After an exquisite set by The Flower Kings, Neal Morse took the stage at Le Trianon in Paris for the French debut of The Resonance, a new band built to execute his vision. The musicians may be younger, but the music is still pure Neal Morse—instantly recognizable. The band’s debut album, No Hill For A Climber (2024), as usual, boasts spiritual epics with complex structures, highly melodic vocal and instrumental passages, and a sweeping, cinematic scope. Live, the songs are played to perfection but with soul and intent—not sterile, studious renditions, but expert translations for the stage. Morse remains an earnest and engaging frontman—not playing the part of a rock star, but a storyteller acting out the roles in his fables and fantastical allegories.
The first thing you notice is the sheer energy this band brings to the stage. Maybe that's what inspired Morse to write some of the heaviest passages of his career—passages that, of course, go down swimmingly in a live setting. The second thing is that Morse now seems content to delegate much of the lead vocal work to Johnny Bisaha, whose voice shifts effortlessly between elfin prog tweets and full-throated rock screams. Lead guitarist Andre Madatian also shines, delivering sinuous riffs and elegiac solos with finesse.
But even as he shines a spotlight on his new recruits, center stage still belongs to Neal Morse and his grandiose compositions. As powerful as these songs are on record, they truly come to life on stage.
For the encore, Morse brought out Roine Stolt of The Flower Kings for excerpts from the Transatlantic favorite Stranger In Your Soul. And then, the real treat: after the lights had come back up, Morse and Stolt returned—just the two of them—for an emotional rendition of Bridge Across Forever, closing out a spectacular night of progressive music.
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