LIVE IN AMERICA

When I was a teenager I discovered that the music my brother listened to when I was just a little boy was this strange genre called progressive rock. Yes, he listened to Rush, Queensryche, and so on, and I liked it. Now that I had grown up a bit, and had a little more independence and personal taste, I decided that this genre was my thing.

In that time I considered Transatlantic the ultimate prog, the essence of the genre, the unbeatable heroes. Their debut album was the climax of musicianship. Of course, I still like Transatlantic, but now that I have expanded my tastes and experienced different sounds and notes, I have a more balanced, realistic point of view of this excellent band.

I bought this album quite a while ago, maybe a couple of years, but for some strange reason, hadn't given it a single spin. I just did it today during co-vid 19 full lockdown in Guatemala. The results?

I am sorely disappointed. The performance, instead of being a well-produced live presentation, sounds improvised, more like a recorded jam session. That wouldn't have been bad if that would've been the real intention. But this was intended to be a document of this mammoth supergroup playing live, so the results are sadly underwhelming. The vocals are the worst part of it. Most of the singing is out of key, the harmonies are poorly synchronized and badly arranged and sometimes the vocalists don't even remember the words, especially in the cover versions.

The tracklist includes several covers, from the Beatles, Genesis and from each of the members own bands. But the arrangements are so uninspired, I could barely listen to it all through, begging for it to end.

If you want to listen to something good from this band, stick to their studio debut, or to what would be their next live album