Live at the Metro (Legendary Pink Dots)

Mark Weddle

Edward Ka-Spel - voice, keyboards, The Silverman - keyboards, Edwin Van
Trippenhof - guitar, occasional bass, Ryan Moore - drums, occasional
bass guitar, Niels Van Hoornblower - horns, flute, Live Sound - Frank
Verschuuren, Paul Newman - drums on "Aarzhklahh.."

Overall impression: good. Finally ... a live record from the '90s! I
believe the Pink Dots are one of those bands you have to see live to
fully appreciate. As brilliant as they are on record, they're an even
more fulfulling experience to take in live. Every band member is an
essential part of the music and each flawlessly and effortlessly play
their part to perfection. They have a unique sound that borrows in
varying degrees from psychedelic, ambient, progressive rock,
experimental, electronic and folk musics ... blend it all together and
add Ka-Spel's *very* unique voice and you have LPD. I was fortunate
enough to be at two shows about a week before this show (11/11/98
Chicago) so this cd helps bring back some fond memories. The
tracklisting is a good assortment of songs spanning the various styles
and history of the Dots: a new song ("Pain Bubbles"), a few from
1998's "Nemesis Online", a few from 1997's "Hallway of the Gods", and
four updated classics. The real treats here for me are Aarzhklahh
Olgevezh, Green Gang 98 (with extended guitar intro and chaotic
"freakout" section), Saucers Over Chicago (with an always amusing
spoken story from Edward, different each night), Fates Faithful
Punchline (achingly beautiful horn work by Niels) and Andromeda (which
is similar to the updated version on 1998's "The Pre-Millennial Single"
and is what I figure will be the closest I'll ever come to seeing 60's
Pink Floyd). I love this stuff. Some minor quibles that keep this disc
from being perfect: "Green Gang 98" and "Zoo" have some sound issues,
a clipping/skipping sort of sound that may be due to how the cd was
mastered. It's annoyingly noticeable on headphones, not so much on a
home stereo though. "Grain Kings 98" isn't quite as tight as it should
be and Edward's vocals are muffled through much of it. And, then
there's the missing songs from the set: "Princess Coldheart",
Dissonance", "Cheating the Shadow", "Blacklist", "Casting the Runes"
and "Hellsville" ... understandable since it would have required two
discs for the entire set. The booklet is nicely done with 14 pages of
color live shots of the band. "Live at the Metro" isn't perfect, but
I'm pretty happy with it. Sing while you may ...

Freq E-Zine

Recorded during the Pink Dots' triumphant 1998 US tour at The Metro, Chicago

, this first live album release in over a decade showcases their current setlist and sound very nicely indeed, even though the sound
quality can be a little murky in places. Once the songs really kick in though, the sheer power the Dots produce live shines through,
capturing the cosmic nature of their peformances very well indeed. A crowd favourite is the pounding "Aarzhlahh Olgevezh" from
the Eighties album Curse, which is updated in Nineties Space-Rock style, expanding a secret-language tale of introverted
self-obsession into a groovy little dance tune, with Niels van Hoornblower's sax and reeds adding further dimensions.

Other classics updated are "Green Gang" and "Grain Kings", the former assuming a new, langorous aspect with Edwin van
Trippenhof's sinuous guitar work overlaying the tabla samples and enhanced screeches from Edward Ka-Spel - though "Grain
Kings"' recording quality gets a bit ropey, spoiling an otherwise tremendous version of the quintessential LPD headtrip song. The
remained of the set is drawn from recent years, with "Zoo"'s story of alien captivity and unrequited love/lust, and the movingly
melancholic "Fate's Faithful Punchline" being particularly well-developed as live songs, with The Silverman's electronics
squittering and weaving analogue synth trills and arpeggiations around the mix, in collaboration with Hoornblower's wind-synth
extemporisations. Ka-Spel also gets in a nifty anti-M**D**alds rant as part of the spoken intro to "Saucers Over Chicago" (a
track which always surpasses the album version live), threatening a dire revenge from vegetarian space travellers on the
meat-eating heathens of Earth.

While the live sound is necessarily often far more Rock-oriented than typical LPD studio recordings, the energetic numbers such
as "Saucers" or the previously-unheard "Pain Bubbles" (a dark little epic) really come into their own here, and the album concludes
with a storming version of their current show-stopper "Andromeda", possibly one of the finest Space-related songs ever devised.
Essential for all hardcore Dots fans, Live At The Metro makes up for its sometimes gritty sound with the sheer quality of the
material on offer.

Poi Poka Mozhash' is of course Russian for Sing While You May; as with the Canta Mietras Puedas compilation, this was
drawn together to accompany a tour, though here it's of Russia rather than the USA. However, this is neither a re-hash of Canta
nor limited to the live shows, but is also available as a general release, and packaged in marvellous wrap-around, hand-drawn
psychedelic art, with Cyrillic-lettered titles in one of the finest LPD sleeves of recent years. The tracks are a kind of greatest hits,
but since the Dots have a huge catalogue of potential songs for inclusion, the is also still plenty of scope for further polyglot SWYM
releases. Most are fairly recent, from the last twelve years or so, and including such perfect vignettes as the karma-weary "Zero
Zero" and the magnificent tale of loss which is "Lisa's Separation".

There are also three unreleased tracks, one a lengthy "Supper At J's (Version 1)" which spreads ever-flickering tendrils of delay
and spliced loops around a dissipating story fragment before lifting off into vocal-effects intensity, the others consisting of the
wryly-titled "Interflora Overdrive (Parts 1 & 2)", which make for a nice close to the album, fading out in a shambling jam which
picks up into a couple of pleasant grooves, the second the more spacious of the pair. As an introduction to the Dots' very special
sound, Poi Poka Mozhash' will more than suffice; and once bitten, is quite likely to lead to discovery of their dizzying selection of
albums in those unfamiliar with this most remarkable of groups.

-Antron S. Meister-