Yestival: Carl Palmer at PNC Bank Center, Holmdel 12 Aug 2017

It was hot in Holmdel.  Very hot.  It's the last night of our three night run of Yestivals.

And here's Carl Palmer, the man whom members of the previous evening's audience were still not convinced was actually alive even after watching him perform for half an hour.  Would he convince them tonight?

Initially though, the audience weren't impressed.  In fact, a lot of them weren't even there.

Obviously, Carl would have to up his game.  This was going to be tough. 

"Are you impressed yet, Holmdel??"

Maybe a pink shirt wasn't such a great idea for hiding the sweatiness.

In a final attempt to impress, Carl got out his big furry drum bats during Fanfare for the Common Man, and proceeded to give it laldy on the gongs.

 

Success!  Gongs well and truly skelped, he chucked his bats over his shoulder.

See you next time for a two hour session folks...!

Yestival: Carl Palmer at MGM Grand at Foxwoods, Mashantucket, 10 August 2017

Here's a few photos of drumming legend Carl Palmer doing the opening set at the US tour of the Yestival.  This is the concert at Foxwoods, a giant casino in the middle of a forest in Connecticut.

Carl only got half an hour for his ELP Legacy Band (something he rather pointedly mentioned every time at the end), so his set consisted of only five songs - Hoedown, an ironic burst of Karn Evil 9 ('Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends...'), Knife Edge, Lucky Man, and Fanfare for the Common Man.

There were two large screens at either side of the stage, which were difficult to see if you were sitting (like me) down at the front.  The show started with a video of incongruous ELP-citiing clips from iconic American shows such as Jeopardy and the Simpsons which introduced the band on stage.  The band consists of a pared down threesome of Carl plus a handsome youngster on bass and a long-haired child on guitar.

During the songs, they played manly clips of daredevil cowboys being thrown from bucking broncos for Hoedown, and manly daredevil men being thrown from motorbikes and speedboats for Knife Edge.  Yes, there was a whole lot of daring manliness going on in Carl's videos.  Mind you, being last man standing out of Emerson, Lake and Palmer is a daring and manly feat in itself.

Anyway, here he is, the man who has found the fount of eternal youth.  He's 67, folks.

Bassist Simon Fitzpatrick. 

Lucky Man.

Look, no hands!  Fanfare for the Common Man.

"I'll be back soon and I'll do two hours!" shouted Carl, who had hardly broken sweat.