I'm 54 and this was my 3rd Procol Harum concert. I was spoiled and got to see them back in the day when they played with the LA Philharmonic orchestra at the Hollywood bowl on their "Salty Dog" tour. That was amazing.
This venue was fantastic. The old Orphelm theater in downtown LA which is set up like an old Opra house. Fantastic acustics and I was nearly directly infront of them about 19 rows back on the floor.
Sound level was good except perhaps the organ player was just a tad too loud towards the end of the show and the lead guitar was way too low for the first 3 songs, but perfect after that. To get ultra nit picky I'd say the drummer volume was just a tad too low overall. Still it was very close to perfect for the most part.
The set:
Lots of stuff I was unfamilure with, but some fantastic new songs and songs from 2003 that I was unaware of.
Old favorites included Simple Sister, Whisky Train (first time I ever heard it live), Salty Dog, The Grand Hotel, Whiter Shade of Pale. All great.
Entertainment value:
It came off as them just starting to come together as a band. Often discussing what key they'd be playing in and reminding each other of what song was next. Even had one miss start where the lead vocalist forgot to start playing the piano. He played it off and joked about it and several other subjects inbetween songs and he was very entertaining and gave the crowd a real feeling of closeness and comradery.
Lead vocal:
Much to my shock, he has the exact same range as he always had. Sounded exactly the same as he did in the 70s. His voice never cracked even on the high notes of Simple Sister.
Lead guitar:
For the first 3 songs I thought he was just some hack playing in the back round. After that he was outstanding with several incredible leads some of which took my breath away. I think there was an amp problem with him for those first 3 songs.
Bass player:
Most talented player in the group. Don't know where they dug him up, but he was fricken amazing.
Drummer:
Had a fantastic solo. Suffered from his volume being a little understated imho. Played great though.
Lead vocal piano playing:
Good, not great. Suffered from the lack of Grand Piano I was used to seeing him play. Playing one of those bar room eletronic pianos and the sound suffered a bit from it. Still very good though.
Organ player: Volume was too loud on some of the songs. Probably the least talented of the group, but did well for the most part.
I gave it 4 stars because of the eletronic piano, average organ player and volume combinations of each intrument many of the songs as noted above.