TRANSMISSION 10.1 - ILOSAARIROCK

When I heard that members of ROAB would be receiving a live cd from the FOAB tour I promptly ponied up the dough and checked the PT website every day to find out when it was going to arrive, and which show would be on the cd. I had seen them play live for the first time when they came to Orlando on the tour and all of my dreams had come true. They played a two and a half hour show consisting of seventeen songs including such rarities as Half-Light and Dark Matter as well as all of FOAB, excluding Sentimental, and all of Nil Recurring, excluding Normal. I came to some dismay when I saw the set list was from a festival where they only played for 73 minutes, and any song that wasn't on FOAB can be found in other live recordings.

I managed to remain optimistic waiting for this since the set list still had Anesthetize and Way out of Here, and I was not disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. This is the absolute best sounding live recording of PT that I have heard. The quality on these songs are excellent, even for Steven Wilson's standards, and that says a lot. Most of these tracks are on the Arriving Somewhere DVD, and they sound even better here (no broken string at a pivotal moment of Trains). The FOAB material is excellent here, and seeing as how this is the only available way to get recordings of these songs then that alone is worth the price. In fact, Anesthetize is worth the price by itself. This song translates perfectly to the stage and the energy from this song is absolutely intense.

Looking at the album as a whole I have to give it four stars because of the sameness of the material. As I mentioned earlier there are other recordings that have a majority of these songs, and even though they sound better here they are the same versions (Open Car is the extended version from Arriving Somewhere). Another small gripe I would like to throw in is that the crowd can be slightly off-putting from time to time. I do not like when the audience claps during songs, and especially when they sing aloud. The crowd sings over Steven during the transition from the clapping/banjo break back to the main melody in Trains, and it takes away from the song. A very beautiful part of the song that is mucked up a bit by the audience, but all in all a great cd.