10TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT (DVD)

This spectacular concert was performed in front of an enthusiastic Japanese audience in June, 2005. The package contains a DVD featuring the concert in its entirety (plus a bonus, "on the road" documentary) as well as a CD featuring the same concert minus the Astrology Suite (the first two tracks) due to time constraints of the CD medium. As the title implies this band celebrated their 10 year anniversary in 2005 and this is clearly reflected in the set list. The 19 songs performed here originally appeared on ten different releases, over this ten year period, and as such represents very well (this part of) the history of the band. The set list even has a sort of pseudo-chronological order (most noticeable on the CD which, as I said, omits the opening Astrology Suite). With a couple of detours along the way, songs from the 1995 debut album Love Is An Illusion, 1996's Curious Goods, 1998's Garden Of The Moon, 1999's Queen Of The Ocean, 2002's Project Shagri-La, and 2005's Lady Macbeth, are performed roughly in chronological order. None of the band's studio albums are overlooked and none of them overrepresented in the set list. Indeed, no album has more than three tracks featured here.

It is not a "greatest hits" or "best of" type of set list as such, however. While it certainly showcases very well the range of the band's material and style, it does not feature only the most predictable choices. Both newcomers and long-time fans can be satisfied with this set list. Many of the tracks are conjoined, creating longer sections of continuous music. As many as six out of the 19 tracks are instrumentals introducing the vocal numbers: the Love Is An Illusion Overture introduces Into The Ether (instead of leading into title track as on the original studio album); Curious Goods introduces Emerald City (just like on the Curious Goods album); a new medley of Garden Of The Moon and In The Hall Of The Ocean Queen introduces Souls Of The Mermaids; and finally, Redemption Part 1 introduces Tears Of Babylon. Someone To Believe has its own little instrumental introduction built into it.

Some songs are somewhat different from their studio counterparts. This applies especially to Nevermore and Athena's Shadow, which originally appeared on the Ballad Collections, volume 1 and 2 respectively. Lana introduces them as ballads, but these particular versions are definitely rockier than the original studio version. December Moon from the Winter Sessions album is similarly revamped. I prefer these live versions of these songs. For the encore, they return to the Garden Of The Moon and Curious Goods albums with the rousing Destination Roswell and superb crowd-pleaser Symphony Of Angels.

In addition to Lana herself and her husband and keyboard player extraordinaire Erik Norlander, the band consists of Mark McCrite and Peer Vershuren on guitars, Kristoffer Gildenlöw on bass, and Ernst Van Ee on drums. They are all excellent musicians and together they are very tight band indeed. With an excellent band, performing excellent material, in front of an enthusiastic audience, it is almost bound to work out perfectly. And indeed it does. The show is also professionally recorded, filmed, and produced. What more could you reasonably ask for? (It can profitably be compared to another fantastic live concert DVD by a modern, female-fronted, progressive Rock band; namely, Magenta's The Gathering that was released in the same year.)

This is simply an excellent live concert DVD (and CD). Very highly recommended!

Share this LANA LANE review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to SouthSideoftheSky
• Report this review (#879490)
• Buy LANA LANE music online with PA partners
• Show all LANA LANE MP3/Stream
• Go to LANA LANE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to 10th Anniversary Concert (DVD) page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for LANA LANE related discussions