LIVE SKY

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened to Crack The Sky had band leader John palumbo not left the grou during the recording of "Safety In Numbers". The band was (in my opinion) at it's creative peak, and performance-wise, as this album shows, the band was never better. But history can't be changed. After this live album, Palumbo reclaimed the band name, and released a series of sub-par (compared to all the prvious albums) recordings, until a regroupng in 1998 began a slow reformation which now has all but one original member (Jim Griffiths) back in the fold.

This album has the lineup from "Safety In Numbers", including Gary Lee Chappell on vocals and Vince DePaul on keyboards. While the the recording quality is less than perfect, the performance is spectacular. Every song is tight, and the band throws in more embellishments (what Zappa called "eyebrows"), making the songs that much more enjoyable. Particularly good is the long version of Ice, one of the most traditional prog sounding songs of the band's repertoire.

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.