Rudess, Jordan And Marco Minnemann In Concert On BandCrashers.com (December 2010)

Date of Performance: December 15, 2010
Venue: Bandcrashers.com

Keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess is adding to his legacy every day. Dream Theater's longtime keyboard man is involved in many different projects concurrently during the course of the year and now his main gig is breaking from their tour prior to recording a new album after the New Year is ushered in. Welcome to the Musical Mind Meld!

Jordan is right on the cutting edge of new technologies and with the advent of a live streaming performance on BandCrashers.com on December 15th at 9:00pm EST, the delivery of a live concert event could have changed forever. And it was all for the good of music and the many fans that bought their ticket for $5.00. You heard me right, $5.00. Those kind of prices have not been a reality seen since the late 60's!

Jordan was joined for this impromptu free form jam session by the incredible drummer Marco Minnemann. Although these two artists were the main feature they were complimented most extraordinarily by Daniel Jakubovic, a superb guitar player.

As I tuned in at 9pm, when I am usually wrapping up my day and retiring for the evening, I stayed focused on my PC and made sure I was connected to my surround sound system for maximum effect. When it first came on, I was astounded at the clarity of the video and ease of use the control panel provided for the user. It's set up so anyone with any familiarity with the web and multimedia can catch on quickly, not mention the tutorial BandCrashers.com gives you after you sign up for an account.

So we were off to a good start. It started right on time and the video looked good and you had three different streaming choices to choose from. Going in I expected the typical lag times and problems along the way, I was wrong. The band had some minor issues like the mic sound not working for a few minutes between songs however that was about it. And I can think of only once when I saw a skip in the video tracking for a split second. So based on what I am accustomed to the entire event was a pleasant surprise that made me feel like I was right there in the room. At this point I was wishing I had it hooked up to my big screen because it was so excellent.

The delivery method of music has no downside for anyone. The artists do not have to worry about illegal downloading because the audience has to pay in advance before viewing. The fans get an exclusive concert delivered right to their computers and the icing on the cake is you can go log back in to stream the entire concert all over again at any segment you want. They also offer some free MP3's once the concert is over.

The viewing experience is outstanding with several camera angles to choose from. You have one main screen that you can enlarge to a full screen, which eliminates the chat room blabber that is going on, or you can choose to participate in that while watching the performance. Under the main screen there are four different views you can click on to watch. I chose the view that panned to each musician and various views of all three playing during the performance. Most of the focus was on Jordan and Marco but the talented and diverse guitar maestro Daniel Jakubovic had his moments in the sun too. He was equally impressive on acoustic and electric guitars.

What the audience was treated to was a marvelous mixture of rock, jazz, classical and Latin jazz at times, played at breakneck pace. Each musician was very qualified to be part of the display of improvisation. They had worked out a few things prior to the gig and then it jelled into individual compositions right before your eyes during the session. This was the intention all along, to come up with some basic ideas then present it to the audience and explain the patterns and scales of the music before they played. It was like a clinic and concert combined for the most scrutinizing and intelligent listeners. It reminded me of Liquid Tension Experiment or Liquid Trio Experiment, along those same lines, with the amazing playing that always has you wondering where it was going to end up or come to an end. Each musician had the opportunity to perform solo, once again supporting the very reason why they were all there to begin with.

The concert was supposed to run for two hours but it ran for over 3! All of this for $5, you're kidding right? This is for real and on the cutting edge of web technologies. What a great way for musicians to gain exposure and get something back without having everyone in the world steal what they just worked so hard to complete.

If you want to know where music is going and the next hot platform look no further than BandCrashers.com!

Photos: courtesy