? LIVE

FIRST REVIEW OF THIS ALBUM

Because of the many enthousiastic stories of befriended prgheads I was very curious to this double live CD by Neal Morse, once the multi-talented frontman of USA legend Spock's Beard.

Indeed this is a very pleasant musical experience that will appeal to many progheads, it sounds very melodic and accesible and the music range from melodic rock to symphonic prog and neo-prog. The band (that hosts Dutch musicians!) sounds tight and inspired, especially the drummer plays very dynamic and propulsive. The band members got room for solos and instrumental explorations like in In The Fire (fiery wah-wah guitar, powerful drums and a flashy synthesizer solo) and The Creation (swinging bass, heavy guitar and again a flashy synthesizer solo). Neal Morse has a very distinctive voice, he sings strong and also delivers some swinging pieces on the piano and in Help Me/The Spirit And The Flesh he plays a virtuosic solo on the acoustic guitar, like he never left Spcok's Beard, what a talent! On CD-2 the emphasis is a bit more on acoustic ballads with a religious message, I am not religious so it doesn't appeal to me nut on the other hand its'not disturbing for me.

This is a strong live-2 CD set that contains pleasant and varied compositions with good work on guitar and keyboards, good vocals (also by female singer Jessic Koomen) and I like the enthousiastic approach by Neal and his band, listening to the reactions of the crowd (Berlin 2006) they loved it too, recommended!

Neal Morse is one of my favorite prog musicians, and here is his first solo live album. ? Live is a double live album by Neal Morse recorded in Berlin is very enjoyable, but not really worth the purchase for everybody, especially newcomers to Neal's music. He plays all of his albums ? and One plus a cool encore medley perfectly fine, but that's where the problem begins. It's great music executed perfectly, but there's no real reason to pick this up instead of the original albums (unless the sound of clapping hands somehow makes you feel good). I would have liked to see some jamming or something like that, which is one thing Neal is amazing at. There's nothing wrong with this album, and is worth picking up for any of Neal's fans. I don't regret buying this live album at all, but a better start to listen to Neal would be getting the original albums.