LIVE AT THE POINT 2007

With this, their second live concert DVD, Magenta admirably decided to feature a set list with as little overlap as possible with their first live DVD. The backside of this choice, however, is that, as The Gathering had featured the best tracks from their first two albums, this one inevitably had to hold the lesser tracks from these two albums. The great suite of tracks from their then new Home album saves the day here though, even if I would have preferred a performance of the unabridged Home album (my favourite of the Magenta studio albums).

As always they open the show with Opus 3, played over the PA system (not performed). The first song performed is Speechless, a song that was released as a single and as such is a rather conventional Pop Rock song with some commercial appeal. Not my favourite. As I said above, the best tracks from that somewhat overrated album (Gluttony and Pride) were on the excellent The Gathering DVD and what was left for them to play here are the lesser tracks; Envy, Anger, and Sloth. The Revolutions album is similarly represented by some of its least good tracks in Man The Machine and The Warning. The great Genetesis and The White Witch are also performed, but in shortened versions. The latter is reduced from more than 20 minutes to some seven minutes! Almost needless to say, the full live version of the latter song featured on The Gathering is much preferable over this truncated one.

The highlight of the show for me is the eight songs from the conceptual Home. Here, the band shines! Only here do I detect the kind of pure passion and energy that I liked so much about the band's previous live releases.

Good, but it simply pales in comparison with the magnificent The Gathering DVD