LAST PARTY - LIVE

In the early 1980's Grobschnitt underwent numerous changes both in terms of musical structure and personel. The most notable change personel-wise being the departure of the most eccentric member of the group drummer EROC. The albums which followed featured shorter songs and a more simplified approach while maintaining a reasonably high standard of musicianship and showmanship, the latter for which the band was well known. This overview of the band during the 1980-89 period delivers excellent live renditions of tracks taken mostly from the Illegal and Razzia albums. Unfortunately we get only 1 track from their 1970's repitiore in the form of Anywhere from 1977's Rockpommel's Land. Although it doesn't have the bizarre aspect that Grobschnitt music possessed in the 70's ( the only two original members were Stephan Danielak and Gerd-Otto Kuhn ) this final blowout is very alive and makes one wonder why this legendary Kraut Rock band packed it in while sounding this great.

THEIR LAST CONCERT.

GROBSCHNITT would record a few more records on the 80s after ILLEGAL, 4 albums to be exact. Sadly i cant review them for a good reason: I don't have any of them and they are almost impossible to find. I don't even know if they have been reissued on CDS. But somehow i found their ultimate one, a live album named LAST PARTY-live.

As the title indicates clearly, LAST PARTY features songs taken from their ultimate tour in 1989 just before disbanded for good. A lot of things hace changed within the band since ILLEGAL. Only 2 original members are left: singer WILDSVHWEIN and guitarist LUPO. Also the music don't bear any resemblance with the sounds of the 70s. What we have now is a hard rock band sounding very 80s, still keeping some basic quality like good musicianship and still decent songwriting. But we are more talking about JUMP from VAN HALEN here rather than SOLAR FIRE.

More than half of the tracks are coming from ILLEGAL considered as their best 80s album by the GROBSCHNITT fans meaning there are no space odyssey waiting for you here.Only one track from the 70s made it to this point: the nice ANYWHERE from ROCKPOMMELS ISLAND, that's it!

The old members from the band like MIST and EROC would come to participate to the last concert in their hometown of HAGEN, but the band has reached the end of the road back then artistically.The music is energetic , the musicians seem to have fun, especially WILDSCHWEIN singing really with a lot enthusiasm but is it still GROBSCHNITT? The new musicians are a world away from the brillance- and madness- of EROC or MIST. And where is POPO? No, what we have here are serviceable musicians backing up only 2 original members.

EROC the drummer ws the heart and soul of the band and you can feel here how he is missed badly! There is nothing wrong with the music played here as i kind of liked a little bit ILLEGAL, so that's not bad but LAST PARTY has more value on a historical point of view as this is the last hurrah of the band than on an artistical one; Just listening now to RAINTIME; yes this is a good song; LIVE PARTY can be pleasant but this album is not a necessary addition to your prog collection as the prog side is somewhat absent anyway!

There are 2 albums from GROBSCHNITT you must have: their first and SOLAR FIRE. Other fans will tell you to go fror JUMBO and ROCKPOMMELS ISLAND but that's all a question of taste. I forgot to mention BALLERMAN which has its own merits. But remember: i told you that maybe SOLAR FIRE might be the best prog album ever, so don't pass up this advice !!

2 STARS.

Grobschnitt released only very weak albums in the eighties. I couldn't find one deserving more than one star. Their synth German pop could absolutely not find any grace to my ears.

Once you know that this live album consists almost exclusively of tracks from these four albums, you can imagine how enthusiast I can be.(only one song comes from a classic album).

The only difference is that these songs sound less electro pop in their live costume. Somewhat more rock-oriented but still, they are not great. The worst example is the "medley" (gosh!) "Razzia/Illegal".

"Silent Movie" is my fave of this live offering (but it was already the case on "Illegal"). Simply because there are no other good songs, unfortunately. It is a peaceful and spacey instrumental track with loads of beautiful keys parts. The unique highlight.

It's not the folkish "Raintime" which will reconcile myself with this live "performance" nor the two numbers from "Kinder Und Narren" (probably their worst effort ever) even if the opener "Keine Angst" and its rocking style can't be compared with the awful "Wie Der Wind" of course. The nadir here.

Synthetic music available, don't worry; well actually you should worry since "Mary Green" is very hard to bear. And it last for over NINE minutes. The only attractive part is the guitar solo (same was true as well for the original version). But it is a meagre consolation.

I wonder what the band had in mind when playing "Anywhere". The one and only old song from this weak live set. This mellowish song was the poorest one from Rockpommels Land. To play specifically this one sounds rather strange to me. Anyway.

Their latest studio album is totally ignored from this live record. It was slightly better than any other album they had released in the eighties. Another incomprehensible matter.

The good point is that I have finished with their eighties period and that I will be able to concentrate on the several live versions of "Solar Music" now. But this is another history.which I will review little by little in the coming weeks.

I'll be generous with this live album. Two stars although I think that three out of ten is closer to reality.