IQ - Scrape Across The Sky

(Blu ray 2017, 285 min, Giant Electric Pea‎- GEPBD9006)

The tracks:
The Famous Christmas Bash (1:53:34)
  1- Intro
  2- Awake And Nervous
  3- The Darkest Hour
  4- From The Outside In
  5- The Road Of Bones
  6- Frequency
  7- Without Walls
  8- Ocean
  9- Leap of Faith
10- Until The End
11- Outer Limits
12- The Seventh House
Extras:
  1- The Encores (00:19:10)
         - Ten Million Demons
         - Widow's Peak
  2- Until The End- Lorelei 2014 (00:11:43)
  3- The Projections (2:12:14)
  4- The Art Of The Road Of Bones (00:14:00)
         - Peter Nicholls in conversation with Tony Lythgoe,
           graphic artist and designer
  5- Photo Gallery (00:07:22)

Website      GEP
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IQ's first Blu-Ray!As stated on the GEP website.I've seen the show and CD presentation of The Road Of Bones in the Islington Assembly Hall. I enjoyed that show very much. So I hope this one will be at least as good.And rest assured, it is!

The setlist on this show is slightly different, as it was played 6 months later. IQ doesn't make a secret of it: They love 'De Boerderij' so much that IQ's 'legendary Christmas Bash' is presented here regularly too, as is this one.
From the first Dutch show in 1986 (a double concert with Pallas in Paradiso Amsterdam) until the above mentioned show I've seen IQ regularly. And they never bore!The show on this Blu-ray can be described as one of the better gigs in the history of the band.I think most of you know IQ. So it would be needless to say that the old songs like Awake And Nervous, Outer Limits and Widow's Peak belong in an IQ set, and still sound awesome!
But also the newer songs from The Road Of Bones (2014, see review) and Frequency (2009, see review) are good compositions, and prove to be 'epic' when performed on stage. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to choose from such a rich history of songs to compose a setlist that keeps everyone satisfied. Peter Nicholls performs great and his voice sounds good! And old faithful's Michael Holmes (guitars, backing vocals), Paul Cook (drums, percussion) and Tim Esau (bass guitar, bass pedal, backing vocals) play an excellent show. Neil Durant has proven himself to be an excellent successor to Martin Orford (and Mark Westworth), what a fantastic keyboardist!
One thing that IQ still does, is to use a drum computer (on Without Walls). It still gives me the creeps. In my opinion they should have thrown it in the trash since Barbell Is In. But that's my only complaint. The extras on this Blu-ray show us 2 encores as mentioned on the track list and even in Christmas (bash) outfits, they still kick it. The special version of Ten Million Demons is fantastic, I like the humor of IQ. An excellent performance, in beautiful quality, picture and sound. Although the 5.1 mix sounds quite modest, it's done well enough to let you experience the live show as if you were there.

A must have for every IQ fan. And if you don't have a Blu-ray player, buy one!



***** Erik van Os (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen)

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