Customer Reviews

Glass Hammer Live At The Tivoli

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The video quality is poor in some parts, but the sound is great! It's not all echoes, as in another GH DVD (the title slips my mind at the moment). If you're a Glass Hammer fan, this is a good choice.

Chattanooga, Tennessee prog-rocker's Glass Hammer are back with another exciting release just in time for the holiday season: Glass Hammer: Live at the Tivoli. A new Glass Hammer project is always a reason for great rejoicing and fanfare: studio maestros Steve Babb and Fred Schendel lead a magical team of vocalists and musicians that never fail to disappoint. Around the time Glass Hammer released their stellar Culture of Ascent project they gathered for two amazing evenings of symphonic progressive rock enchantment. The spectacular results of those shows are gathered here on Glass Hammer: Live at the Tivoli. The band is in fine form on Tivoli and the result is a live performance that is unique, epic in scope and powerful in emotion and presentation.

On Tivoli Glass Hammer tears through a solid ten track set that hits many fan favorite highlights...starting with the new track "Eiger Dreams" and rolling through classics like "A Cup of Trembling" from Lex Rex, "Lirazel," "Heroes and Dragons," "Knight of the North," and closing with a distinctive twist on the Yes classic "South Side of the Sky."

The music of Glass Hammer creates layer upon layer of gorgeous sounds and textures all woven into a dramatic tapestry. The band perform superbly on Tivoli: Babb's bass is rich and booming; Schendel works memorable keyboard wizardry; Carl Groves provides an amiable presence and smooth vocals (check out the great version of Dan Fogelberg's "Longer"); Matt Mendians crack drum work adds great rhythmic texture; guitar hero David Walliman offers astounding guitar pyrotechnics. Adding to this already solid musical base is the Adonia String Trio (Rachel Hackenberger-Beckmann, Susan Whitacre, and Rebecca James) who joins Glass Hammer on most of the songs for a rich foundation of inspiring string parts; also returning are the tender, melodic vocals of Susie Bogdanowicz, Bethany Warren, and Flo Paris. Finally, The Lee University Choral Union and The GPS Girls Choir lend their impressive vocals to the magic Glass Hammer sound captured on Tivoli.

The video is good quality and does a fine job of capturing the essence of the live performance but the star of the Tivoli DVD is the stunning 5.1 surround sound mix. This *IS* the way to hear a band like Glass Hammer; the layers of sound I mentioned are best heard in the additional dimensions provided by the 5.1 mix. This is Glass Hammer in 3-D (or is it 5-D?) sound; majestic, powerful, intoxicating. Buy it and give it as a gift but most importantly pop Glass Hammer: Live at the Tivoli in a surround sound system, sit back, and be blown away.