My drummer saw it last week and said that there wasn't any sequencing or backing tracks in the production. I would find that a little hard to believe. What's your folks take?

you ever hear a Dane howl? It doesn't sound like any other dog, and certainly not like a wolf or coyote. My Dane howls at the siren from the fire house that is a couple blocks away from us. It is a deep, mournful sound, not a high pitched sound like most people think of when they hear a howl.

Sorry for the sidebar, I thought it was interesting that they'd consider a Dane for making the howls.

There are mac laptops on stage. I assumed they are used for sequences. Also there is song that starts with a very electronic beat and sugarfoot is playing some acoustic drums over it.

I'm not really at liberty to speak about what I know about the show, unless it's all been made public by now (perhaps in those various articles and interviews in Keyboard last month, which I've only had time to skim thus far), but remember that computers are often used on-stage for Virtual Instruments, not just sequences.

There was plenty of backing stuff going on. All of the players involved are world class and carried their own weight. Some of the production had heavy visual requirements the dictate a timing reference. This is not unusual.

Agreed. But I also know that because of the editing we were only being showed michael at his best. I wonder what was cut that might have been revealing about his condition. I'm familiar with the concept of "walk through"s but I doubt he was anywhere near his abilities of 20 years ago.
Still would have been an unbelievable performance.
JP

If they were using sequences it was far from obvious and it was certainly the live playing that predominated.

Not surprisingly MJ knew exactly what he wanted to hear musically and took control when he needed to.
What WAS surprising to me was that he was equally involved in the other dancers' choreography, the lighting, the cinematography etc.

JP

Hmmm... I remember seeing a couple of M3's in the main keyboardist's rig, and I also saw Moog Voyagers in both rigs. I don't remember seeing some of the other items from the list above.

I liked the movie overall and the extent of the behind-the-scenes production stuff. I also really liked seeing that MJ wasn't sickly (hell, I wish I could move like that, and I'm not even 50 yet). I also really liked how hands on he was with the production.

Great gearspotting film!

Saw the film with my wife. I thought it was amazing. The memories from the songs, the musicians, the lighting and pyro,the gear, the dancing, all great.

As to MJ not looking as sharp, I had a different take on it. It looked to me like he was doing a walk through and also thinking about "maybe if I do this and not that, or if ...." always looking for a way to make the production better.

I didn't like all the yes men around. IMO, I think that was a large part of his problems, nobody wanted to tell him no.

I hope that they release this on DVD with a full dress rehearsal at the end. I'd buy it.