Customer Reviews

Live in New York

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This CD has all the fun of a soundcheck and has the quality of a bootleg. If you can get past the yappy woman in the audience (who comes in clearer than Wetton at times) you're all set. That's the only reason it got only 4 stars! It's an all acoustic display of music from Asia, UK, and King Crimson, played to a very intimate audience. It is honest, real, and very powerful. John Wetton does a blusy rendition of Easy Money that will bring you to your knees. If you have never seen John Wetton live, this is as close as you will come to it. His interaction with the audience between songs, alone, is worth the price of the CD. He does versions of The Smile has Left Your Eyes, Hold Me Now, Arkangel, and Starless that are just incredible. You will also love this CD because there is nobody in the band smothering his songs with heavy pounding, loud guitars, or anything else. It's just John and his band having a good time with a very happy audience. It's the best concert I never saw!

MANY REVIEWERS HAVE POINTED OUT THE SUB PAR PRODUCTION VALUES OF THIS CD, IT IS A LIVE AUDIENCE RECORDING, SO WHAT, THE MUSIC IS BRILLIANT. WETTON FOCUSES ESPECIALLY ON KING CRIMSON MATERIAL, AND UK MATERIAL. HIS OWN SOLO SONGS AND THE ASIA SONGS SOUND MUCH BETTER HERE, WITH THE FOCUS ON THE SONGWRITING INSTEAD OF STUDIO SLICKNESS. IAN MCDONALD'S PRESENCE ON STARLESS AS WELL AS THE REST OF THE CD MAKE THIS A MUST HAVE FOR ANY CRIMSON FAN.

Conociendo de la calidad y los antecedentes de este señor, creo que este album pudo haber dado mas, se trata de un concierto acustico, en un club e la gran manzana que resume toda la historia musical de este señor que es uno de los grandes y que ha tocado solo en grandes bandas y que ha escrito y producido grandes clasicos, sin embargo el audio y la calidad musical del disco no es la ideal, lo que hace que el album pierda valor, sin embargo es innegable que John Wetton canta y toca con el corazon, y eso lo hace que sea grande como siempre lo ha sido, aparte de eso los musicos que lo acompañan como Ian Macdonald y Martin Orford son musicos de cinco estrellas.

I was introduced to John Wetton through Asia in the ealy 80's. From there, I backtracked and thus began my journey into progressive rock. ELP, Yes, and King Crimson all became staples of my selections. This cd has songs from the Asia period, King Crimson Period, as well as some solo tunes. All are performed well, but the sound quality is TERRIBLE. It is barely above bootleg quality. To be honest, I'm surprised that this was released due to the sound quality. You can tell that the mics were in the back of the room, because some of the clapping and chatter among the audience is much clearer than the music. For you Asia fans (be warned) the version of "Heat of the Moment" performed here is much different than the studio version. If you heard both songs without hearing the vocals, you would be hard pressed to hear the similarities. That does not mean that I think it is a bad version. In fact, I applaud John for trying to make some of his more commercial material (which by the way, I do enjoy as well)sound fresh. The only reason that I give this two stars is because of the sound quality. If the sound was better, I would not hesitate to give this cd three or possibly four stars. The only thing that saves this cd from being used as a frisbee at the beach is John Wetton's performance.

The sound quality here is not even to the standard of most bootlegs. It looks to me that Wetton is following in the footsteps of his old KC pal R. Fripp who has been releasing awful audience recordings of Crimson shows for several years now.

But at least Crimson's releases get the track listing right.

Track 2 is actually Heat of the Moment
Track 3 is Book of Saturday
Track 4 is Sole Survivor
Track 12 is Battlelines not Starless

etc, etc....

Did Wetton actually have anything to do with this? Bootleggers do it better...

It's time for the record industry to offer money back guarantees, because I want my money back for this disc NOW!