Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Keith Emerson - Keith Emerson Band Featuring Marc Bonilla - Moscow CD (album) cover

KEITH EMERSON BAND FEATURING MARC BONILLA - MOSCOW

Keith Emerson

 

Crossover Prog

4.18 | 27 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

uribreitman
4 stars The Moscow album sounds much better than the studio album from the same year (2008). Both Emerson and Bonilla are both fantastic on stage. Bonilla replaces Greg Lake's absence with great ease. Tony Pia's drumming is more than adequate. The only victim of the live final mix is Travis Davis: his bass is not very audible, especially when compared to the studio album.

The show's highlights are: 1) Third movement from Emerson's piano concerto; 2) Bitches Crystal; 3) The Barbarian; 4) Tarkus. The other stuff is good enough, but not always exciting as those four big tracks.

Bonilla's guitar work is effortless - makes you wonder how did Emerson put up with Lake's miserable guitar abilites all these years. Also, Bonilla's voice is superior to Lake's current old voice. So the audience really benefits from his frontman qualities.

Emerson's fingers are a bit sloppy here and there, but overall he has almost returned to form (he had terrible problems with his hands all thorugh the 90's). His solos are cool enough to maintain interest, and Bonilla's help is priceless: his chordwork enables Emerson to focus on his right hand, while his solos and melodical lines are complementary to Emo's attack.

If you get the DVD, you'll see Emerson fiddling the giant moog behind him. In any other aspect, the CD version is better. I suspect a few studio edits in some places, but most of the time the sound is wild and authentic.

In short: The Keith Emerson Band sounds just a good, and sometimes better than the mighty ELP. This quartet is a prog dream come true.

uribreitman | 4/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this KEITH EMERSON review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.