THE LIVING ENZ

This live recording is a sad reflection of the state of the band at the time with Tim Finn having already launched his solo career with the successful "Escapade" album and would soon go on a short lived acting stint taking him to Europe. From the reaction of the audience which includes lots of screeches and screams from what sounds like a largely prepubescent teenage audience, I can imagine Neil Finn on stage already planning his next career path towards the sophisticated pop standards of Crowded House. The music quality is very thin as well which may have been affected by the poorer acoustics of the larger venues in Australia they were playing at the time. Unsurprisingly this recording wasn't picked up in the brilliant series of 2006 reissues so your only chance of picking up a copy would be finding one in a second hand bin. As for recommending a good live performance of the band, two spring to mind, the 1993 NZ reunion tour, "ExtravagENZa" and 2006 reunion tour "One Out Of The Bag". Neither come close however to portraying the progressive roots of the band back in 1974 when Phil Judd was in the band. It's a pity we don't have any live recordings from this earlier period as that would be of much greater interest to the readers of Prog Archives.