TOUR KAPUTT

Well, I guess it was about time to Sweden´s legend The Flower Kings release another DVD. This time they recorded one of their concerts in Holland (at the fast becoming famous De Boerderij). Like its predecessor, Instant Delivery, the group is reduced to a quintet: original percussionist Hasse Brunisson is missing and drummer Zoltan Czörsz was replaced by Pat Mastelotto. But unlike Instant Delivery, Tour Kaputt does include a terrific recording of their stage act with very few complaints of my part (I can´t help it!)

Most of the tracks are drawn from their latest studio album The Sum Of No Evil (2007), and since that CD is probably their best in the new millennium (and on par with their classic 90s stuff), I was eager to see them performed live on stage. I was not disappointed. The friend who gave me the DVD, a devoted and long time TFK fanatic, was not very excited with it. I guess we all became too demanding with this great band after some time, but in my opinion, the show was simply fantastic in its humble presentation. Roine Stolt and co starts with a bang: playing the 24+ Love Is The Only Answer as the opener. Not bad!! There are not many props and/or effects on stage, the lights are good, but not exceptional, and you can´t say those guys have all that powerful stage performances. But, come on, with such brilliant songs and the unbelievable musicianship they have, who cares for it? Just to see them playing those complex, intricate tunes like they were having fun in a rehearsal at some garage is simply awesome. Their surgical precision on performing such material with ease and smiles is a show on itself.

Also, finally this time they did perform a couple of tracks from Retropolis (their best album ever, in my opinion): the beautiful There Is More This World and the instrumental title track, It´s only a shame that the second part of the latter became a kind of excuse for a bass solo and then a duel with the drums for bassist Jonas Reingold. It was far too long and too boring for this kind of showing off, but fortunately it was the only of such moment during the whole show (yes, no guitar or drums solos!!!). I should also mentioned that new drummer ex-King Crimson Mastelotto is very good, although I felt that his style is a bit heavy for this kind of music.

The inclusion of such minor instrumentals like Babylon and Hudson River Sirens Call may seem strange considering the wide choice of better material, but both songs are complete reworks and they ended up turning into fine live staples of their music, believe it or not! Their version of Paradox´s What If God Is Alone was also stunning: it is way better than the studio version and probably the highlight here. Incredible performances of all involved and fantastic vocal delivering by Hasse Froberg (the guy is getting better and better at this department).

The sound is excellent, you can hear every instrument very well and they are all very well balanced. The filming is a bit dark, but it does give you the impression of being there.

Conclusion: an excellent DVD! This one here is much better than 2006´s Instant Delivery. Finally the classic Meet The Flower Kings gets a good companion to show off how good are those guys in front of an audience. Highly recommended!

Rating: Somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars.