To Illusion: Yeah. I never lived through (well technically I was ALIVE) the Naveed–Spiritual Machines era either, I only became a fan post-Gravity. I didn't even know they had changed guitarists at that time.
But let me remind you, the song was still pretty sweet, and was definitely better than most of the songs on HIPT (in my opinion).
And let's not forget two things: This is only one song of at least TWELVE, and I completely loved the "Happiness" album but didn't like "Consequence of Laughing", so let's not worry yet.
And second, in accordance with OLP's MySpace, this song was recorded back in late 2007 (Mazur says "a song about looking over your shoulder", and Dreamland has that lyric), and Raine was only interviewed by the Gazette in 2008, where he was asked about pre-Gravity being more "metaphorical" and he answered "Yeah, (B0b) Rock pushed me in that (new) direction... Im not comfortble with that... I'd like to get back to that (old) place". So... who knows, maybe some other songs throw back to Naveed (think "Life" from SM being almost Gravity-like.. I originally thought it was on Gravity).
Also, I wanted to mention that Raine's falsetto seemed to be much better at this concert than it has been in many recent concert performances I've seen on YouTube from 2005 and 2006 or so, he was able to reach the high notes on "In Repair" and sang "One Man Army" very good, although did forget some lyrics here and there (understandable).
And to close this post (surely won't be my last
), I'll give you a little background on myself. The first OLP song to enter my ears was "Thief" around 2002, and since then I've been hooked. Gravity was the first album I bought, and Spiritual Machines was the last album I listened to in full (big mistake), and the latter album now ranks as one of my faves. I became a full-on unhealthily obsessed OLP fan around mid-to-end 2007.
Any more Q`s about the concert or any of my opinions or otherwise, shout me out. Great finally being a part of the club.
PS—From my (hazy) memory, I also note that "Dreamland" had decently metaphorical lyrics, but that Raine's low-octave vocals and the music style were most reminiscent of their tenure with the oh-so-lovely Bob Rock. The lyrics weren't as metaphorical and out there as, say, "Stealing Babies", but was better than "Somwhere Out There"`s attempt at originality.
. And Raine said he was "very nervous" about playing the song. I forgot to mention that. It seems he really wants to re-connect with the fans with this new album. He also introduced the song as a "lullaby", so maybe it's the 4 AM of the 2008 album?
</center>
