Marillion Live at Warsaw Stodoła 29-11-12

Again, I was down at Warsaw Stodoła on Thursday night to see Marillion, one of my favourite bands.  Me and my friend Romek got down there early, so that we could catch the Polish support band, Tides From Nebula, who I managed to get a few small mobile phone shots of:

Just like doing this for a bit of fun, as it's a real challenge getting anything out of my small mobile phone.  As for Tides From Nebula, they were fine if you like mystical-type build ups and lots of feedback, which I don't mind at all. 

And what about Marillion?  Well, like anybody else who's been following the recent setlists on marillion.com, I was able to more or less predict the Warsaw setlist in advance (not 100% of course) which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  For example, it was a dead cert that they would be coming on with 'Gaza', but I was kind of guessing whether 'Ocean Cloud' would be the second song of the night or played later?  What surprised me in particular was how well 'Gaza' works live, as the clips below show (many thanks to the people who put the clips on Youtube today):

For me, 'Gaza' may not be the best song the band have ever done, but it carries a certain mystique live, the value of watching a band enjoying being experimental, and the crowd appreciating this.  After 'Gaza', 'Warm Wet Circles' (one of two, I think, Fish-era songs done during the set) provided a nice change in tempo:

In all, Marillion were on stage for well over two hours, and I, for one, lapped it up.  Really glad they did some of my favourite songs such as 'You're Gone'; 'King' (on this occasion devoted to Whitney Houston); 'Neverland'; and 'Ocean Cloud' and 'The Invisible Man' (both worked well as epic-type encores).  Here is the band doing 'Neverland' below. 

And when they did 'Sounds That Can't Be Made' and 'The Sky Above The Rain' (both more than decent tracks from the new album, but just not my favourites), it was simply time to go and grab a pint in the hallway.  Yes, it was that incredibly beautiful hallway/bar area again:

As for the encores, well they lasted about 40 minutes in themselves ('Ocean Cloud' + 'The Invisible Man' + 'Garden Party', the other Fish-era tune of the night).  Yes, it was great to see a band serving up a full show.

And what about the personal touches during the concert, well once or twice the band were called upon to improvise which was great:

Yes, being the last concert of the current leg of a mammoth tour, the band were clearly having fun and serving up a treat.

At the end, I was just left asking myself why I seem to enjoy Prog concerts more than any other kind of concerts that I go to, and the answer lies not only in the quality of the bands themselves, but also the quality of the people who attend these concerts.  The Stodoła was almost as packed out for Marillion as Archive, but there wasn't the same degree of discomfort, which speaks volumes for the quality of the people there.