The man who put the “Palmer” in Emerson, Lake & Palmer is continuing the band’s legacy with a reunion tour of sorts.
In a recent phone interview ahead of a show set for July 15 at the Lorain Palace Theatre, Carl Palmer says he won’t stop until he’s toured the show all around the world.
As the sole surviving member of one of the best-selling rock bands birthed in the 1970s, Palmer needed to get creative to bring the best version of band’s music on the road. He wanted to create a production that would feel authentic to the memory and talent of his late bandmates Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, who died just nine months apart in 2016.
“The actual feeling of it (the show) is fantastic because it’s from the point of view that I’m actually playing with Greg and Keith as if they were there,” Palmer says. “This is as close as you can get.”
The recipe for this digital reunion includes some film the band made from a sold-out run at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1992, mixed with sterling audio tracks from their performances, plus an onstage performance from Palmer’s band.
“This is Greg and Keith on film on huge screens on each side of the stage and one downstage. This is basically them at their very best,” Palmer says.
He adds that the sound quality is “perfect” because the audio was recorded separately.
His band features Paul Bielatowicz on lead guitar and Simon Fitzpatrick on the Chapman stick.
He says you can expect hits such as “Hoe Down,” “Tarkus” and more.
“This is something that both of the guys would have absolutely loved. It’s technology at its very best, and its real, its honest, it’s to the point, and most of all, it’s them — it’s not a hologram,” he says.
At first, Palmer toyed with the idea of using holograms for these shows, viewing some options in Los Angeles and Canada, but says it ultimately didn’t feel like the most honest way to portray his friends.
“It was a bit spooky, you know?” he says. “I noticed when I moved around the theater from different angles, the holograms looked different. They were OK, but it wasn’t the way I would want to do it, and it wasn’t the way I think Greg and Keith would have liked to be represented.”
It may seem difficult to play the original music without your original bandmates, but Palmer says he worked through the emotions during the several weeks it took him to edit the film ahead of the tour.
“By the time I (started) played the shows last November, it was down to business and ‘Let’s have some fun,’” he says.
Dubbed “The Return of Emerson, Lake & Palmer,” the tour launched late last year with full approval of the Emerson and Lake estates.
Palmer says it didn’t take any arm-twisting to convince the families to give their blessings to the tour.
“The families are totally behind this particular concert,” he says. “It seemed to be the most honest way we could actually portray Greg and Keith appearing as they are, as they were, as the best they could have ever been.”
“This is technology at its very best,” Palmer says.
‘The Return of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’
When: 7:30 p.m. July. 15.
Where: Lorain Palace Theatre, 617 Broadway.
Tickets: $40 to $60, with VIP add-on available.
Info: lorainpalace.org or 440-245-2323.