SPIRIT OF THE NIGHT - THE PHOENIX TOUR LIVE IN CAMBRIDGE 2009

Spirit Of The Night was Asia's second live CD (and DVD) since the original line-up of the band reunited in 2006. The first release of this reunited line-up was the excellent Fantasia - Live In Tokyo that appeared in 2007. That live album/video was recorded before the release of the studio album Phoenix and featured a very strong set list containing not only every track from the self-titled 1982 debut album, but also songs originally recorded by King Crimson, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and The Buggles, plus a rare performance of the non-album B-side Ride Easy.

Following Phoenix, the first studio album since the reunion, the band released another live album/video in the form of the present one subtitled The Phoenix Tour Live In Cambridge 2009. This one was still good, but it featured a considerably less interesting set list compared to Fantasia, and with that one already out there Spirit Of The Night offered precious little that we hadn't already heard. Gone were most of the songs from the members individual pasts with only Fanfare For The Common Man in the set list (the DVD version of Spirit Of The Night featured In The Court Of The Crimson King, but not Fanfare For The Common Man). The only interesting (at least for Asia fans) track here is Midnight Sun which appears here as a bonus track. But apart from that, Spirit Of The Night offered no real surprises.

Tracks such as Only Time Will Tell, Time Again, Don't Cry, Sole Survivor, and of course Heat Of The Moment have been played so many times and been included on countless live albums. My Own Time, Open Your Eyes, and The Heat Goes On are more welcome additions to the set, but not much to get very exited about. The new songs are not bad as such, but the best and most adventurous tracks from the Phoenix album were not played live unfortunately.

While I was impressed by Fantasia and found Phoenix good but no more than good, I was somewhat disappointed with what they were doing here. This is especially so given that there is so much more they could have done to make this more interesting, for example by including more songs from their individual pasts in Yes, ELP, King Crimson, UK, GTR, etc. and some rarer Asia tracks. Instead, they seem content to play the same old songs and some new ones in the same straightforward style.

I strongly recommend to get Fantasia - Live In Tokyo, and if you have that one then you don't really need Spirit Of The Night.