LIVE AT THE MONTEREY FESTIVAL

I'm very fond of real live music, and this album being full of it with good quality was my first introduction to this wonderful band; A great revelation for a teenager sinking to endless fractals of psychedelia. Though the songs are quite simple pop/rock compositions of the 1960's, there's a very powerful spontaneous power shimmering from the performance, and the tune list is a quite nice selection of the band's repertoire. There's an evident psychedelic flavor in their style, Grace's graceful voice dancing upon the scale structures of the songs, and wild electric guitar solos strengthen the strong fuzzy feeling. The rhythm section is also firm, making the group's musical concept working perfectly. Two of their bigger hits "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit" worked maybe yet better on their appearance at Woodstock, a singular moment of rock history caught on blessed films. I'm very pleased of the moody interpretation of the mellow "Today" here, which was also captured on a hazy film clip. Other nice bluesy songs blasted out here are "Other Side of This Life" and "She Has Funny Cars". Along with few slower bluesy tunes the performance ends to a long acid epic "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", being a really powerful trip. Though this fine group had also some not so perfect phases in their career, still the hey-day moments of their repertoire are very recommendable listening for fans of early psych, classic rock and powerful lady singers. In addition of their carefully recorded early studio albums, it's rewarding to check out also their live stuff, which is luckily also present on the films from the early hippie rock festivals, giving visual experiences from the musicians and scenery of their age.