LIVE SKY

I will be honest - Live Sky is the only Crack the Sky album I've heard. I decided to give it a try after hearing their cover of Genesis' "I Know What I Like" on the tribute album Supper's Ready, and the sound of the band was quite different than what I was expecting. (I believe the lineup of the band had changed since 1978.) I've since heard the studio version of "Ice", and while I like both, the embellishments on this recording are very good, making the piece even more progressive than it started out. The other songs are all good performances, although I don't get into the last two as much as the others, but then it would be difficult to do a good cover of "I Am the Walrus." They have a pretty strange sense of humor that they alternate skillfully and unpredicably with heavy sections and jamming. They also have a way of making it sound as if there are more instruments on stage than there really are, and the recording quality is very strong. Highlights for me inlucde the haunting lead guitar and solo on "Maybe I Can Fool Everybody (Tonight)", the segueway from "Lighten Up McGraw" into "She's a Dancer", the latter songs' jam, and I love the MC's intro of the band.