WELCOME TO THE CANTEEN

Welcome to the Canteen demonstrates what an entertaining live band TRAFFIC must have been! The band's instrumental skills are well-known, and probably don't need to be discussed by this reviewer. There aren't many bands, in my opinion, who can make a 10 minute song, or longer, consistently interesting. One of the best things about this album is the fact that they play a variety of songs from different albums.

I only have two relatively minor complaints. The first is that Reebop's contributions, as skilled as he is, are not essential IMO. I much prefer the original "Gimme Some Lovin" to this rearrangement. The other is regarding the order of the album. It's unbalanced, with all the longer songs at the end. It must have been a frustrating problem in the early 70's. These days, of course, it's easily fixed. On the whole, Welcome to the Canteen is an excellent live album by one of the most unique and skillful bands of the 1970's.