It's hard to keep up with a band who releases as prolific amount of material as Marillion does. They have managed to put out something new every year since their 1983 debut, Script for a Jester's Tear, whether it be a new studio album, a new live album, a new compilation album, a new concert DVD, or one of their many fan club releases.
I last checked in on the Marillion camp when I reviewed their excellent 2005 concert DVD, Marbles On The Road, and I figured I was past due to check in on them again. I have not had a chance to pick up their latest album, last year's Somewhere Else, yet, but this new concert DVD covers every song from that album in one form or another.
Somewhere In London was filmed over the final two nights of Marillion's Somewhere Else tour at The Forum, Kentish Town, London, on the 15th and 16th of June 2007. The band performed 22 different songs between the two shows, and every single one of them was included on this teeming two-disk set. Disk one includes the feature-length concert film, and disk two contains seven other songs that were also performed during the two shows, along with some other great special features.
The show kicks off in dramatic fashion as the darkened stage is awakened by some dimly pulsating spotlights, and the intro music to "Splintering Heart" ignites the crowd. Steve Hogarth casually walks out to a barely illuminated stage and begins to pour his heart out over the song's first couple of verses, as he is bathed in an ominous red hue from below. Right after he screams the line "...but not as much as this!," the light show explodes into a dazzling display of lights and colors and Steve Rothery follows with one of the best guitar solos in his repertoire. What an opener.
From there, the band showcases seven songs from the new Somewhere Else album, with only a couple of Marbles tracks mixed in between. What you think of the Somewhere Else album is what will mostly determine whether you find this to be the best Marillion DVD ever, or simply just a very, very good one.
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