First,the buyer had better be aware that this live album sounds absolutely nothing like "Strangers In The Night".The guitarist here is Mick Bolton, who featured on the group's first two albums, "1" and "Flying". Schenker-only purists had better pass on this. Bolton plays a very bluesy, wah-drenched style somewhat reminiscent of Tony Iommi. The material is mostly derived from "1", which means blues-riff oriented, boogie-style extended workouts. Fans of the group's tight, concise hard rock jukebox tunes of later years will find little to chew on. On the other hand, fans of the psychedelic/blues sound of the early albums will want to add this to their collection. The sound is excellent, considering the venue ("somewhere" in Japan)and the age of the recordings. A lot of audience noise is present here, though not to the detriment of the actual music. There is no evidence of studio overdubbing. In fact, you definitely hear a few mistakes, a bit of unintentional feedback, blown lyrical lines, etc., which adds to the rough-hewn charm of this recording. If any criticism needs to be made, one could say that the tracks,while excellent for what they are, offer none of the punchy, radio-ready (though not in a bad way) arena rock material the group later became justly famous for. What you hear is a club/pub outfit, struggling along in a haze of one-nighters, relying on material that would have been already somewhat dog-eared and overly familiar to the average rock audience of the time (no doubt this is why the album was recorded in Japan, and not Britain!). Overall, the faults present in this recording are well compensated by the infectious energy the band manages to generate. The audience are obviously grooving on the music, and so should you be. Lower your expectations a tiny bit, and enjoy what's here. It's hardly an "essential" recording, but a damn good reminder of what live rock n' roll used to be all about, before the advent of arena overload, and corporate/MTV saturation. Big dumb fun, dammit!Read full review
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