Artist: SATELLITE
Album: EVENING DREAMS (DVD)

Year: 2005
Media type: DVD

For only producing two albums, Satellite has put out some of the best progressive music out today. This DVD proves that without a doubt, these guys can pull it off live. From the first notes of this concert, you realize that this is a serious force to be reckoned with in progressive music. These are seasoned professionals, being that three of the four members are formerly with Collage. This definitely shows in their performance. Each of the members is an excellent musician in their own right, and when you combine them all together, the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts.

The first song played live is “Never Never”, from their most recent (and superb) album “Evening Games”. It is performed flawlessly; sounding just like the track did on the album. This flows smoothly into the next song “Evening Games”, which is just as uplifting and anthemic as it is on the album. The chorus “One for tomorrow, and one for today, dreams… shattered memories, of my evening games” is just as majestic as it sounds on the disc. Every member has their time to shine on this song, from Robert Amirian’s soaring vocals, to Krzys Palczewski’s beautiful keyboard solos, Wojtek Szadkowski’s brilliant drumming, and Sarhan Kubeisi’s stellar guitar work. I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but this band is dead on to what was on the album.

After “Evening Games”, they take a moment to introduce all the members, and jump right into the next song, “Fight”. This song is a great motivational song from the beginning, with the first lyrics being “Fight, don’t lose your hope, don’t lose your mind”. This segues seamlessly into “Evening Wind”. This band is so polished (forgive the pun) that it took me a little while to believe that they didn’t lip-sync the whole thing. What amazes me the most is that they just started rehearsing in June, played three shows in their native Poland, and recorded this live DVD at one of them. By watching it, you’d never guess they hadn’t been touring for years. No doubt that these guys are professionals.

In the beginning you can tell that the band is still a little uneasy with being on stage, but that’s only visual, you’d never guess by listening to the music. As the concert progresses, you can see the band relaxing a bit, with Sarhan Kubeisi even wandering back and playing next to Wojtek for a while.


Before “Beautiful World”, Robert Amirian points out that this song is dedicated to the schoolchildren of Beslan, Russia, who were killed when they were held hostage for three days inside their school. The lyrics are very poignant, and the music keeps with the Satellite tradition, rocking through the whole song, and finally culminates into a fantastic drum solo between Sarhan Kubeisi and Wojtek Szadkowski.

The highlight for me… other than everything… is seeing “Evening Overture” performed live. This is one of my favorite songs ever recorded, and you can tell that the band enjoys it too. How could you not?

After the short but sweet song “Children”, the band leaves the stage… only to get called back for an encore (not surprisingly!). They play the title track from their debut album, “A Street Between Sunrise and Sunset”, much to the delight of the audience. Once again, Sarhan sets down his guitar and backs up Wojtek on the drums. They really do need two drumsets for parts of their music. This is the part of the DVD where you can tell that the band is officially having fun. After bowing and walking off stage again, they immediately return for yet another encore, reprising the title track from their second album, “Evening Games”.

This DVD is perfect in every way. The music is excellent, the theater is beautiful, the video and sound quality is unbelievable, and the extras are great as well. There is a bonus music-video style clip of “Love is Around You”, as well as a two-part documentary showing the band rehearsing and preparing for the shows.

If you’re looking for an extremely professional DVD depicting one of the premier prog bands, then this is definitely it!

TRACKLIST DVD:

Intro ~ Never Never
2. Evening Games
3. Fight
4. Evening Wind
5. Beautiful World
6. Evening Overture
7. Children
8. A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset
9. Evening Games (Encore)

DVD Bonus Videos:
1. Love is around you (Video Clip)
2. Satellite Offstage (Documentary)

DVD Bonus Audio Tracks:
1. On The Run
2. Now
3. Rush
4. Why

LINE-UP:

Robert Amirian – vocals, bass guitar
Sarhan Kubeisi – Guitars, percussion
Krzys Palczewski – Keyboards
Wojtek Szadkowski – Drums