THE LAST STEPS

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.