LIVE AT THE NEC

Another live album from ABWH, but this time with Tony Levin on bass guitar and stick. Their previous official live album, titled "An Evening of Yes Music Plus" (which also was released on video formats in 1993) was recorded in Mountain View, California, in 9-September-1989, with Jeff Berlin on bass guitar, with him abruptly (but very well) replacing Tony Levin for the last seven dates of the first leg of their tour (in North America) because Levin became ill with hepatitis. Berlin in fact had a very short time to learn the songs and to rehearse them with the band. But for the next leg of their tour (in Europe) Levin returned to the band, and this album has one of that concerts, recorded in Birmingham, England, in 24-October-1989.

This Birmingham concert recording and performance unfortunately is not better than the Mountain View concert recording and performance. They sound a bit tired, and the quality of the recording is not very good. Maybe the bass guitar and the stick sound better recorded in this album in comparison to Berlin`s bass guitar in the previous live album, but I think that they played better in the Mountain View concert. Both bassists (Levin and Berlin) are very good musicians, but they played the songs differently (with Levin playing the stick in some songs and with Berlin not playing the stick but making his bass guitar sound almost like a stick, maybe using some electronic pedal sound effects). I remember watching to some videos in youtube with Levin playing in concert with ABWH and I saw that he also used a keyboard to play the bass tones in some parts of some songs. Anyway, both live albums are good, with two very good bassists playing the songs differently but very well. But the Mountain View concert was played better, with more energy and enthusiasm

Other interesting things in this live album recorded in Birmingham are the inclusion of all the songs the band played at that concert. The CD version of the Mountain View concert lacked two songs ("I`ve Seen All Good People" and "The Meeting", with both being included in the video versions of that concert). But again...the Mountain View concert versions of both songs are better than the live versions from this Birmingham concert, in my opinion. This Birmingham live album also includes the Bruford-Levin drums and bass duet, which obviously was not played in the Mountain View concert due to the absence of Levin.

This Birmingham concert album is, until now, the only officially released live album from the band which has Tony Levin in the line-up. This also makes it interesting, with him playing in some songs the stick, doing a very good job in this instrument, making the then new songs from ABWH sounding a bit influenced by World Music and New Age music.

But as a whole, the production of the Mountain View concert album was done with more care. Anyway, this live album recorded in Birmingham is also good.