LIVE AT THE WALLS

For those of you who love Marillion, Hogarth era, this might be a good "unplugged" live album to have. As a matter of fact Disc 1 suits my taste and almost all tracks are rearranged and performed really well by the band. Hogarth shows his charisma through his powerful voice and ambient singing style for both discs. Disc 2 is not as good as Disc 1 but it's still okay - well, at least on the beauty of acoustic style the band performs.

Disc 1 starts excellently with "Beautiful" in which Hogarth sings wholeheartedly accompanied with Marillion Acoustic band. As it's an acoustic setting, Steve Rothery's guitar work is so obvious and it's dominating the rhythm section. Mark Kelly contributes his keyboard playing softly at rhythm section, altogether with Pete Trewavas on bass and Ian Mosley on drums. From the opening track itself you can smell how the band would play their studio tracks unplugged. "Beyond You" and "Afraid of Sunrise" are played very well.

My favorite track from "Brave" album, "Runaway" was performed with almost no modification or rearrangement from its studio version. I do enjoy this track especially because of the sonic quality of the CD as well as Hogarth singing style combined with piano touch by Mark. The other track that attracts me is "The Space" in which Hogarth opens the track with melodic part. The music that follows after the intro part has been significantly changed from the studio version. It's really cool. These two tracks are basically the high points of this live set even though other tracks like "Holloway Girl" and "King" are well performed as well.

The first three tracks of Disc 2: "The Answering Machine", "Gazpacho" and "Cannibal Surf Babe" do not attract me that much. It's probably I'm getting bored already with "everything is acoustic" kind of music from experiencing Disc 1. Again, Rothery dominates the rhythm section. After these three tracks the performance was done already and as expected .. the crowd wanted some more. Yep, it's an encore part. The band came back on stage with The Beatles "Black Bird". It's cool.

Overall, this live set offers a selection of pop songs, well performed by the band in an "unplugged" setting. It would favor Marillion fans, Hogarth era, and it might be enjoyable by typical music lovers. Nothing is complex here and it's a good one. Keep on proggin' ..!

Progressively yours, GW.