Concert Review: Manticore (Emerson, Lake & Palmer Tribute) @ The Linda, 04/22/2023

There aren’t many tribute bands out there devoted to the music of the prog-rock legends Emerson Lake and Palmer. The reason is pretty obvious. You have to have your chops together, seriously, to navigate the canon of the three virtuosos who made up that seminal band.

ELP, as they became known, formed in 1970 and were often regarded as the first prog “supergroup” due to their previous resumes. Keith Emerson was a classically trained keyboard player who had attracted attention in proto-proggers The Nice, his bravura soloing soon dispensing with the need for a lead guitarist. Greg Lake, an accomplished bass player, and guitarist, also possessed a mellifluous vocal ability and had been a founding member of King Crimson, appearing on that bands iconic debut album, “In the Court of The Crimson King.” And Carl Palmer, a dynamic drummer just barely out of his teens, had already served an apprenticeship with both The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster. Hard to believe now, but those three young Englishmen, with a bewildering and complex style, borrowing from classical themes, jazz improvisation, and more direct original rock compositions, went on to sell an astonishing 30 million albums.

Now you ask the regular “bloke on the street” about ELP today, and I’m sure you will mostly get a blank stare. But prog fans are a breed unto themselves, loyal, passionate, and obsessed to a train spotter degree (I know, I’m one.) If you want to play ELP music, you better have your sh*t together.

Manticore does.

Right from the opening notes of “Trilogy,” I was relieved and then enchanted. Keyboard player Rob Shepard immediately evokes nostalgia with his rack of instruments. Not one solitary keyboard for this Brooklyn native; he has a Hammond SK 2, a Yamaha Motif EM8, a Yamaha S 30, an Alesis Micron, and a Behringer Deep Mind 6 (that was for the gearheads out there), all employed to recreate the Emerson sound. Which he does. Magnificently. His solo in “Fanfare,” where he steps out and around his Hammond, essentially playing it upside down, adding Bach’s Toccata and Orff’s Carmina Burana to the Copland riff, is astonishing.

Center stage, John Cristando blazes away tirelessly, adding lighter moments such as when he clambers above his kit to goofily play one note on a triangle amidst the maelstrom of sound and when he pauses his excellent solo in “Karn Evil 9” to ask the audience which of his giant gongs he should hit first. The band is clearly having a blast, which transmits to the audience.

Stage left, Ron Ponella, has the difficult job of covering the contributions of Greg Lake. No problem. His bass and guitar playing are crisp and on point, as are his vocals, sounding uncannily like Lake sometimes. He is also a personable and cheerful frontman with an easy rapport with the crowd.

Sadly, Emerson and Lake are no longer with us. Palmer continues to represent their music with his trio, re-imagining the material as an instrumental guitar, bass, and drums power trio. I saw them at Cohoes Music Hall in 2018, and they were superb, my favorite concert of that year. He is touring a tribute show featuring projections and recordings of his late bandmates and live musical accompaniment.

But if you want to see ELP live music “in the flesh,” you can do no better than Manticore.

“Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends?”

Quite possibly, with the caliber of players like Shepard, Ponella, and Cristando to continue the legacy.

Thanks again to The Linda for showcasing this wonderful genre over the last two months. Here’s to Mardi Prog III.

Setlist:

• Trilogy
• The Barbarian
• Infinite Space
• Hoedown
• Jerusalem
• The Endless Enigma
• Tarkus
• Fanfare for the Common Man/ Rondo
• Lucky Man
• Benny the Bouncer
• Karn Evil 9 – First Impression
• Drum solo
• Karn Evil 9 – Third Impression
• Pirates