Emerson, Lake &
Palmer – Live At Montreux 1997
(DTS)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: D Concert: C+
One again, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake & Carl Palmer have
reunited to do a concert and once again, it just does not work. After previously hearing the concerts from
the Then & Now CD set reviewed elsewhere on this site, the 1997 and
1998 performances were awful and one would hope that was a fluke. Live At Montreux 1997 offers a
different concert and it is as bad as those, but now it comes with video and
multi-channel sound mixes.
Before Lake sounded like he was in pain, which he still
does, but you can add looking bored and a bit tired. Was this from the end of a tour?
Remember, I like these guys, and the technique and talent is still
there. Too bad it is just a shadow of
how great and powerful they once were.
The songs featured include:
1) Karn
Evil 9 – 1st Impression, Part Two
2) Tiger In
The Spotlight
3) Hoedown (from
Rodeo, and from a recent TV food ad)
4) Touch
& Go (from when the late Cozy Powell cut an album in Palmer’s
absence)
5) From The
Beginning
6) Knife
Edge
7) Bitches
Crystal
8) Dance
Creole
9) Honky
Tonk Train Blues
10) Take A Pebble
11) Lucky Man
12) Tarkus/Pictures At An Exhibition
13) Fanfare For The Common Man/Rondo/Carmina
Burana + a Palmer drum solo and Toccata In D Minor
With every track, I wished the old magic would return, but
it is just a reality that the ELP of the late 1990s is out of gas and
energy. Maybe post Cozy Powell; it was
just over, like when Florence left The Jeffersons for a spin-off, only
to return with no wit. Yes, ELP may
have simply jumped the shark, if this can be said for a band. Maybe they ought to call Roy Scheider for
help.
The 1.33 X 1 image is OK for what it is, analog video that
may be digital, but is limited either way.
This looks more PAL than NTSC, but that could be the digital. Nothing special in the way this is
shot. The sound is here in 16Bit/48kHz
PCM 2.0 Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, none of which are anything to
get excited about. The 5.1 mixes make
the obvious performance problems worse.
There are also no extras. As
said before in the CD set review, try another ELP title. Plenty are still out there.
- Nicholas Sheffo
