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A live, 2 CD set culled together
from shows in Germany and Switzerland. Gluttons for Punishment
attempts to showcase the new Spock’s Beard while still preserving
some of their history before the exit of Neal Morse. Kinda
sad that an American progressive band has to go all the way
to Europe to find an appreciative enough audience to add life
to a live recording. The crowd is definitely into it and it
adds to the energy of the band.****
We all know Neal Morse has moved
on and SB is attempting to move on without him but this recording
only emphasizes just how much he is missed, at this point
in time. It reminds me of the Genesis live recording "Second's
Out". The music was good but they really missed Peter Gabriel
and seemed to struggle finding their place without him. Which
they eventually did. You may even notice that the covers are
very similar. Both Seconds Out and Gluttons for Punishment
have very similar stage shots on the cover. Both have the
bands on stage with overhead lights shining down through the
stage fog. I noticed this as soon as I saw it.****
In the case of this recording,
the songs performed from their last two recordings, “Feel
Euphoria” and “Octane” come off much better than the older
SB tunes. The old tunes just have a hole where Neal should
be. Neal wrote those songs taking into consideration his own
keyboard and guitar parts. The songs sound hollow without
them. By contrast, the newer songs were written for a four
piece band and sound very good recorded live. SB does do a
good job of playing songs created throughout the bands career
going all the way back to “The Light” from their first release.
Actually, this is one of the better sounding Neal Morse tunes.
“The Light” was actually pre-Ryo so I attribute it to the
fact that there was originally only one keyboard part and
Neal’s absence is less keenly noticed.****
Granted, Ryo does an outstanding
job playing all the keyboard parts but on songs like "Harms
Way" and "At the End of the Day" the layering of multiple
keyboards and guitars is really missing. Nick’s voice is fairly
solid but it just doesn’t cut it on “Harms Way” (always one
of my favorite SB tunes) He just doesn’t seem to have the
range of Neal Morse. I really would have preferred they included
“A Guy Named Sid” from Feel Euphoria rather than “Harms Way”.
I think “Sid” would have held up better. “At the End Of The
Day” is fairly solid, but, as mentioned, misses the additional
keyboard part. However, Alan’s great guitar work helps fill
it in.****
We need to give our ”props” here.
Alan Morse is outstanding on guitars. He has really come into
his own over the last few years. Maybe, no longer under Neal’s
shadow he has really taken the opportunity step it up. Every
single bit of his guitar work is strong and inspired. Dave
Meros, on bass, is as strong as ever.****
The live recording basically comes
to two standstills. The first is the drum solo on disk one’s
instrumental “NWC” from Octane. This could have been a killer
number but Nick and Jimmie Keegan decide to have a drum duel,
akin to Phil Collins and Chester Thompson. However Phil and
Chester only did about 3 minutes of rapid fire exchanges while
these two just bang away. I hate drum solos, and especially
in my prog! It’s only about four ½ minutes but seems like
eight. The second is Ryo Okumoto’s solo on disk two. He starts
out on synths and you are thinking “here we go!” but then
it moves right into a quiet piano interlude that doesn’t sound
all that inspired. At 6 minutes it sounds like a piano recital.
The entire performance comes to a complete stand still just
waiting for him to finish. I hit the skip button every time.****
The live mix could have been a bit
better. The vocals sound flat and lifeless. They should have
added a "sweetening" and reverb to give Nick’s vocals a more
live sound. The kick drum is too pervasive and the keyboards
sound thin, when they really need to fill them out to make
up for Neal.****
I am not heaving this CD entirely.
While not solid all the way through, SB is full of good players,
and at times, really nail it to the wall. I find myself reaching
for the CD fairly often and with each listening I get a little
more forgiving. It is a good snapshot of where the band is
now. I am hoping the band continues to produce and perhaps
if there ever is another live CD, it will be able to say goodbye
to the “old” SB all together. I do worry about their ability
to create without the prolific Neal Morse, but only time will
tell. They seem to be going pretty strong, are attempting
to come into their own.****
GRADE: C+
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