear “Before the leaves have fallen”, which now is my favorite part of the song.
Learning To Live was so freaking long! I mean, 11 minutes!
It turned my musical life around.. (and I did buy all of their CDs after that)

Story: I met my Husband because of Dream Theater. The Norwegian Fan Club Forum. Concert in Oslo 2005. Pre-show fan club meeting.

Wow, that’s a short story.

Pete Trewavas: Marillion. I love some of their stuff. Their newer stuff I find boring. I still named my new MacBook after their vocalist. Steve Hogart, H for short. Husband reacted when I told him I was gonna call it Steve. “How many people do you think have named their Macs “Steve”? I thought “now why would they name their macs after Steve HogaOooh I’m stupid”.

Story: Well, my little brainburp when I named my mac is a story. Fun fact about Pete: He jumps. Up
and
down.
And
up
and
down.
At the stage, I mean, while he’s playing bass. What’s not to love about a guy like that?
Also, he’s an excellent bassist.

Remember I said Neal was why there haven’t been a Transatlantic cd since 2001? Well, he has never said “never again” (as far as I know anyway), but as he has followed the path he feels God put before him, I guess he felt God said no, not now…not now…
Finally, God said yes. And wonders of wonders, with how busy all of these guys in this band is, they managed to find time to do it shortly after.

In the words of Mike Portnoy about how Neal finally said “ok, I’ll do another one”:
Thank you, God.

Their new record – The Whirlwind – is coming soon. It’s a good time to be a fangirl.

Disclaimers:
All facts that that are incorrect is because of my air-headedness.
My opinion of music is just that: Opinions.
All spelling errors are because I wrote all this on my iPhone, without the advantage of the red squiggly lines.