Yes, this is actually yesterday’s post, It’s a day late because, well, yesterday sucked, and I was in no mood to try and craft a cheerful music blog.
Of course, the upside to this is that you get a double dose today! First, we will finish the “Live” section of our trip, and then we’ll make a brief foray back into the more “standard” albums. Why brief? Read Day Seventy Two and find out!

This 2-disc set is actually more than just a live album. Disc 1 is the concert, while disc 2 is stuffed with extras: remixes, soundcheck recordings, and two entirely new songs, Deleted Scenes of a Snuff Princess and a cover of Twisted Sister’s The Fire Still Burns.
The concert itself is a blast to listen to. Cradle of Filth appears to have taken a “warts and all” approach here, as this is nowhere near the best performance that they’re capable of (I’ve seen them twice; they really are great live). Of sourse, with the myriad mistakes, failed jokes, etc, Dani Filt was inspired to utter some truly insane things between dongs. For example:
“Let me just re-ingest my vocal tract.” (after a song with a particularly harsh ending)
“Remember, drink bleach.” (after screwing up)
There were others, but they simply don’t work out of context.

I seem to have mis-labeled this album. My iPod thinks that its title is “Live in Europe.” I’ll have to fix that.
Symphony X is an excellent progressive rock band, and they really do live up to their name. Their songs have a very symphonic feel to them. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t come across on this live album.
The instruments all sound muted - only the vocals are really clear. The only time that the instruments have the opportunity to shine is during passages with no singing. Not to knock Russell Allen’s vocals, but I don’t think that the mix was handled very well.
If you really want to get a good Symphony X experience, your best bet is to pick up one of their many studio albums.

I only have one track from this album, (it’s currently my only Tiger Lillies track, an oversight that I intend to correct post-haste). That song is Gin, and it’s the song that made me pay attention to the Tiger Lillies in the first place.
Rather than so on and on about how great the song is, I’ll just let it speak for itself.

I’m grouping these two albums together for two reasons. First, they happened to play back-to-back, and second, I’m rather disappointed with both.
Both of these albums are cobbled together from multiple concerts on the same tour, which leads to fade out/fade in pauses that take one out of the concert mindset. Combine this with the fact that some of the songs on “Live Magic” are actually truncated (Worst. Bohemian Rhapsody. Ever.), you can see why I’m disappointed with the overall quality of these albums. The performances themselves were good, don’t get me wrong. However, if you really want a good Queen live album, you need “Live at Wembely ‘86.” There is none better.