THE CARL PALMER BAND : LIVE IN EUROPE

The has a slightly different line up to the Working Live CD's with Paul Bielatowicz instead of Shaun Baxter on guitar.Sad to say but Shaun had a car accident that pretty much ended his musical career so Carl had to find a replacent (not easy) for his band.Paul has proved to be quite a find with dazzling guitar skills second to none.How do make ELP tracks like Toccata and Hoedown easy? Watch this lad! (actually he's in his 20's but looks 14!!) .

Like many modern music DVD's this is a polished professional job.Excellent editing of the concert with dynamic sound,although it has to be said that the snare drum is a bit 'tippy tappy'.Reminds me a bit of the snare on Rush In Rio.Neverthless this doesn't spoil the enjoyment.The other member of the band Dave Marks is a real talent on the bass who might even give Tony Levin a run for his money.

Style wise I would say this is typical power trio/Hendrix meets Rush meets ELP head on.Great fun and especially good for those who don't like keyboards! I might rate it a five apart from it not being very varied (thats where the keyboards are missed).Safe 4/5 though.

Having listened to Keith Emerson & The Nice's "Vivacitas" CD, which has lots of guitar on it (and in my opinion is extremely good) and seen Greg Lake's live DVD, again with an additional guitarist, I wanted to see Carl Palmer's band without any keyboards. Well, I think it's pretty good. On the whole, the guitarist, Paul Bielatowicz, does a really good job playing Emerson's parts.

One gripe I have is that, like some ELP DVD's, when you see the track "Tarkus" you expect the whole lot. Unfortunately, on this DVD, the track "Tarkus" is in fact "Eruption" merging into "Aquatarkus". And it really is "unfortunately", because they do them so well that I'm left wanting to see (and hear) them doing all of it. Emerson did all of "Tarkus" on "Vivacitas" (and did it really well, but then he would, wouldn't he!), and I feel this band could do all of it too. The other gripe is that "Trilogy" isn't complete either, it's only blasting along during the end credits, again such a shame as it sounds like a cracking version.

The bass player, Dave Marks, is pretty good. If you like the Police (they're not my "cup of tea"), you'll love his solo spot. If you are the Police, you'll be worried that one bass player is better than your whole 3 piece band!

Having seen this DVD, Lake's DVD and heard Emerson & The Nice's CD (not to mention the ELP "Albert Hall" DVD), I really want to see all of these bands and ELP, preferably at the same venue one after another (or even all together!). That would be a "festival" gig worth going to, eh! Perhaps I'll just have to hang on to that dream!

The seemingly endless enigma

The ELP focused set list here entices the inquisitive to enter in the hope of hearing Carl's take on some of the band's classic material. With titles such as Tarkus, Toccata, The Barbarian, Hoedown etc., only the most disciplined of ELP fans could resist the temptation to give this DVD a try.

I have to say up-front though, I was very disappointed. Firstly, a quick look at the line up reveals that Carl Palmer's band consists of himself plus a bassist and a lead guitarist; that's it! No keyboards, no vocals, no acoustic guitar, and so forth, every song has an identical instrumental composition (except for the solo spots of course). Very occasionally, when keyboards are deemed essential for the introductions to Tarkus and Fanfare for the common man, recordings are used.

Now, Paul Bielatowicz is unquestionably a highly gifted guitarist. His fret work is blisteringly fast, and he can shred with the best of them. The problem is that every song features the same tone of lead guitar playing the keyboard and/or the guitar parts. This quickly becomes very tedious and frankly dull. In addition, the guitar sound has not been captured well here. It lacks depth or character, leaving an impression of coldness. This is made apparent by the studio rendition of Trilogy by the band, which backs the closing credits. The guitar sound here is far richer and much more satisfactory.

The bass-work of Dave Marks is equally proficient his capabilities being highlighted during his solo spot.

Carl is in fine form of course, with as much energy as ever. His eternal youthful enthusiasm endears the partisan audience, and as ever he gives every last ounce of energy. For this who hoped to witness an exhibition of drumming virtuosity though, this may perhaps also be a bit of a disappointment. The principal instrument virtually throughout is the ubiquitous lead guitar, Carl only delivering one solo spot as such, at the end of the gig.

Presentation wise, the DVD is poor in terms of modern standards. No information is given about the location or date of the gig, which lasts for less than 90 minutes. There are no DVD extras such as interviews or behind the scenes featurettes.

It is always great to witness Carl giving his all in concert. This DVD however will only truly satisfy a limited audience. Others, like myself, will be puzzled as to what Carl was intending to achive here.

Progressive Rock without keyboards?

Well, THE CARL PALMER BAND proves us it's possible, but I don't believe it's the right music for this kind of experiments, ELP compositions NEED keyboards, it's their essence, there's no way a guitar and base can provide the pomp required to play Toccata for example, which sounds even weirder than originally is, but weird is not always good, and in this case it's a disappointment.

With this I'm not saying Paul Bielatowicz is a bad guitar player, by the contrary, the kid is outstanding, to the point that my favorite track is the Guitar Medley, in which Paul is able to give all he has without being compared with Emerson and enjoys it.

Dave Marks is also a great musician, not only supporting the rhythm section, but also adding interesting touches to the melody, what a shame that they are so limited in this DVD. Carl's performance is impeccable as always, but still this is not the way to listen Emerson Lake & Palmer's music.

I bought the DVD, mostly because it's a new and original way of listening ELP's music and I enjoyed it because the songs are classics, but honestly at the end was a bit disappointed, like something was missing, lets hope Mr Palmer gets a keyboardist and then we'll see.

The music is well known, for this reason there's little to talk about it, so I will go directly to the rating that will be no higher than 3 stars, maybe 2.5, good for ELP diehard fans.

Excellent performances, but this music requires at least an organ and a Moog.

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.