IN TRANSIT

Saga from Canada is crossover prog group (bordering neo-progressive) that would be embraced by the prog community for keeping parts of the dream alive in the eighties. From this period the debut album, 'Silent Knight' and 'Worlds Apart' are considered to be the most progressive albums. Saga fully embraced the eighties sound and would equip their symphonic rock songs with solid rhythms, great sounding synths loops and catchy refrains. The band would also add plenty of melodic interludes and extended solo sections with a unique guitar & keyboard interplay. The band has a nice broad live sound, probably well enhanced by the fact that they had three band-members playing keyboards & synths. The track-listing of this live LP could hardly have been improved upon and all songs are performed at least as well as on their studio recordings. Some of these guitar solo's by Ian Crichton are just wonderful. Though Saga suffers from a dated eighties wave-rock drive, with repeated listening it does start to make sense eventually. Michael Sadler had a good live voice and his slightly operatic vocals cut well through the mix. Even groups that are considered to be much better than Saga don't always make a live LP this good.