OK this is for your Tangerine Dream and electronic music lovers only please!
They are here in Australia right now and they are doing two gigs this week and fortunately I am going to both of them. They have not been here in over 25 years.
 
The first was last night in our Melbourne Town Hall which also happens to house a 10,000 pipe organ and Edgar Froese started the gig off on the organ and they magically switched to a synth pipe organ (rather seamlessly I might add) and then they kicked in with the synths. All I can say is OMG!
 
It was well over 2 1/2 hours of pure non stop Tangerine magic.  Not a chart in sight or one wrong note either.  All the music is new as well but still very much the classic Dream sound.  They have a 4th member now, a Japanese girl who looks after all the drum machines and stuff and also happens to play electric violin and cello rather incredibly.   A lot of the music is played live as well, sequencing and all.  Despite the huge room they overpowered the room seriously and it sounded quite incredible.
 
PA was over the top and loud but nowhere painful. There were 12 subs out the front plus two large line arrays and yes it was all stereo. So boohoo to people who think live gigs have to be in mono. (rubbish!!) I could hear all the stereo imaging rather well in fact, even from where I was sitting.
 
For the synth lovers out there, they used lots of Nord synths plus one DX7! Access Viruses and a whole variety of soft synths of course!  6 very large computer screens displayed the soft synths.  Anyone who think soft synths cannot cut it need to see this!  (when the music is that good it does not make a squat of difference!)  For the encore they performed a serious classical piece (Mozart perhaps not sure) and they sounded amazing. The violinist really featured in that.  Edgar must be very old.  After he played a relentless concert he came out and spoke.  He looks quite old and frail but the performance itself from him was quite amazing.
 
This Thursday they are performing in a small theatre would you believe and they are doing the entire soundtrack to 'The Sorcerer' live with visuals from the film.  That is going to be something too I know it.
 
They rule! He said he started it in 1969. 45 years is not bad.
 

Well, I'm not much of a fan...  I "only" have about 140 of their albums. 
 
I would have loved to have seen them where you did!  Ironically, I have them streaming on my iPod right now. 

I know you are all hanging on this. Well this is part 2 of my Tangerine Dream story.
 
Last night I saw the second gig of theirs.  This was quite a different setup.  This time they played in a movie theatre and were set up in front of the screen.  Much much smaller and nicer room.  A slightly less ambitious setup compared to the previous concert.  Added to this gig were 3 Moog Voyagers this time and what I think was a Prophet 12.  Still lots of Nord synths.  2 x Roland TR8 and 2 x Novation Push completes the drum machine side.  They had some real analog hardware on board though.  I felt the floor shake many times!
 
They ran the movie, (The Sorcerer) a digital rematsered new version I think with no dialogue sound but there were some subtitles.  Very cool sound in this theatre.  Like a room that sounds nice and is not adding anything too much to the overall sound.  The PA was loud but nice and very well balanced.  Much more detail to be heard on this gig.  Stereo imaging way excellent.  The music sounded more complex and dense as a result of hearing so much more up close like this.  They don't use a lot of reverbs on their parts so much.  They get lots going and the melodies take off.  The rhythm programming was exceptional.  Very cool grooves from such things as the TR8.  She had Ableton Live on a laptop too from where I was sitting.  I think there were a lot of virtual instruments inside that host.
 
They got stuck into some nice ambient soundscapes too.  (Eno like a la Ambient 4 On Land etc)  It is quite incredible hearing what 4 people can do.  They did a lot!  They mix themselves on stage with a large console. They certainly have got it down in terms of playing live and making everything happen so smoothly and seamlessly too.  They stop at times completely but also do lots of segue links.  They build ambient tension so well and burst into some very cool groove all of a sudden. 
 
Hearing their synth patches up so close was a real eye opener for me too.  It was almost a lesson in synth programming.  I was only a few meters from Edgar and I think I realised how much he has influenced me as an electronic music composer myself.  It was a strange but special feeling being there and seeing them do that.  He is a very special person in electronic music history.

That sounds like a great gig to have seen, thanks for the review.

Yeah, the score for Sorcerer is their latest album.  Still jealous!

Hi,
 
40 years ago, seeing TD live was the thing .. why? No two days would have them sounding the same, and the massive number of the bootlegs is what eventually allowed TD to release their live concerts and sell them, and they were better than the bootlegs, of course.
 
As time went buy, these things changed. I love (for example), 220 Volt Live, and there really is not as much separation between the live and studio material anymore ... and the quality still stands up. With "The Sorcerer", I think that TD was trying to raise the platform ... that live, was the ultimate because it could not be repeated anywhere else exactly like it ... right or wrong. It was a way, I think to show people that creating music right there, in front of them is quite OK and also possible, since the usual idea is that all music has to be composed, then written down, and then performed.
 
The history of music in the past 50/60 years has been mostly about breaking that cycle, and showing that something new can be done, and nowhere is this more visible in electronic music with TD, Vangelis, Klaus Schulze, Riuychi Sakamoto and many others ... that pretty much have evolved and helped define the music themselves.
 
Seen them 4 times, I think ... Santa Monica Civic on the first tour in America, The Greek Theater the following year, when they set the trees on fire, and the pictures are on the "Live in America" album, and then during the "Tangram" period, and I do not remember where, and then again around 1987 or 1988 here in Portland, OR at the Arlene Schnitzler Hall.
 
All 4 times they were fantabulous. All you had to do was close your eyes and enjoy the music!

Just heard this:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItTUb8qpUQc
 
Tangerine Dream does Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - HD
 
IMAGINE a gig like that had happened - T Dream and Floyd LIVE for one night ... just WOW
 

aidanodr
Just heard this:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItTUb8qpUQc
 
Tangerine Dream does Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - HD
 
IMAGINE a gig like that had happened - T Dream and Floyd LIVE for one night ... just WOW

Pass!
 
I would rather hear TD does Edgar Froese!

Yeah .. well I also a big Floyd nut so hearing TD doing floyd is a nice surprise to me :D
 

aidanodr
Yeah .. well I also a big Floyd nut so hearing TD doing floyd is a nice surprise to me :D

About a couple years ago, one of the big orchestras in Germany did Edgar Froese ... that's the one I want to hear! And there is a plan for doing Klaus Schulze the same way ... and that will be worth it, and I will spend all the money in my life to see it! Even if I die getting there!
 
But seeing them do PF is more of a thing for "fans" than it is about the music itself.