FANTASIA - LIVE IN TOKYO

After 23 years since last playing together, all four of the original members of Asia (John Wetton, Carl Palmer, Steve Howe and Geoff Downes) reunite for 25th aniversary tour for their debut album. The album is a phenominal piece of musicianship and even holds a record by holding the #1 album spot on the charts for 9 weeks straight. So in 2006/2007 the guys decided to do a reunion tour, and this album catches them in concert at Tokyo.

The album is about two hours long and features 18 tracks, including the entire first album, a few tracks from their second, a rare single and four songs from each member's past careers. For John Wetton they have In The Court Of The Crimson King from his King Crimson days, for Carl Palmer Fanfare For The Common Man is included from when he played with ELP. Steve Howe has Roundabout from Yes and Geoff Downes brings Video Killed The Radio Star from when he was with The Buggles.

Overall, the alum is great to listen to and features all of the members of the band. They play with energy and really capture people's attention, and you can tell these guys have fun playing together.

My only complaint is that there are parts which are very poorly mixed. For most of the album, John's vocals are far too upfront, often covering up the rest of the band. Certain times Carl Palmer's drums are burried so far in the mix, it sounds like he left the stage. Same goes for Steve and Geoff.

Still, I highly recomend anyone who liked Asia back in the day, even though they werent the 'prog supergroup' which everyone expected them to be, they still play some really good music that combines prog and pop music, something that wasnt going on for most of the 80's.