LIVE IN JAPAN

While you'll see many live 10 CC DVD (most likely a good deal of them bootlegs), be careful about not buying this one a few times. I have seen it with countless "artworks" (everyone uglier than the next one) and they have all the same track list. This concert was filmed in Japan in 92 for the tour promoting their new albums (this was the first in many years) and shows the group in their 80's incarnation (more or less) doing a rundown of their hits and adding two tracks from their latest.

Unfortunately, the least we can say is that their rundown is not really that convincing as they just seem to be going through the motions, forgetting to infuse the necessary energy to make an interesting concert. This is especially sad knowing how the Japanese audience are in general over-appreciative and greatly overreact over an average concert, therefore inducing the artistes to believe they are in the good, and not enticing them to overreach themselves. And this is exactly what happens in this concert footage: nuttin' exciting, not even the two (almost three) Beatles cover (as if they needed to use such songs to provide variety in their repertoire), and a general feeling of boredom, only slightly interrupted by short spasms of energy. They stick a little too close for comfort to the original tracks (in itself this is quite a feat since their studio versions were always ultra well produced) just producing a best of their repertoire without much soul. Early on are the Wall Street Shuffle and art For Art's sake which raise the average, and a bit later the back-to-back Dreadlock/Not In Love, but it is hardly enough to save the show. From the original line-up Gouldman is rather weak while Stewart does what he can, but simply cannot alone.

Having seen the group in the summer of 2005, I can tell you that they managed a much better (albeit shorter set) concert, sounding much fresher and vitalized. This DVD does confirm what I suspected though/ 10 CC was more of a studio group, even if they do have their share of live records.