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Review:
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When I first saw this new Glass Hammer DVD advertised,
I assumed that it would feature a performance from this
last year, and would also highlight their latest album,
2007's Culture Of Ascent. I was wrong on both accounts.
Live At The Tivoli was actually recorded during the second
of two shows that the band performed on October 17th, 2006,
at the historic Tivoli Theater, in their hometown of Chattanooga,
Tennessee.***
The Tivoli performance comes only a year after Glass
Hammer's Live At The Belmont DVD recording, and it too draws
mostly from their The Inconsolable Secret double-CD of 2005.
The rather short setlist was a disappointment. If you take
away the short instrumental, "Eiger Dreams", and the choir-only
performance, "Beati Quorum Via", you only end up with nine
full songs - although one of them is over 20 minutes in
length. Hey, if you're going to play so many epic length
songs, then you gotta play for at least a couple of hours.***
The first thing that struck me when I began watching
this DVD was just how awful the video looked. I actually
thought I had a bum disk that needed to be exchanged, since
I had already read a couple of reviews giving it glowing
remarks. They must have come from the band's publicist.***
I did eventually come across a statement on the band's
message boards from keyboardist Fred Schendel, where he
admitted that the hard drive that had contained all of the
original video of the shows had crashed, and he ended up
having to re-rip the video from a compressed AVI file they
had made as a rough cut. This obviously caused significant
degradation in quality. He also complained that the camera
crew did not really know the band's music, nor would they
take the time to learn. That certainly helps to explain
some of these deficiencies.***
Fortunately, the audio recording faired much better,
offering an expansive Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix that
accurately captured the symphonic smorgasbord of sound you
get from a live Glass Hammer show. As with their previous
DVD, it's odd that they would only include a 5.1 surround
track, and no stereo option.***
The show kicks off with the rocking, instrumental, intro,
"Eiger Dreams", which was written during the Culture Of
Ascent sessions, but never made it on the album. It segues
right into one of the band's very best songs, "Run Lisette",
from their excellent Shadowlands album. Longtime band vocalists
Susie Bogdanowicz, Bethany Warren, and Flo Paris do another
stunning job with all of the song's intricate vocal harmonies
to make it a highlight of this DVD, just as it was on Live
At The Belmont.***
"The Morning She Woke", from The Inconsolable Secret,
was played next, although it was not listed on the DVD case
or the press release track listing. A couple of tracks from
my favorite Glass Hammer album, Lex Rex, are also trotted
out early on and this is where the differences between new
lead vocalist Carl Groves and former Glass Hammer vocalist
Walter Moore are most evident. Groves, who also fronts the
band Salem Hill, is a fine singer and is a good fit for
Glass Hammer, but he is not one of the most inspiring frontmen
in the business. Moore exuded much more passion and personality
in his performances.***
Glass Hammer transformed the Dan Fogelberg wedding
standard, "Longer", into their own 10-minute progressive-rock
epic on the Shadowlands album, and it is presented in all
its glory here. The beginning of the song remains faithful
to the original, with Groves accompanying himself on acoustic
guitar, but after a couple of minutes Schendel's simple
piano riff eventually launches a full-on prog assault. It's
an alright cover, in its own strange kind of way, but I
would have much preferred to hear "So Close, So Far", or
"Behind The Great Beyond" from that same album.***
Speaking of cover songs, it looks like the band had
been rehearsing "South Side Of The Sky" for some time before
they decided to include it on their Culture Of Ascent album.
You get a more straight forward version of this Yes classic
here, than what ended up on the album, but both versions
are superb.***
I realize that Glass Hammer does not have the budget
of that British band who's song they covered so wonderfully,
but I would expect each new DVD to be at least as good as
the previous. Live At The Belmont was better in every respect.
This material would have been better served as a bonus feature
on their next professionally shot, HD DVD. I anxiously await
that one.***
Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - January 2009***
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