Customer Reviews

Live At The Fillmore East December 1969

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It's about time that we got a full concert from the Nice rather than the haphazard live selections sandwiched into their later-period official studio releases. I never saw the sense of gluing an indifferently performed version of Rondo onto an album with studio version of For Example;to me,it just seemed to confuse the listener.On the other hand,the studio version of Hang On To A Dream is far better than the overwrought piano piss-fest that is found on the Elegy LP. This is a wonderful concert,with much more in-your-face fullness than I would've expected from a late sixties cassette recording. Each musician shines and the drummer,Brian Davison,(may he R.I.P.,)particularly gives a ferocious performance.His solo in the Ars Longa Vita Brevis Suite is the best thing about that piece in its live incarnation. Lee Jackson holds down the fort with a steady bass,alternately jazzy and experimental,(the old violin bow across the strings,99...the second time it's happened to me this month.." His vocals may leave a lot to be desired,(there,I said it before any of the rest of you..)but he's hardly the worst vocalist I've ever heard; that distinction would go to any dozen of today's over-emoting,panty-less,female posers. Emerson,of course,is Emerson. He is the star here and the obvious focal point of the live presentation. Is it just me,or did Emerson play far more Jazz and Blues licks in the Nice than he did with E.L.P.? No matter,he plays beautifully for the most part here with the occasional I've-Lost-My-Way moment popping up here and there,(the part in Ars Longa Vita Brevis where he disrupts Brian Davison's Gong solo with the usual Emersonian organ twinking.)The version of Hang On To A Dream here is shorter and therefore much more bearable. There are some All-Time Great moments like a very good 13-Minute version of The Five Bridges Suite featuring fantastic ensemble playing from all three members.Rondo is played a lot more viciously than other versions by the Nice,complete with opening locomotive sounds like the later E.L.P. renditions. Brian Davison uses brushes like Carl Palmer never could and there are times you wish Emerson had kept him on as his de-facto drummer. No offence to Mr.Palmer,but he squandered his years with E.L.P. by consistently showing off,composing impossible to fathom drum parts that showcased technique over substance,and in general tried his best to hide the fact that he had no Rock-And-Roll credentials. Brian Davison,by contrast,plays with fire and gut intuition; the way he follows and kicks Emerson is quite joyful.This is the Nice as they were meant to be heard,live and raw.If you are a Nice fan,you'll need this.

As their recorded legacy shows, Nice fans were always teased with portions of live shows on their various releases. Finally we get "the mother lode" for Nice (as well as Keith Emerson fans), an entire show! These shows were recorded in December of 1969. These shows were taken from their last two shows to finish out their U.S. tour. The booklet is great for it details the history of the band. By this time, it was over for them as a group. Listening to this release you wouldn't know they were on the verge of a major split. Fortunately for us fans, their manager of the time had the engineer record the shows.

The shows were of high quality performance wise. This two cd set captures it so well. The Nice were a beast live and one listen to this and you'll really appreciate how great and talented they were. The mastering is excellent. Keith Emerson was amazing here but what really impressed me was Brian Davison's drumming.

You get an inspired version of "Rondo" as well as "The Five Bridges Suite" sans the Orchestra. It's a shame they didn't last too long. Shortly after these shows they went their separate ways and ELP were soon to be unleashed onto the world at large. If you're an ELP fan, get this and see where it all started. Thank you Virgin for finding these tapes and releasing them.

If you like Keith Emerson you can't go wrong with this one. Well recorded, alot of energy on that stage.

Nice piece of inspired live music. Hard to find. Hope there will be other new recordings from the Nice available in the (near) future.
People who like ELP will also enjoy these live recordings.

Keith Emerson has been the best keyboard player in rock music for over 40 years now, and here is your proof! This is from one the last performances from the Nice,and the audio quality is strong. But the performance is atomic! The Hammond organ is reduced to kindling by the end. Every possible sound is wretched from it's guts, from angelic sighs to demonic moans, not to mention the fabulous solos tha Emo keeping ripping through on every song.

The first side starts with Rondo, usually an encore in Emerson Lake & Palmer. Right away we are at a breakneck pace with fingers flying over the keyboards. Ars Longa Vitas Breva gets a shorter and more abstract rendering than in the studio, with a short drum solo and some weird organ sounds. Little Arabella features rare dual vocals from both Lee Jackson and Keith Emerson. It's a very nice low key jazzy version. She Belongs To Me finishing off the first CD with a long workout with a very different solo section than the official version - they must have improvised for eight minutes or more every night in this song.

The second CD begins with Country Pie, which still contains the funky Bach soloing but in better fidelity - it's a great cut. The Five Bridges Suite has some of the only piano playing of the night, and without the orchestra is condensed, with the slower sections lessened to great effect. Simply, it is more effective than the Newcastle version. Hang On To A Dream is a radically different version, organ only, sounding more church like before breaking into a wonderful solo. It is also much shorter. Karalia Suite chugs along with great fretwork and variations from Emerson and a long organ stomp, complete with howling sounds. America is always a show stopper and it's no different here as they tear into it with gusto. War And Peace is heard here for the first time live, a leftover from the first album, as the encore, and wraps things up in an exciting fashion.

It is also obvious by the end of the set that Emerson needed to move on. Brian Davidson on the drums was quite a good drummer with a great jazzy feel and the ability to keep up, but Lee Jackson - bless his soul - is an acquired taste on vocals. Worse still, he has only two tones on his bass, a dull thump and an occasional scratched bow. Most importantly, Keith Emerson delivers a master thesis on Hammond abuse, flying through virtually every variation of sound. He needed a new aural battery.

It is great after all these years to finally here the Nice in a complete concert. They were a tight band, perhaps the first great progressive rock band, with excellent variation in their songs and a maestro on the keyboards. I can't recommend this disc enough!

It's been said that the studio recordings of the Nice really don't do the band justice, mainly for the reason that their three albums for Immediate suffered from a lack of a producer when one was needed and a poorly managed label that was slowly succumbing to financial problems representing them. They did have two releases on Tony Stratton-Smith's Charisma label, although they were poorly assembled albums after the band ceased to exist and Keith Emerson was one-third of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. While their last three albums all featured live tracks none of them were nearly as strong as the versions that can be found on "Live At The Fillmore East", that said this album is not exactly perfect either. One of the odder moment on this record is the Hammond organ dominated version of "Hang On To A Dream". While this version is much more tolerable than the endless live version on their final album, "Elegy" it seems to fall apart on this recording. For those familiar with this band, this song is usually performed on a piano and I have heard live versions on a recording from the Fillmore West (not the "Elegy" recording, but a later one) and their performance on the German program Beat Club and this can be a great live number if not turned into a 12 minute epic as on "Elegy" or played on the Hammond organ as on this recording. "Intermezzo From The Karelia Suite", in my opinion, rarely jells in a live performance. I was hoping for something as good as the original on "Ars Longa Vita Brevis" and not as overblown as the one on "Five Bridges" and it's neither, although it is just sort of there and uninspired. While the "Five Bridges Suite" is actually better here without the orchestra and the horn section (not to mention a stronger performance), the lack of orchestra robs "Ars Longa Vita Brevis" of it's charm (although Davison's drum solo is quite good here) and "America" without David O'List's guitar fails on "Elegy" and it fails here too. Negativity aside, almost everything else on this album is superb with a few tracks you would not expect to see like "War and Peace" and "Little Arabella". All in all one of their better live recordings and it is certainly better than the rather sloppy "Swedish Radio Sessions" recording from 1967. I would recommend this album, but only to someone familiar and a fan of the Nice. For the uninitiated, start with the "Here Comes The Nice" collection which covers all their Immediate era albums. If you like those, then I recommend this recording.

In short: "nice" music, but it sems that nobody tried to remaster the recording. It's really full of background noise.