LIVE AT THE MELLOBOAT 2008

Well, Some 37 years after recording their stupendous and legendary Forst Utterances album, Comus reformed at the insistence of a Swedish Art Rock society, just for one gig on a Baltic Sea Cruise ship. Yours truly was warned by Bobbie or Roger themselves on the "strength" (a very relative notion) of my PA review, but I simply couldn't attend the gig, so I'm ecstatic to finally see the sjow I missed back then. What's even more special is that the original line-up was almost complete, since only one member is missing, replaced by Bobbie Watson's husband and future album producer Johnny Seagroatt The percussions are alternatively shared by Goring and Seagroatt, but they shine more at their respective acoustic guitar and wind instruments. Wootton and Watson's voice have not suffered from a lengthy layoff. Pearson's violin and Hellaby's bass are just what you'd expect as well.

The show opened on the absolutely enthralling Song For Comus, setting an infernal and manic pace and sets afire the fairly young audience. The ensuing Diana (from their very rare three-track EP of the same name) is also fairly manic, but doesn't escalate the tension. The rather calmer 12-mins Herald opens on a slide or glissando bass (you'd swear this is Pearson's violin playing, though) before Bobbie's angelic voice takes you soaring through the stratosphere, before Goring's stupendous guitar solo takes the sunlight, dropping it momentarily for Pearson's violin and Seagrott's flute interventions. The gory Drip Drip is obviously one of the most-awaited tracks by the audience, as if Wootton's near-evil lyrics was the main attraction, especially when he proposes to cut us up very gently. The FU closing track The Prisoner again sees Hellaby's glissando bass opens the hostilities and let the band loose. The band closes their set with an unusual cover of Lou Reed's Venus In Fur, then repeat their anthemic and eponymous Song For Comus as an encore, much to the audience's joy, despite a rather short set.

The amazing thing is that the band prepared for this sufficiently well for the gig that their playing is flawless and you don't even remark the band is in their early 60's. The DVD comes with an extensive rockumentary about the reunion preparations and rehearsals (including some Opeth Ackerfeld involvement), and it's exactly the kind of ideal bonus you'd expect (although Colosseum's Reunion Rockumentary remains a reference to me) for this type of DVD. Definitely worth the investment, if you're anything serious of a Comus freak.