WELCOME BACK MY FRIENDS TO THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS

And what could be more prog than pretentiousness? Nothing, that's what :-)

This is a truly great live album. I used to have this on cassette, taped from the triple LP (where I was able to duplicate the CD presentation.......before it was even on CD). This is the peak of a great band. A great band about to plummet to the depths of pretension and excess. But thankfully this album is a tribute to the best that they did. Sure, it's missing the better Trilogy tracks, but the other stuff makes up for it in my opinion (though they could have dropped the basically worthless Jeremy Bender / Sheriff medley for The Endless Enigma and this would be a pretty much perfect live album). Tarkus is magnificent (though still chopped in two on CD sadly), Karn Evil 9 is wonderful (and a tribute to why pretentious bombast can still be excellent in music), and the Take A Pebble medley, with it's over the top Emerson piano improvisations is magnificent. The other stuff is pretty good too (except the previously mentioned silly songs medley), though with the exception of the hyper speed interpretation of Hoedown is pretty much identical to the CD versions (which is even more impressive in the case of Tocatta).

This album is what 70's prog was all about. Big, bold and over the top. Personally, I have always loved this album. If it wasn't for the one poor choice of a medley I mentioned previously, I'd give this 5 stars. As it is, it gets a solid 4.5 from me. But if you like ELP at all, consider it essential.

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