SURFACE TO STAGE

Surface To Stage is the live version of the studio album Subsurface containing live renditions of as many as six of that album's nine tracks. The track list is rounded off by four songs from earlier albums with one taken from the previous album (Critical Mass), two from the album before that (Hypothetical), and one going back to the band's second album (Psychedelicatessen).

With such a strong bias in favour of material from a single album, Surface To Stage would in my opinion have been better suited as a bonus disc to the Subsurface studio album than as a standalone release. As such, I find this live album redundant. This is especially so since the band had just released the excellent double CD and live DVD Critical Energy which featured a much more interesting and diverse set list with songs from all of the band's albums up to that point.

Still, focusing on what is here rather than what is not here, Surface To Stage is by no means a bad live disc. I find it enjoyable, and if the Mac-era of the band--and the Subsurface album in particular--is your favourite, then you will almost certainly enjoy this live album even more than I do. However, I would strongly recommend to start with Critical Energy which offers so much more. For anyone who owns both Critical Energy and the Subsurface studio album, Surface To Stage is far from essential and is primarily for fans and collectors.