Good quality audience recording. Quite a bit of whooping and a hollerin' in places.
Four dates into a lenghty european tour before a quick jaunt back home and then off to the Antipodes and another inevitable line-up change. Whenever it all gets too slick and rock and roll Mark seems to change it. This is exceptionally well honed and delivered with slick professionalism perhaps indicating that a change would come sooner rather than later.
Notable things are Bramahs propensity to solo whenever he gets the chance and Craigs extensive use of scrapy slide guitar in a pseudo violin type fashion. All of the material from "Extricate" is played with some skill and the two guitar line up appears to work well if a little too rock and roll in places. Oddly Hanley is fairly inaudible until the signature "Chicago Now" as the drums and the keys dominate.
Nothing stands out as spectacular other than Wolstencrofts drumming which is particularly vital this evening. In parts Mark seems disinterested in what he is doing and in others he is chucking words about with effortless good humour. He is particularly good on "Black Monk" however mostly inaudible on "Popcorn" the key of which does not appear to him. I was oddly reminded of ELO when listening to the latter - which is somewhat disturbing in hindsight.
The keyboard playing tends to subsitute for the woodwinds from the album and the effect is always great. There is an oddly constipated feel to "Bremen Nacht" which has some horrible guitar soloing in it from Bramah. "Rebel" works well as it reverts to a motorik thump and is not to flashy other than oddly innappropriate football chant choruses. Even the dependable "Pharmacist" feels a little lumpen and the guitar break is completely screwed. "US80s90s" features some really odd noises which do not seem to fit.
All very entertaining in its own way but generally a mixed bag of weirdness and style clashes. Not the gruppes best night.
Four dates into a lenghty european tour before a quick jaunt back home and then off to the Antipodes and another inevitable line-up change. Whenever it all gets too slick and rock and roll Mark seems to change it. This is exceptionally well honed and delivered with slick professionalism perhaps indicating that a change would come sooner rather than later.
Notable things are Bramahs propensity to solo whenever he gets the chance and Craigs extensive use of scrapy slide guitar in a pseudo violin type fashion. All of the material from "Extricate" is played with some skill and the two guitar line up appears to work well if a little too rock and roll in places. Oddly Hanley is fairly inaudible until the signature "Chicago Now" as the drums and the keys dominate.
Nothing stands out as spectacular other than Wolstencrofts drumming which is particularly vital this evening. In parts Mark seems disinterested in what he is doing and in others he is chucking words about with effortless good humour. He is particularly good on "Black Monk" however mostly inaudible on "Popcorn" the key of which does not appear to him. I was oddly reminded of ELO when listening to the latter - which is somewhat disturbing in hindsight.
The keyboard playing tends to subsitute for the woodwinds from the album and the effect is always great. There is an oddly constipated feel to "Bremen Nacht" which has some horrible guitar soloing in it from Bramah. "Rebel" works well as it reverts to a motorik thump and is not to flashy other than oddly innappropriate football chant choruses. Even the dependable "Pharmacist" feels a little lumpen and the guitar break is completely screwed. "US80s90s" features some really odd noises which do not seem to fit.
All very entertaining in its own way but generally a mixed bag of weirdness and style clashes. Not the gruppes best night.