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PlanetX - Melbourne, Australia
Planet X, Melbourne, Australia
June 15, 2001
By Dave Heargraves
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Planet X’s first Australian tour was sponsored by Vorticity Music, and timed to coincide with Drumtek’s "Ultimate Drummers Weekend". The tour started in Virgil’s hometown of Melbourne, and continued around the country before returning for a final show back in Melbourne.
Derek Sherinian – keyboards
Tony MacAlpine – guitar
Virgil Donati – drums
Dave La Rue – bass
The big surprise at the final show was an announcement informing us that the concert was being recorded for a live album. I was later informed that the album would be called Live from Oz and it should be released sometime after the band’s next studio album, sometime next year.
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The band’s performance at each gig was nothing short of astonishing, leaving most in attendance with little doubt that they were watching four of the most talented men ever to stand on the same stage in this country.
The set list (as taken from the official website) was:
Clonus
Inside Black
Warfinger
Atlantis
Apocalypse 1470 BC
Sea of Antiquity
Lost Island
New MacAlpine Song
Her Animal
Inertia
New Virgil Song
Dog boots
Europa
Pods of Trance
The highlight of the set was the epic “Atlantis”, which left the audience in what I would describe as a state of “stupefied disbelief”. The band actually repeated this song for their encore, apparently because they weren’t happy with how they’d played it the first time, and they wanted to “cut it right” for the live album.
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Other highlights included individual solos from each of the musicians, where Virgil got a huge response from his home crowd, as did everyone else – especially Derek when he teased us with the intro to “Lines in the sand”, which he had played with Dream Theater.
Overall, I’d have to say that these were two of the best gigs I have ever seen, and to top it all off, the band showed their appreciation by spending some time shaking hands and signing autographs after the show.
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