REAL LIVE THING

The long-awaited "Real Live Thing"-box was a big disappointment, at least for me. However, It's not the playing or music that's bad, most of it is absolutely great. Musically, this album has some great moments.

What is the main problem is that the sound quality on this release is downright bad. Most of the stuff is probably recorded with a stereo microphone to DAT at best, some might even be C-casette stuff. It says "the official 2-track bootleg recordings" on the cover of this album, just like a warning. This release goes to the same category as Nirvana's "With The Lights Out"-box and Metallica's "Garage Days Revisited". Crap lo-fi sound that only freaks are willing to listen to.

If you had a chance to heard the limited-edition bonus-CD:s that came along with some of the re-issues of the Kingston Wall's trilogy, the live recordings are not at all better, sometimes even much worse and the not-so-good mastering does not help at all. I have heard better sounding bootlegs downloaded from the Internet than this one. Even some Hendrix-bootlegs from the 60's sound much better and this is a band from the 90's! If you can't live without Kingston Wall, you might want to check this out. Then again, if you're obsessed with this group, you might get the feeling you have been ripped off.

What a pity.