2023 US Tour

[Padmachou]

(This is google translated)

A summary of the Washington concert.
I hope I am not mistaken in my memories. I will correct after the next concert if necessary.

Very nice concert. Everyone was in perfect control. The deep voices were present, with 6 boys back row and novelty, ambient microphones located in front of the 6 bigs.

A lot of echo in the huge basilica.

01) Vespera
Solo: Lucas. Couldn't see who was doing the solos. It should have been Oskar H like in April in Korea, but he wasn't on stage the whole concert. He was present at the rehearsal and signings. The concert was done at 33 and not 34.

02) Sanctus
High Notes by Luca

03) Wayfaring Stranger
Solo: Frederick H.

04) Ave Maria
Solo: Luca

05) From A Distance
Solo: Nathan

06) O Beata
Solo: Mitchel, with Victor behind him.

07) The Lighthouse
Solo: Luca, joined at the end by Daniel, Morgan, and Laurence D.

08) Voca Me
High Notes by Luca

09) Beati
Solo (at the start): Nathan and Pietro

10) Libera
Solo: Frederick M and Mitchel

11) Lux Aeterna
Introduction in plainsong, in procession in two rows, from the back of the stage, to the left and to the right.
Then solo: Morgan and Hal
Particularity: at the end the boys got into position for the next song (The Prayer), with Joseph standing in the front center and all the others kneeling behind him. Surprising to see them take the positions of the next song while still singing the previous song. The audience was unsettled and there was no applause after Lux Aeterna. There was, however, a gap between the two songs.

12) The Prayer
Solo: Joseph

13) Total Praise
New: a compact triangle formation, with Joseph at the forefront.
Solo: Joseph on the front lines. Then joined by Thomas S-H and Pietro on subsequent lines, then joined by several others, a cappella. Then everyone with music.

14) Ave Verum
Solo: Frederick M.
Small changes in the voice. He no longer makes certain long sustained notes at once but twice, beginning and end.

15) I Am The Day
Solo: Morgan.
At the end, the call between high and low notes: Thomas M and Daniel.

16) Love Shine A Light
Solo: Mitchell

17) Once An Angel
Solo: Nathan and Frederick H.

18) God Only Knows
Solo: Luca and Daniel

19) Sing For Our World
chorus

20) (encore) Smile
Solo: Mitchel with Victor behind him

Thank you for such a quick review Patrick !
I am glad to see they are training new soloists (Pietro, Thomas SH, Hal) and curious to read everyone's opinion on their performance.
I am surprised that not so many songs from the last album made it to stage. I thought Far Away and Anima Christi would be performed, though I noticed the boys sticking close to their music sheets during the mass so I deduced they were not familiar enough with the song to perform it at the concert...

[Mercurial909]

A couple of photos of the lads from Washington DC and one extra from NYC.


Few boys missing from this pic. No Freddie M, Thomas M, Freddie H, Mitchel, Koji, Laurence D, Lewis, Orlando, Morgan, Julian or Joseph.

IMG_2465.jpeg (717.18 KiB) Viewed 2299 times

IMG_2465.jpeg (717.18 KiB) Viewed 2299 times

Oscar J is m.i.a here.

IMG_2466.jpeg (773.64 KiB) Viewed 2299 times

IMG_2466.jpeg (773.64 KiB) Viewed 2299 times

Oscar J is m.i.a here too.

IMG_2467.jpeg (437.51 KiB) Viewed 2299 times

IMG_2467.jpeg (437.51 KiB) Viewed 2299 times

[dani]

Thanks for the review Patrick. I wonder why Morgan did O Beata and not Mitchel as on the album.

It looks like it was a great turn out for the boys first U.S concert in 4 years.

[john45]

Very nice concert. Everyone was in perfect control. The deep voices were present, with 6 boys back row and novelty, ambient microphones located in front of the 6 bigs.

Dominic also wore an individual mike. The "bigs" made a large and valuable contribution to several of the songs. Most impressive.

[alcesalcesobservator]

It was a wonderful concert, and I think could have pretty much been recorded as-is. All the boys did wonderfully with their solos-- Luca made Ave Maria pristinely beautiful, and the soloist for O Beata (Morgan?) surprised me with his controlled contralto/counter tenor. I noticed some bats flying around, and was surprised to see that about half the audience were Mennonite and Beachy Amish.

[Padmachou]

Here is a little contribution for those who need help with the names, or the new haircuts Sorry for Pietro and Jack though...

[JimmyRiddle]

Thanks for the reviews, thoughts and photos...lots more on social media in the usual places esp. Patrick(FDL). 30+ boys in full concert repertoire with lots of older voices, sounds like they have already hit their stride with 3 more to go. Steven G was conducting so it appears that Sam C was needed on the mixing/sound desk?

I noticed in the St Ignatius service that someone might have been trying to make Luca laugh during the highest notes on completion to Deep Peace. Didn't seem to bother him, he took it in his stride.

[Surpinto]

First of all it was great to see so many fan friends, and making some new ones. I haven't seen Libera since 2019 so being able to (re)connect with people after both the pandemic and such a long absence from the US certainly made things much more fun

So after such a long hiatus, I was by no means disappointed. I can't remember them ever being so much in top form on their first concert of a tour. They sounded amazing!

As always I'm unable to offer the type of review that others can in going song by song in detail as my memory isn't adequate to the task, however I want to offer my personal highlights and impressions. “Vespera” in concert has always been a dream and I'm so glad that I got to hear it live. I wasn't able to see who was doing the high note descants but it was confirmed to me by other fans, as well as by Nathan himself, that it was in fact Nathan doing the descants. He did an amazing job both on these high notes and on his solo on “From a Distance”. He has a very pleasant voice that I really enjoyed hearing.

I have nothing but the highest praise for Luca who delivered his solos and high notes absolutely flawlessly. It's one of those things where everything he did was perfect as he's totally indefatigable. I feel like he can sing simply anything. Obviously “Lighthouse” and “Ave Maria” were songs where he had an especially major role, and especially with the latter it was absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to hear it again!

Speaking of “Lighthouse”, this song was definitely one of my favorites at this concert. While this may seem like an unexpected choice the music itself is very unique, and in a positive way, as I commented on my review of the song when it came out as part of the album. I thought at the time that I would love to hear it in concert to see the full effect of it in a live setting, with the lighting and all of that. Well the song and its performance certainly didn't disappoint me at all. The song leads to a climactic finish where the choir is illuminated in a bright light mirroring the lyrics - beautiful!

Another highlight was “Ave Verum”. I cannot even describe how much I enjoyed this performance with Freddie’s solo. A few of us had speculated that his voice might not be up to the task at this point given his age and obvious growth spurt, but he executed it with utter perfection. Of course you can hear that his voice is in the process of changing but his level of vocal control allowed him to sing that piece with an undeniably wonderful execution. You could see on his face how much vocal control he was exercising, both in general for this piece as it's exceptionally demanding, but also because of the changes in his voice which required even more effort to control. Bravo!

Morgan on “I am the Day” was wonderful as he has that pure-as-a-bell voice that is really enjoyable.

Finishing off discussing soloists we come to Mitchel. While there have always been a few soloists who do a good job of putting emotion into a song (Daniel comes to mind for instance), I don't think I've ever seen in a live concert a boy put that much emotion into a song as he did with “Smile” which was the encore. Don't get me wrong, I get it, these are young kids and their focus is primarily on singing the proper notes and using the correct intonation and hearing each other; I don't expect the kind of emotional or expressive performance from a 12 year old as I would from an adult singer. Yet here we had Mitchel both vocally, and with his facial expressions, conveys this very sweet message asking and pleading “what's the use of crying? You'll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile”. I was really and truly touched by a song which usually does not affect me whatsoever and which I have heard live and recorded plenty of times, so no small fete for him! He also did a great job on LSAL and “O Beata”.

In summary the concert was a complete success with many songs from the new album as well as some old favorites. While I may have focused here on the soloists, as this is the variation we experience most acutely as fans, the choir as a whole did a wonderful job staying together, the lighting was fantastic, and the reverb in the cathedral was amazing allowing notes to linger for several precious seconds at the end of every song.

I can't wait to hear them again in New York!

[Luckdragon]

As always I'm unable to offer the type of review that others can in going song by song in detail as my memory isn't adequate to the task, however I want to offer my personal highlights and impressions.

I hope people aren't getting intimidated into not posting by some of our more erudite reviewers because I really enjoy reading about everyone's personal highlights and impressions, even if it's just about one song or the concert as a whole.

[fan_de_LoK]

Thanks for the review Patrick. I wonder why Morgan did O Beata and not Mitchel as on the album.

Perhaps a mistake from me.

[Mercurial909]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review, Surpinto. So glad to hear that the concert was brilliant and that the soloists all brought their A-games. especially glad to hear that boys like Mitchel and Nathan who are pretty new to touring, are becoming accomplished.

Most of all I’m glad that Freddie was able to perform Ave Verum Corpus brilliantly despite his obvious progression into the countertenor range. Did he hit the high notes or were those changed to accommodate his voice?

Also, may I ask how Daniel sounded singing God Only Knows now that he’s more of a tenor these days?

Glad you had a good time.

[Surpinto]

As always I'm unable to offer the type of review that others can in going song by song in detail as my memory isn't adequate to the task, however I want to offer my personal highlights and impressions.

I hope people aren't getting intimidated into not posting by some of our more erudite reviewers because I really enjoy reading about everyone's personal highlights and impressions, even if it's just about one song or the concert as a whole.

I hope so too! Just wait until "gingerthedog1" comes by. Now THAT's a hard act to follow.

Thanks for the review Patrick. I wonder why Morgan did O Beata and not Mitchel as on the album.

Perhaps a mistake from me.

I'm pretty certain it was Mitchel on "O Beata" as well, but my memory isn't 100% reliable with such things. We'll confirm it on Friday.

Thank you for your roundup of the songs! They helped me with my own review.

Thank you so much for your wonderful review, Surpinto. So glad to hear that the concert was brilliant and that the soloists all brought their A-games. especially glad to hear that boys like Mitchel and Nathan who are pretty new to touring, are becoming accomplished.

Most of all I’m glad that Freddie was able to perform Ave Verum Corpus brilliantly despite his obvious progression into the countertenor range. Did he hit the high notes or were those changed to accommodate his voice?

Also, may I ask how Daniel sounded singing God Only Knows now that he’s more of a tenor these days?

Glad you had a good time.

Thank you so much!

In answer to your questions:

Freddie did indeed hit the high notes and there was no modification that I could hear in any facet of the song. As for Daniel, I perhaps should have mentioned him more as he did that whole seven part harmony thing as has been described from past concerts where he leads them in showcasing the different voices of the choir. It's great!

His dedication to Libera is practically unparalleled, and you can see it on stage where he's looking after everyone and making sure nothing goes awry. As for his voice, it's definitely sliding more into the tenorish range but he's still able to sing in what I suppose would be called the alto register; though I guess it's not entirely accurate to call it that because it's lower than on the album but not in the fully-developed range either.

It was a wonderful concert, and I think could have pretty much been recorded as-is. All the boys did wonderfully with their solos-- Luca made Ave Maria pristinely beautiful, and the soloist for O Beata (Morgan?) surprised me with his controlled contralto/counter tenor. I noticed some bats flying around, and was surprised to see that about half the audience were Mennonite and Beachy Amish.

I wish you had made yourself known to so that I could have said hello. Will you be in New York?

[alcesalcesobservator]

I'm pretty certain it was Mitchel on "O Beata" as well, but my memory isn't 100% reliable with such things. We'll confirm it on Friday.

I wish you had made yourself known to so that I could have said hello. Will you be in New York?

Ah yes! I realized when I listened to the album later that I had gotten the songs mixed up. And I totally would have made myself known, had I known who to make myself known to! I don't know what anyone looks like Sadly I can't make it to New York, but those attendees will be lucky, indeed!

[fan_de_LoK]

Thanks for the review Patrick. I wonder why Morgan did O Beata and not Mitchel as on the album.

Perhaps a mistake from me.

I'm pretty certain it was Mitchel on "O Beata" as well, but my memory isn't 100% reliable with such things. We'll confirm it on Friday.

No need to wait, it was a mistake from me, it is indeed Mitchel. I fixed my post.

[bamboo]

The fan who has been posting lots of Libera videos lately posted an edited version of the boys’ Sunday church performance featuring just their performances. This one includes Freddie and Luca leading the singing of “Deep Peace”.

Any idea who the 2 soloists for Anima Christi were? They didn't sound like Joseph and Freddie from the album...

Also, Is it just me or is Luca's voice slightly different from how it used to be? In this video below, Luca's voice seems to be a little more warmer, not so sharp. Or perhaps it's just the recording quality?