THE BEARD IS OUT THERE

The Beard Is Out There is the first live album from Spock´s Beard. It was recorded at Progfest in 1995 and features all songs from the debut album and two at the time unreleased songs from Beware of Darkness ( the heavily Gentle Giant inspired Thoughts and the semi-ballad Waste Away) plus a cover of Fire. I usually like Spock´s Beard´s music a lot but this live album totally fails to capture my attention.

I was never the biggest fan of the debut studio album The Light ( it´s pretty good but not excellent), so the fact that almost all of The Beard Is Out There consists of songs from that album doesn´t really make this album easier to swallow for me.

As such everything is played by the book but some sections sound very weak compared to the studio versions and the singing isn´t very well sounding. Neal Morse sings acceptable but the other vocal contributions are really weak. The harmony vocals often sound like they are out of key. The worst is the female guest vocalists though. They sound downright horrible. Totally out of tune.

The production is another weak spot. It´s below standard and really doesn´t help the music.

For me this sounds like a professional bootleg recording and IMO you have to be a diehard fan to appreciate this live album. I´m a fan but not a diehard fan and the consequence is that I will give The Beard Is Out There a 2 star rating. I hate to be negative when it´s a band I usually like but I just don´t enjoy this album very much.