LIVE AT NEARFEST

If progressive rock has ever tickled your fancy, and bands like Yes, Kansas, ELP, and Camel bring back fond memories, Glass Hammer will kick your nostalgia into full gear with this album.

Recorded LIVE in one take at the Trenton War Memorial at NEARFest 2003, "Live at NEARFest" will not dissapoint long time fans of Glass Hammer.

Featuring music from albums "Chronomotree," "Perelandra," and nearly all of the highly acclaimed "Lex Rex," the players in this group prove once and for all that they can create the same incredible music live, as they do in the studio.

Each song was meticulously mastered track by track and mixed to give the sound a HUGE live feel, but at studio quality (GH is known for their post-production skills).

Highlights of this album include a 'once-in-a-lifetime' performance of "Portait (He Knew)" featuring Kansas' own Richard Williams on guitar, as well as a moving 3 song set featuring a full 18 person choir! The final 3 tracks are NOT to be missed.

This album is a great choice to fill the collection of Glass Hammer enthusiasts and is a good starting point for anyone wanting to know their music better.

It is difficult to imagine an even better GH live album than this Nearfest concert. Although selected from different records, the music here presented sounds as cohesive as any conceptual prog suite. The performance is convincing, the sound crispy. Great harmonies in the Yes vein with multiple vocals and instrumental dexterity. This has some really mindblowing stuff. The climax to closing section 'Heaven' leads to an exclamation mark that will urge you to replay this concert over and over again. A real treat!

This is quite honestly one of the best live albums you will ever hear. After the brief, slightly silly introduction, the crazy jam of chronomotheme enters...transforming majestically into beautifully epic ELP-inspired madness...absolute bliss. This live album is almost worth it for this track alone. The track constantly changes pace, as does Fred Schendel's choice of keyboards (and from pictures I've seen, he has a lot). And there's more Mellotron than you could ever need here too. The choir is a bit over-the-top but is never extraneous. Glass Hammer are a prog band not to be reckoned with or doubted, and should be listened to religiously and worshipped as much as Yes and ELP.

wow...that's all i can say...incredible live performance, from what i was told, in one take @ NEARFEST 2003...i ENVY the people that were in attendance that day...an amazing show by an amazing band...i have only recently been turned on to Glass Hammer's music, this recording being my first taste...the opening instrumental was all i needed to realize what i had been missing...and the 'trilogy' that ends this album is an almost 'religious' experience...my hair stands up every time i listen to it...the engineering is topnotch, the song selection is topnotch, the concert was, absolutely, topnotch...i hear strains of Yes, mid-period Genesis, and some E.L.P., as well...this band is HOT HOT HOT, and i pray that they will tour again, someday!!! any prog-rock fan would be foolish to pass on this band, easily the 'keeper of the flame'...if stuck on a desert island, this album [along with Yessongs, Seconds Out, The Great Deceiver+Eyes Wide Open, Playing The Fool, Coma Divine,Live at Carnegie Hall, Live at the Roundhouse,Welcome Back My Friends..., and probably All the World's a Stage] will go with me... get this album, i will give a money back guarantee if not satisfied!!! I'd give it 4.99 stars, simply because i was'nt there to see it!!!

After the ridiculous intro we have a pretty good live album and hopefully reproduction of some pretty impressive symphonic rock. This CD has 5 tracks from their 2003 release Lex Rex Theo from Chronamatree and One from the CS Lewis inspired Peleandra and one cover song (later). None of these had I heard before this CD. The performances as crisp and complex. Looking at the liner notes the group brought an army on stage with them that is called the Glass Hammer choir including Tom and John Galgano from IZZ. These are some well written songs with some great performances especially by Fred Schendel on keyboards and Walter Moore on guitar.

Highlights for me are Chronotheme, Tales of the Great Wars, A Cup of Trembling, Chronos Deliverer (with the choir in full effect) and the finale Heaven. The cover tune was Protrait(He Knew) by Kansas including Rich Williams on guitar which was a nice surprise. (See this why you need to go to these events). They covered it great btw.

This CD is a great sampler into the world of Glass Hammer and those who have never heard them should not hesitate to pick this up. 3.5 stars

After the overblown short introduction (could be 1 minute shorter), we're invited into the complex world of Glass Hammer playing. The sound is decent, keyboards very audible however vocalist need to try hard to compete with the instruments intensity and succeed only in quiet passages. Glass Hammer confirm their attention to detail when playing and their soundscapes can get pretty intensive. Most of the material is strong although I don't dig their 90's stuff. The Kansas cover version is welcome surprise with nobody else than Steve Walsh. It turns into a nice jam in the end. Well, this is the only live album by Glass Hammer I have and I'm thankful for it. I'd gotten rid of "Live and Revived" because it had a weak material and playing was not yet at my expected level.