THERE´S KNOW PLACE LIKE HOME (DVD)

This DVD captured for posterity the Kansas concert to celebrate the band's 35th anniversary, and what a celebration it was! I really envy the few fortunate people who attended this show live, but at least the rest of us can be thankful that we can share the experience thanks to this excellent DVD.

The concert took place in their home town of Topeka and for the occasion they very rightly summoned a full-size orchestra plus guest appearances by founding member Kerry Livgren and the amazing mid-epoch member Steve Morse. The orchestrations are good and the mix with the band is very well balanced, and together with the guest appearances they make this concert much richer than had it been simply a current line-up band concert. We know that combining orchestras with rock bands does not always produce optimum results but this is definitely one of the sucessful attempts.

The sound and video filming quality are excellent, although we do not get any choice of angles.

All the band play outstandingly and the impression is that there is good atmosphere among them. Steve Walsh's voice is still good for his age (obviously do not expect the tone purity of his young years). David Ragsdale delivers an amazing performance at the violin and supports with backing vocals and occasional guitar, Billy Greer does very well in making us not miss much the vocals of the great Robby Steinhardt. Rich Williams and Phil Eharl deliver as usual diamond-solid playing quality. Maybe Livgren's electric guitar playing is the less refined, sometimes sounding rougher than the rest of the guys.

The tracklist is excellent, including many of the finest and proggest Kansas works. The inclusion of the more commercial hits "On the other side", "Hold on" and the rocker "Fight fire with fire" is probably understandable and does not diminish the overall quality of the set.

The concert starts in great early Kansas fashion with the intro to Magnum Opus "Howling at the moon", "Belexes" and "Point of know return".

The orchestra performs an intro to the masterpiece "Song for America" and keeps a prominent role during all the track.

After "On the other side", Steve Morse joins for the fine instrumental "Musicatto" and a medley of the moving "Ghosts" and "Rainmaker", both from the album "In the spirit of things".

The orchestra takes again protagonism in the symphonic "Nobody's home", after wich Kerry Livgren joins on guitar for "Hold On".

Back to the best Kansas prog, we get a fantastic set in a row with "Cheyenne Anthem", "Icarus II" (one of the finest tracks of the modern era), "Icarus I", "Miracles out of nowhere" and the absolute masterpiece "The wall" for which Livgren has joined again, this time on the organ.

Ragsdale switches his violin by a guitar for the rocker "Fight fire with fire", and then we get the inevitable "Dust in the wind" with both guests Livgreen on acoustic guitar and Morse on violin backing Ragsdale's. Even after having heard the song a million times it's still a great ballad.

The concert closes with the classic "Carry on wayward son" for which Ragsdale switches again to guitar, and we get a bonus track in the form of a rehearsal jamming of "Down the road".

A delight for any Kansas prog fan. That 35 years after debuting a band can still deliver such an amazing concert can only deserve 5 stars.