THE CARL PALMER BAND : LIVE IN EUROPE

How can I judge and album full with ELP music without comparing it to ELP? That's impossible but I think some reviewers tend to show a strange predilection for hearing an ELP-cover band (Palmer plus singer-bassist plus keyboard wizard) than to this strange but unique adventure.

Yes, the guitar player is fillig what would-be Emerson parts with his axe but his job's great! He tries to do this impossible feature by letting the guitar sound like a guitar and this is the high point of his performance. The bassist is good too, although the "Message in a bottle" cover sounds uncomfortable here. But the main event is Palmer's brilliant job on the drums, not only playng his trademark drumming in his classic songs but even improvising a little bit just to sound fresh and alive. He puts in his pack all rock drummers alive today, from his generation or newcomers. He has the fluidness an taste that lacks in Bonham's and the classical training that could make Paice bigger than he stil is. Comparisons with Peart are unnecessary: although the last is member of a band that still has something to say (differently from ELP) he doens't have the balance between technique and soul that makes Palmer unique. Only Andy Ward mixes this extremes as good as him, but Palmer's work and career are far more representative than Ward's.

Actually I never saw this dvd; a friend just send me an audio-only copy from this show and makes me more happy to hear how fresh and youthful Palmer's playing sounds today. Any rock drummer should listen to this album attentively and feel if he's capable of showing the pleasure of playin like Palmer's.

Easy 4 stars. And thanks to the web friends that made this audition possible.