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Although a longtime fan of progressive rock and it's various sub-genres "Marbles on the Road" is the first purchase of a Marillion CD or DVD and while some argue that Marillion is a shell of it's former self when it was fronted by well-loved Fish I'm happy to report that as a unfamilliar listener this is a powerful band that aquits itself nicely in all ways. As mentioned by another reviewer, the show is entertaining with charming banter with the audience and in general by lead vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Steve Hogarth.The guitar playing of Steve Rothery is wonderfully understated compared to many of the live performances of other neo-prog bands I've watched within a similar timeframe of 2003 - 2005. Rothery plays assured, moderately slow to fast, mostly melodic guitar and is equally adept at rhythm and lead. His leads are distinctive with strong beginning middle and endings. Whilest live, it is obvious that Rothery knows his instrument, knows how to play it well and most important, has a fine band to work with. It is a pleasure hearing actual endings to solos. This might sound simple and as a guitarist of 35+ years myself, I expect this from any performing artist, yet this is sadly not the case, and frequently not in prog based songs!Stylestically Rothery is old school melodic. His playing has a refreshing economy of notes, sounds you can hear the first time and enjoy more upon further viewing. Besides his economical sound that often reminds of David Rhodes of Peter Gabriel and studio session fame, the solos serve the music, not the guitarist's myth or ego.Listen to guitar gods such as Dream Theater's John Petrucci. He has tons of technique, plays at a furious pace and occasionally brings some melodic technique to his guitar parts. What he lacks compared to a guitarist like Rothery is the capability of functioning within the song as opposed to parts that oft sound like Dream Theater wrote the section where Petrucci unleashes to suit his incredible technique. And there is no question, guys like Petrucci have awesome, in many cases nearly impossible to copy speed and accuracy. But as a guitarist he lacks challenge to play with his heart rather than his mind. As a result I crave players like Steve Rothery as I know I'm going to hear smartly played guitar at many speeds and styles appropriate to the music he is involved in at the time he's playing. Listeners should consider things like this. It is a style of playing that is difficult to be taught. It requires a sense of soul, so cheers for the excellent guitar work.In fact, every instrumentalist, and even lead singer Steve Hogarth demonstrate tasteful choices in their playing besides high capabilities as a musician.In prog music the bassist is frequently more important than many other rock genres. As I've grown to expect from Pete Trewavas there is tons of style and flair tempered by keeping the rhythm of the song together while using the right places for some excellent fills. While Trewavas isn't a "lead bassist" ala Chris Squire he is an experienced player familiar with prog and traditional song forms within rock. His playing is also ecconomical so that anything extra has meaning. This is such a strong capability that it can't be mentioned enough. Every instrumentalist in Marillion knows their stuff and doesn't waste the audience's time with super fast riffs that might not hit the mark upon finish as many progressive bassists seem to do. If I were to suggest how to learn to play (mostly) picked bass I'd recommend Pete Trawavas. Beside Chris Squire, John Wetton and Tony Levin, there are few bassists that I admire. No wonder prog oriented "super groups like Transatlantic and The Tangent feature Trawavas on bass. He's rock steady and tasteful.Drummer, Ian Mosley is another near-perfect example of a player at the top of their game. His beats are true, his fills are tasteful even if he doesn't play in a high octane style like Bill Bruford or Steve Portnoy. Again, I'd like to see the latter drummers working within a more song oriented format that doesn't allow the indulgence their other projects and bands afford them. As a musician it is something I've grown to appreciate with other musicians - the ability to play within the music they are working in. Ian Mosley does excellent work in the more song based Marillion than many of the possibly better known progressive drummers. I may be wrong about Mosley's reputation. In fact, I hope I am, he's a hell of a drummer that demonstrates creative grooves within a fairly high structure environment that Marillion is, and that is in some fans unforgiven for daring to change over 25 years.Last but far from least, Ian Mosley follows the trend within Marillion and delivers nicely paced, high quality playing in, from what I've heard, the least derivative neo-prog band out there. But that's something that might go unnoticed. After all, Marillion were the next wave of progressive and only by a few years difference from bands like Genesis, Gentle Giant and Yes. Mosley doesn't have a section of this concert dedicated to his keyboard playing, nor do any of the other Marillion players. They play their part in a greater whole and make compelling music that, to this somewhat jaded listener, brings a nice degree of relief.I'm a fan of The Flower Kings. I admire their ability to remind me of the past while keeping themselves rooted in the now. I see Marillion as a near polar opposite to TFK. They show up to play, seem to have fun playing and make really well written music soung fresh and highly entertaining. Everyone in the band has a place, understands it and seems to revel in their art as a whole, something I don't feel from many prog or prog flavored bands of the day. Mostly, I hear bands with moderately good songwriting...and lets face it, no matter how great an instrumentalist one is, they're going nowhere if they aren't songwriters or part of a band adept at good songwriting. It's not a nice thing to have, in a technically adept form of music such as progressive you must be a fully rounded artist. And while some may disagree, I find myself playing "Marbles on the Road" frequently, especially because it is so well performed and because the band seem to be having a great time live. You can tell as the various cameras, 15 in all, pan around the band showing smiles and the joy of playing music among these artists.The stage personna of Steve Hogarth is warm and friendly. Genuinely pleased to talk and joke with the audience and the other band members, his performance seems enhanced by the interaction, particularly later in the night as he delights in playing, literally, to a camera projecting across a overhead monitor his pleasure of playing to and with the audience.Shots I usually don't enjoy, audience participation, impress as this audience not only mouths along the words to almost all the songs, but can sing the parts Hogarth implores them to help out with. And quite often, this aspect of the concert soon becomes a mess, but thanks to the folks that designed the shoot and set up sound, the audience participation drops the level of sound quality a bit, it is made up for in their adept perfomance of Marillion's catalog!In all this is an energetic show that I would have hoped for as a kid and expected to see in a band of younger players. Keeping in mind that they youngest player had to be at minimum 40 years old, and probably older, the performance is energetic and charming.As all these songs were new to me I consider myself a typical first time listener. Perhaps that isn't true completely. I tend to be kind to musicians having been in that set of shoes to some degree. But without doubt, other than "The Invisible Man" the music seemed organic yet strongly structured with wonderful moments of ensemble playing just begging, and frequently enough, being given the opportunity of launching into structural segments and areas nicely set up for soloing which often enough break into the segments expecte, yet also playing with the listener in a pleasant way by means of good songwriting and arrangements so that there are more than a few peasantly unexpected moments.Besides wonderful performances the high number of "Marbles" based tracks work well against the background of what must be "classic" Marillion songs, or at the least, well known songs.The singing is well performed with tasteful harmonies, more so by Trewavas and sometimes keyboardist Mark Kelly. Quite honestly there is nothing I can fault other than a series of defects of the DVD.I like the performance so much that in my return info I made it clear I'd keep the defective disc rather than take money back. Then again, the defects are minor. Annoying but not worth losinig the performance. I'm a stickler for details and defects bother me, but this is a quite nice DVD that I'd prefer not doing without.There are extras including somewhat edited videos assembled for the tour. There's also a stylized interview montage. Montages are nice but tiring, even if informative, after 3 minutes. Still, it's free and worth watching, more to the involvement you have with the band.The camera work ranges from good to excellent, maintaining a fantastic audience's perspective. Sound-wise there are a few segnebts were the mix collapses, always when the audience sings along. I'm nit picking as this was a entertaining experience of a band playing to an appreciative home crowd and giving a hell of a good performance in return, much to the fortunate concert goers and those of us who bought this likeable video.Strongly recommended!