THE LAST STEPS

I bought this CD a few years ago at the now-defunct Tower Records of Austin, TX. Always ready to snap up anything by GG, I expected another great live album, much like "Playing The Fool", "Out of the Woods", or "Out of the Fire". The sound quality is, unfortunately, abominable. Fortunately, I talked the Tower employee into taking it back as defective. You've got to be really desperate for more live GG to bother with this dreck.

Excellent performance even though audio quality is poor . Nevermind!

I have collected many Gentle Giant bootlegs even though I know that most of them the record quality is really bad. I don't really know I keep buying it at secondary market - because I cannot afford bootleg retail price which typically very high and unreasonable. Lucky I live in a country where most people do not like bootleg records except my die hard Led Zeppelin friend - Tatan A Taufik who has more than 150 collections of LZ bootlegs. Unbelievable!

This "The Last Steps" by Gentle Giant is basically a previously unreleased live recording of Gentle Giant's last concert in the USA, at the Roxy Theater in Los Angeles, California, in 1980. It is an official UK release from Red Steel Music, distributed by Terrapin. But, even though it's tagged as "official", the audio quality is nothing different with my other bootlegs like "Interview" in concert etc. I really do not care about audio this time, although I have never claimed myself as a die-hard fan of Gentle Giant. If you ask me, I am a die-hard fan of Marillion under Fish era full stop. But it does not mean that I stop my musical boundaries only to those symphonic or neo prog kinds of music - as you have seen how diverse my reviews have been. In fact, you can find many prog met reviews that I have posted right here at this wonderful site - a site of a free world democracy: you can say any opinion about prog music here.

Let's have a look on this album by Gentle Giant. All songs presented here are truly excellent. Do you still remember my review on "Civilian" which I praised highly their hard rock ever exploration in "All Through the Night" ? Oh man .. right here with this bootleg the band plays it brilliantly and very lively! I do not really care about the sonic quality but this song does deliver GREAT mood - very uplifting mood, really! If you like this track, I am pretty damn sure that you would agree with me that this live version is very dynamic. It seemed like the band played it wholeheartedly.

The next track is a title track "Free Hand" which is also performed wonderfully by the band. I can see the energy the band members indicated during the concert. Having seen the DVD "Giant on The Box" I am pretty sure that the band members have done great on stage. I feel like I am now watching them alive by imagining those gigs recorded at the DVD. "Knots" is also excellent.

Under "Playing The Game" (5:01) the band gives some more improvisations by letting guitar to perform longer solo. Well, I cannot elaborate song by song review. For me is very sure: if you love the band, you would definitely purchase this bootleg regardless the sound quality. It's bootleg, anyway, what do you expect! Oh by the way, I need to stress the performance of "Inside Out" which sounds really great amidst audio quality.

So, if I give this with two stars, it does not mean that this is a bad album at all but it's only DEDICATED to die hard fans. If you are not, you should not purchase this album. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

This soundboard recording is aptly titled, for its source is the last ever Gentle Giant show. It's rather appropriate that it takes place at the Roxy in LA, for not only had Derek Shulman made Los Angeles his home by this point, but Los Angeles also the band suffer an awkward early experience at the Hollywood Bowl where their classic prog sound did not find an appreciative audience at all (not Gentle Giant's fault - in retrospect, putting them on as a support act for Black Sabbath seems to have been a poor move). It's rather nice to hear the band get a more respectful - even enthusiastic reception in LA here.

That said, the set may be worth more in historical interest than it is in terms of pure listening pleasure: the sound quality is not that great. (It's not completely unlistenable - but it's rarely better than just "OK".) The recording has most recently been released as part of the Unburied Treasure boxed set, in which context it's been tidied up about as much as is possible, and that still isn't exceptionally tidy.

Still, it's interesting to sample a setlist which leans heavily on Civilian and includes picks from The Missing Piece and Giant For a Day (and a light sprinkling of material from as far back as Octopus). With recent Gentle Giant albums not sounding much like Gentle Giant, it's actually surprising how well the setlist flows despite this.

It also helps that the band are in a jolly mood here. When so many bands disband acrimoniously, it's nice that Gentle Giant seemed to go out on a comparative high. No, Civilian didn't bring them back the success they had with their classic run of albums from their debut to Playing the Fool, but they seem to be playing to a very enthusiastic audience here. They may have found themselves in a creative cul-de-sac that they couldn't navigate their way out of after three studio albums casting about for a fresh direction, but considering the legacy they left behind and the more controversial steps they'd recently taken, The Last Steps shows that there was still some spark left in their newest material and the band's end was far from embarrassing.