LIVE 1974

Live 1974 is a live album by Biglietto per l'Inferno that was released in 2005 on the independent La Vetraia- BTF label. The strength of Il Biglietto per l'Inferno was in their live performances and it's a real pity that the only live recording of this band lacks so much in sound quality. Even the remastering couldn't fix the poor quality of the source. The concert was performed and recorded in Lecco, Italy on May 9, 1974 with poor technical means and, as you can read in the booklet, "this is not an experience dedicated to sound purists, but a great time-machine for everyone who likes to dive back into those days and for who is young enough".

Anyway, the performance on stage was excellent, all the tracks were bound together with new arrangements as in a long suite. The opener is an early version of "Il tempo della semina" (slightly different from the album version), then all the tracks of their debut album fluently stream for more than forty minutes full of energy and passion. If you like bands such as Jethro Tull and Deep Purple, I'm sure that you'll find extremely interesting this band but I fear that this album would be the wrong starting point if you're not familiar with them. I can't help but wish this work had better sound quality and I can suggest this live album only to fans and collectors.