LIVE AT LAST

Here we have at least 23 ENCHANT songs in a row, collected from a 2004 live show that took place in Oakland, California. Also available on DVD which especially documents their cool live performance. For some reason one can say the setlist marks a Best-Of selection from their already released albums at that time. I'm especially pleased with Ted Leonard's emotional voice as well as Doug Ott's excellent guitar work. My favourites are Acquaintance and Pure, also the newer material taken from the albums 'Blink Of An Eye' and 'Tug Of War'. I would say a recommend purchase in any case.

For a while there, I was dabbling in a lot of progressive music. I was always the type to buy before hearing and had met with reasonable success. Enchant is not one of them.

I went after Live At Last because I thought it would give me a little taste from all of their albums. The music, however, did nothing for me. Between Leonard's Geoff Tate impersonation and teetering on the very edge of his vocal range abilities, and the very uninspired and boring music and lackluster songwriting, listening to it was excruciating. I would use some songs as examples, but they all just sort of bleed into one. Nothing set them apart. Really sad because they seem like wildly talented musicians sleepwalking through the music.

I really wanted to like this band. I gave Live At Last plenty of opportunity to strike a chord with me, but it just never happened. I even purchased a studio disc (Juggling 9....) and was underwhelmed by it. Seems like a great collection for true Enchant fans; but, you can consider this prog fan less than enchanted.

"Live At Last" is a live album release by US progressive rock/metal act Enchant. The album was released through InsideOut Music in October 2004. The album was recorded at I- Musicast in Oakland, CA, on March 13, 2004. The full show was also filmed and released as a DVD.

"Live At Last" is a 2 disc release featuring 23 tracks and a playing time around 2 and half hours. At this point Enchant had released six full-length studio albums and the compilation album "Time Lost (1997)". All albums including "Time Lost (1997)" are represented on "Live At Last" with at least one track. You can always argue if the right tracks have been included, but overall there is a good flow on the album, which is further enhanced by lead vocalist Ted Leonard's enthusiastic performance and great interaction with the audience. That man is a true professional and a great performer. In the same sentence I'd like to compliment guitarist Douglas Ott for his harmony vocals. They are spot on.

The rest of the guys are well playing too and since "Live At Last" also feature a professional and clear sound production, this is overall a great listening experience. At times the music does lack a bit of power though. Maybe it's because the guitars lack a bit of punch or maybe some of the overdubs from the studio releases are missing and as a consequence the soundscape is slightly less intricate. This is not a critical issue by any means though and I'm fully able to enjoy "Live At Last" without thinking too much about the occasional powerless moment. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Blindsided

Live At Last exists in a double CD and as well as a DVD version and is the one and only live release so far from Enchant. The massive set list features songs from all of the band's studio albums up to the point of this two and a half hour performance. As they announce to the audience between two of the songs, they perform "a third of everything we've recorded"! Despite many great moments, this is a lot to digest in one sitting, and in my view it is a bit too much.

They open with Mae Dae/At Death's Door from their excellent 1995 debut album A Blueprint Of The World - a perfect way to begin the show! A further three songs from this album appear at various points in the set, all of them great as well. From the band's second album Wounded from 1996 comes two strong numbers, and another two are picked from 1997's Time Lost. The songs taken from these early albums are, in my opinion, by far the best ones included on this live album. But this is far less than half of what we get here.

The two songs performed from Break (1998) are both good as well, but the nine songs in total from Juggling 9 Or Dropping 10 (2000) and Blink Of And Eye (2002) are of varying quality. I personally don't like the latter two albums, and I honestly find some of these songs quite lame. Exceptions include the respective opening tracks from these albums (Paint The Picture and Under Fire), which are acceptable, as well as the acoustic versions of Black Eyes & Broken Glass and Colors Fade, which at least are improvements over their studio counterparts. Songs like Broken Wave, Monday, What To Say, and Follow The Sun, on the other hand, are utterly pedestrian and bring the value of the live recording down a bit.

Finally, from their most recent album at the time of the performance - 2003's Tug Of War - comes three selections, which are quite good (though still not up to the high standards of the songs from the band's three first albums). One of these is an instrumental that, despite the cheesy title Progtology, works wonders to bring a little bit of much needed variety to the set. They obviously have great talent on their respective instruments.

In sum, though Live At Last contains great performances of some of Enchant's best songs, it sadly also includes a fair number of lesser songs, and with such a long running time they fail to keep this listener enchanted throughout. The impact of the music would surely had been greater if they had concentrated their efforts to, say, one and a half hours of high quality material. That would probably have earned Live At Last an extra star, but as it stands it is definitely a good live record.