REAL LIVE THING

This live CD packet seemed to heat up some emotions when released, but I personally welcomed it as a wonderful addition from the live stages to contrast the three legendary studio albums. These three discs of great psych jamming was available already in 2005 with quite cheap prices, saw it being sold at Helsinki for 25 euros or so. For me personally live music usually works much better than studio recordings, and I also checked out the bonus live materials on their re-released studio albums when given possibility. I think there is much better playing going on in these three CD's than on the bonus tracks of remastered studio albums. Here is present their true, interactive playing, and it's great to listen how well Petri played guitar and sang simultaneously on stage. I understand some of the negative feedback of the albums production very well though. There are no liner notes from where these recordings are taken from. What annoys me even more is that there are some weird fades on disc two (did the DAT run out?), and there are some edits on disc three which try to create illusion that the tracks would be form a one show. This is untrue, as many of them are from different occasions and one can hear it from the big alterations of the sound texture. This kind of "truth altering" is also present for example on King Crimson's "The Great Deceiver" box, but at least Mr. Fripp explained what he has altered and why. I think that the sound quality is decent, as you can hear the instruments well, but these are purely digital recordings, and I believe some people find even poor analog recordings better that good digital ones. If I should recommend only one album of this band to a person who hadn't yet heard Kingston Wall, I would recommend this, as it has the main work of their career in one package, shows their live playing skills, and is even quite cheap.

Ah, Kingston Wall, probably the most important band of my youth. Here in Finland, I'd say anyone who is even slightly interested in music, has heard of the band, as their cult status just seems to be getting bigger and bigger, also thanks to this new 3-cd live album. For those who do not know the band yet, I could sum it up by saying that Kingston Wall played brilliant psych/prog-rock with mystical, dark soundscapes, mainly inspired by the legends Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd etc. However, you can't exactly "pigeon-hole" them just like that, as their music covered many different areas.

KW only released three studio albums, all of superb quality IMO, but there were always rumours going on, saying that the band was even better live. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to see them live (I was too young, obviously), so it's a real treat for me (and many others, I'm sure) to finally hear the band live. Now that I've heard these three live cd's, I can mostly confirm that the rumours were true.

This is mostly due to Walli's unusual way of composing (for a prog band), as the songs usually didn't have a clear structure. Instead, they relied on their abilities to improvise live, in a similar way to Allman Brothers Band. There was always room for some extended jamming, and this is what sets them apart from the average prog band, who play their songs live exactly the same way as in studio.

However, there must be some room for criticism as well. Petri Walli was never much of a singer in studio IMO, let alone live, and there are indeed a couple of pretty annoying moments here. Nevertheless, his performance is mostly much better than I expected. His guitar playing is as inspired and beautiful as ever, and the band plays really well. Hi-Fi buffs might want to stay away from this one, though. As it says on the cover "The Official 2-Track Bootleg Recordings", so naturally the sound quality is pretty weak. In some way, I do understand that some people might find this unlistenable, but I'm just happy they were able to find something that could be released.

For fans of the band, this is a must IMO, despite the sound quality problems. It's certainly not a bad introduction either, as it covers most of their "classics". I would've liked to hear a full version of The Real Thing, because as far as I'm concerned, it was their "magnum opus", and the version presented here is much shorter, and not as good as the original.

It's not too often you get this lucky, though. Three cd's of excellent acid psych/prog-rock for 20?. Not a bad deal, eh?