LIVE

This is the first live album of Spock's Beard that I actually decided to listen to all the way through, and I have to say, it's very well done. The sound quality is fantastic, very clean and polished. But that's not the most important part of the review.

This should be said first: Nick D'Virgilio is not Neal Morse. The two have distinctly different vocal styles; and nowhere is that perhaps as apparant as on these live recordings. That being said, I was very impressed with how well Nick did with the Morse era pieces. In the Mouth of Madness seems to be a perfect fit for him, and the other two I immediately think of Crack the Big Sky and Walking on the Wind are also very well sang. The problem is that while he certainly has the power to project the lyrics, Nick doesn't seem to be as keen at subtlety. Some of the nuances in vocal style from the studio tracks are lost in translation and that's a little disappointing. Nonetheless, the band is in great form. Most entertaining for me was the drum duel towards the middle of the album. It's a very easy way to get your blood pumping, much like my other highlight, which is Rearranged. I use this song (with a palpable sense of irony) to get myself energized when faced with a long, boring day at some other unimportant place in Phoenix. This song just seems made for a live recording, and it flourishes impressively here.

Overall, this is a solid live album. I find it very tough though to consider any live album a masterpiece as there certainly are things they could've done differently. Four stars out of five for a well refined offering that reminds us why we go to see bands live in the first place.

While I'm not really in favor of this recent trend of bands releasing a live album after evry studio album, this one is not bad. The members of Spock's Beard made a wise choice to stay away from most of the not terribly progressive pop songs from "Feel Euphoria" and "Octane", and focus on what most of us fans want: hard driving toght prog.

They do a fine job on the songs originally sung by Neal Morse (Was he raptured this weekend? Jus wondering). Classic SB pieces like In The Mouth Of Madness and Crack The Big Sky fare quite well under Nick D'Virgilio's voice. And Thoughts (Part 2) is wonderful on this set.

The highlight has to be Return To Whatever, a song from an Alan Morse solo album. This piece magaes to capture a bit of Return To Forever, while keeping Spock's Beard's overall sound.

The low points are the Drum Duel between NDV and Jimmy Keegan (no one without the last name Bruford or Peart should leave the drum solo on their live albums) and Ryo Okumoto's tepid solo, Hereafter.

It's mostly high points, so four stars.

I remember buying this one when I was on holidays and was just hanging out for some New Beard. It was the only Spock's Beard album on the shelf that I didn't have so I took the chance. I was mildly enthused by the set list as it featured some of my faves especially 'Surfing Down the Avalanche' from "Octane". Instead I was a little underwhelmed as the songs were simply too close to the original albums without the creative spurt of an extended lead break or a drum solo worth mentioning. Certainly the music is great as usual, but I always prefer the band in the studio, other than actually being there at the concert.

The great parts of the concert are towards the end of CD 1. Highlights are here with 'Return to Whatever', 'Surfing Down The Avalanche' 'Thoughts - Part 2', 'Skeletons At The Feast' and then later the full version of 'As Far as the Mind Can See'; all definitely worth a listen. The band lineup is one of the best with vocalist Nick D'Virgillio, also a great guitarist, bassist Dave Meros, guitarist Alan Morse, and keyboard wizard Ryo Okumoto. Jimmy Keegan's drums are nothing special though. In fact the whole album is nothing special, and only comes across as yet another live album. The best is yet to come for Spock's Beard live. In comparison ex-Beardist Neal Morse's live albums are masterful and streets ahead on every level.

This live release came out hot on the heels of Spock's Beard's self-titled album, so in principle it should be pretty solid, since to my mind the Nick D'Virgilio-as-frontman era of the band was really tightening up around this time as far as their studio albums were going - Feel Euphoria was a solid release which stabilised the ship, but Octane and Spock's Beard saw things really clicking for the new configuration of the group as they got used to not having Neal Morse as their main songwriter.

Indeed, they seem pretty good onstage here, though I feel like the mix doesn't quite do them justice; there's a few bits where Nick's voice seems a little overwhelmed, for instance, and it's quite hard to judge whether this is down to him struggling or him simply not being where he needs to be in the overall mix. This and the odd little technical blemish here and there on the one hand establishes that this is a fairly untampered-with live recording (which in some respects makes the band's capabilities more impressive than if the material had a bit more of a touch-up), but at the same time I feel like it could have done with a bit more love in between the master tapes and the actual release to the public.

As such, whilst the album contains a competent band playing good versions of some of their best material, at the same time the production is just loose enough to be annoying, and when the studio versions are right there there's not much reason to be too overexcited about what's here. Worth a listen if you are very big on this era of the band, but doesn't feel like a keeper to me unless you want to be a competist.