When Neal Morse quit Spock's Beard back in 2002, I lost much of my interest in the band. To me, Spock's Beard without Neal Morse, was kind of like Wings without Paul McCartney. Morse wrote the music and lyrics to almost all of the band's songs, and he was the one who really defined them.

The recent Spock's Beard saga leaves obvious comparisons to when Phil Collins stepped out from behind his drum kit to lead Genesis after Peter Gabriel left the band. Drummer Nick D'Virgilio has followed in Collins footsteps to become the new frontman of Spock's Beard, and like Morse, he is a very talented multi-instrumentalist (drums, guitars, keyboards), and is also a fine singer.

Genesis was able to move forward relatively easily after Gabriel's departure, since all of the other band members were also significant songwriters, but Spock's Beard faced a more imposing dilemma now that their only real songwriter was gone. They have relied heavily on outside songwriters on the three post-Morse albums, and their struggle to redefine themselves has been obvious. What is promising though, is that each successive album has been an improvement over the last.

I last saw Spock's Beard in concert while they were touring in support of their excellent V album. It was a small club, and the turnout was meager, but the few of us who were smart enough to be there witnessed an amazing performance. It still kills me that progressive rock has not really caught on here in the U.S. like it has in Europe. The Beard have always been a great live band, and this new DVD proves that they, Morse, or no Morse, definitely still are. Now if Neal's brother Alan left too, then that might be a different story.

Spock's Beard Live was recorded at De Boerderij in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands on May 25, 2007. It was kinda strange at first seeing D'Virgilio at the front of the stage strumming a guitar and singing lead, but he quickly proves his mettle. The opening number, "On A Perfect Day", is one of the band's best new songs from their latest album, Spock's Beard, and it sounded incredible here. That album was heavily favored throughout the show, but there was also plenty of songs from the Morse era performed.

Other performance highlights were a ripping version of "Crack The Big Sky", in which Dave Meros steals the show with his incredible bass work. He really shines throughout the whole concert. The band closes out the first set with their latest multi-part epic, "As Far As The Mind Can See", followed by an explosive "Rearranged", which takes you on an amazing journey through all of the bands many musical styles. Few band's can transition between the pop-jazz of Toto, to the metallic-prog of Dream Theater quite as smoothly as the Beard can.

The setlist was a little bit of a let down for me. I can understand that they wanted to focus on the new album, and not repeat too much of their previous live album, 2005's Gluttons for Punishment, but that doesn't mean they had to almost completely ignore their other two post-Morse studio albums. Feel Euphoria was completely ignored, and "Surfing Down The Avalanche" was the only song played from the Octane album. A nice surprise, however, was "Return To Whatever", which comes from Alan Morse's instrumental fusion album, 4 O'clock & Hysteria.