ROBERT BERRY'S 3.2 - ALIVE AT PROGSTOCK

As a major fan of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, I have long been familiar with 3 which was an offshoot of that great band featuring Robert Berry instead of Greg Lake. Only one studio album was released under the 3 moniker, To the Power of Three, which came out in 1988. Many years later Keith Emerson and Robert Berry started work on a follow-up under the name of 3.2. Sadly Keith passed away before the album was finished leaving Berry to complete all the music by himself. The result was the excellent The Rules Have Changed which was released in 2018. On that studio record, Berry impressively plays all the instruments himself. But when the time came to take the music on the road, not even a multi-talented guy like Berry could do without a band. So he recruited Paul Keller (who originally toured with 3 back in the 80's) on lead guitar, Andrew Colyer on keyboards, and Jimmy Keegan (from Spock's Beard) on drums. The present 2CD+DVD set, that was very kindly gifted to me by the band themselves, features a full live show by this powerful line-up recorded in 2019.

While the band is super tight and the performance is top notch, the set list can be described as mixed. As expected, the set contains songs from the original 3 album, which is well represented by the epic Desde La Vida, the hit Talkin' Bout, an acoustic rendition of You Do or You Don't, as well as the Byrds cover Eight Miles High. It is nice to hear these songs live, and they surely do them justice. Another very welcome and highly relevant inclusion in the context of 3 is the excellent Last Ride Into the Sun. This terrific song is the absolute highlight of the show for me. Written in the late 80's by Emerson, Berry, and Palmer, it was originally intended for a second 3 album that never came to be. The song eventually ended up on Berry's solo album Pilgrimage to a Point, but it clearly deserves to be more widely heard.

It is surprising to me that The Rules Have Changed is the source of only two songs here: Powerful Man and Somebody's Watching. After all, The Rules Have Changed was the most recent, and at the time one and only, 3.2 album in existence, and I assumed the very reason for which this band was put together. At least I would have wanted to hear more songs from this strong album.

The rest of the set is occupied by songs, mostly covers, that Berry have recorded throughout his career. Berry was the architect of the Magna Carta tribute album series, and they perform songs that appeared on those albums, and in those arrangements. While covering ELP makes a lot of sense within the context of 3.2, covering Yes, Genesis, and Jethro Tull feels out of place. The same must be said about the Christmas tune in the style of Rush! These are essentially fillers.

Such heavy reliance on covers is my main complaint of this live record, especially as they could easily have included more songs from The Rules Have Changed instead. I do hope that this excellent band gets to tour again, especially as they now also have another excellent 3.2 album to draw on. Personally, I would love to see them do a set dominated by songs from To the Power of Three, The Rules Have Changed, and The Third Impression.

A minor complaint concerns the spoken introductions that Berry gives before almost every song. While the stories are indeed interesting and well worth hearing once, it becomes distracting on further listens.

Overall, an enjoyable live record

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