LIVE IN BUFFALO

This is a live soundboard recording recorded live at Kleinhans, Buffalo, NY,in 3- May- 1982. It has a good stereo mixing, and for this reason it is interesting to listen to this band during their first tour, recorded during their tenth concert played as band. Maybe it is one of the very few soundboard live recordings which were done from this band during their 1982 tour. Unfortunately the band´s performance during this concert wasn´t very good, and the main problem were the backing vocals, which are out of tune in several places, and Wetton´s lead vocals sound tired and a bit forced. There are some obvious mistakes done during the playing of some of the songs, but nobody is perfect. One of the things that this kind of "unpolished recordings" show is that musicians like these are humans after all, and it is an "honest" recording done during at a not so good concert performance. The band was on tour promoting their first album, so they played all the songs from that album, which was released in March 1982. So, they had a short set list, and they had to fill the time with some solo acoustic guitar performances by Steve Howe, one keyboards solo by Geoff Downes played after "Cutting It Fine", and a long drums and percussion solo by Carl Palmer played during "Here Comes the Feeling", and also by introducing a new song , "Midnight Sun", which was going to appear in their next album called "Alpha" until 1983, but played in a different arrangement even using some Drum Machine. I prefer the version of this song released on "Alpha".(In other concerts of this 1982 tour they also played a different version of "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes", another song which was released on "Alpha" the next year and with a better arrangement in that album). The songs in general are played with energy and show how good these four musicians are. I think that some of the criticism directed to Asia is unfair because their music, while not being entirely Progressive Rock, was a very good mixture of Progressive Rock with Pop Rock. As an historical document, this recording has its merits, even if the performance in that tour date wasn´t one of the best one could expect from these musicians. But anyway, it has some enjoyable moments.