OWARI (WITH GARY HUSBAND)

Live albums have come a long way, what with the capability to record a multitrack of the show right out of the soundboard and take it away on a USB drive, if so desired. This one barely even sounds live - if you'd told me it was a studio album, I might have believed you. Everything is crisp and clear and the balance is great.

I wasn't at the show, of course, but it sounds like it was a good one. I imagine the Stick Men are fun to watch and the addition of Gary Husband on keyboards is a nice treat. I guess the Stick Men compositions don't really *need* keyboards - lots of bands have been successful without them - but in this case it does add an additional dimension these songs didn't have before.

Tony Levin sounds great here, both on his bass playing and his occasional vocals. That's no surprise, I guess, Tony has always been one of my favorites, from the first time I saw him grinning his way through Yes tunes with ABWH back in the day. I enjoyed hearing Pat's acoustic drumming here after so much electronic stuff with King Crimson. Markus Reuter is equally impressive in his performance.

There are two King Crimson covers here - and a couple of references that I wouldn't call covers. Larks' Part II sounds great, with all the ferocity of the original and some nice stuff going on in the improv section. Level Five seems kind of weak compared to the original, almost like an "elevator music" version. Perhaps the former succeeds because there was only one guitar on the original, whereas Level Five is missing the Belew counterpart to Reuter's Fripp impersonation. I really liked the addition of the keyboards here, adding some nice jazzy runs to the spaghetti-fingers part.

Overall, the album was good and I'd listen to it again, but I doubt it will get tons of plays on my system. If you have nothing else by Stick Men and you'd like to check them out, this isn't a bad place to start. 4 stars.

In 2019, Leonardo Pavkovic started planning a short tour of Asia which would see Stick Men performing in China for the first time, as well as returning to Japan, and this time they would have a special guest in Gary Husband who would be providing keyboards. However, in November they were told that the Hong Kong gig was off due to the unrest in the city, and then in early February 2020 they were told the Chinese dates were off due to the growing pandemic. It was agreed that the Japan dates would go ahead, so on February 26th the group arrived in Nagoya, having set off from different starting points and countries. This gave them some time to rehearse, agree the setlist, and undertake some sightseeing before the first gig of the tour on the 28th, only to be told that this would be the only night as Japan was also closing down.

So, with little rehearsal time, and a tour reduced to just one night the guys did what they do best, settle in for a gig of mastery and entertainment. Husband sounds as if he has always been there, not imposing himself into the band but somehow filling spaces and gaps which benefit from his intervention. Stick Men have played many hundreds of gigs, while Levin and Mastelotto can add many more together, so the three of them inherently know where to go when it is time for improvisation, and when it keep it tight, and the combination of their skills and musical mastery make them a band like no other. Drums, stick and touch guitar, combine with the additional layering of keyboards to create something very special indeed.

With no audience noise, this sounds as if was a studio recording which has been finessed to perfection, and not like a live performance at all, but if one had been there that night, one would have heard masterful takes on their own material, such an inspired "Prog Noir", where Husband adds an additional layer which takes it in new directions, as well as some Crimson classics given their own unique twist. If musically this were not enough, Moonjune have released the CD in a hardback picture book containing photos of the event. It makes for a very special release indeed, and one to which I will often be returning.