PRIDE OF LIONS
Live In Begium [CD + DVD]
Frontiers Records 2006
www.aprideoflions.com

What’s the 4-1-1?
The live CD/DVD package capturing the Jim Peterik and Toby Hitchcock led group performing 14 songs in concert. The CD & DVD contain the same track listing on each. The DVD also contains an appearance on Italian TV, the “Sound Of Home” video, a picture slideshow and more. A bonus CD with 6 previously unreleased songs and the previously released single track “Black Ribbons (Voices Of The World”) is also included.

Genre
Rock / melodic rock / pop rock

The Good
THE CD: The material performed live for this concert includes Jim Peterik’s first hit with the band Mariah, the song “Vehicle,” as well as three Survivor songs. Two of the Survivor songs, “I Can’t Hold Back” and “The Search Is Over”, came out rather surprisingly well. Once Toby Hitchcock got his pipes warmed up he really had a powerful vocal presence on stage, and he more than did justice to those two songs.

The album kicks into high gear with the third song “Sound Of Home.” The band really attacks the song and makes it into a powerful hard rocker, more so than on the actual studio track. The assembled musicians more than hold their own as the band sounds fantastic in the live setting, while at the same time not sacrificing any of the sound on the original Pride Of Lions tracks that made them such a favorite when I listened to them.

Peterik and Hitchcock sound very in tune with each other on the songs where they trade off the vocal work and each sound great when doing a solo lead vocal. There’s a couple of moments when Hitchcock sounds as if he’s straining to reach a particular note, but he gives an overall good accounting of himself.
The sound quality of the recording is rather good, must be something with those European concert halls.

The best thing about the concert is how the original Pride Of Lions material provided the best realized concert performances of the evening. They didn’t rely on Jim Peterik’s past to make for a good show; it was all about the tracks that are in the now. “Sound Of Home,” “The Gift Of Song,” “Music And Me,” and “Man Behind The Mask” are the stand out tracks on the live disc.

THE DVD: The video clip for “Sound Of Home” combines live performance clips with in the studio footage and conceptual material featuring the woman behind at home in the song’s lyrics. It’s a decent enough promo clip. The Italian TV appearance is just over 30 minutes long and features Peterik and Hitchcock performing acoustically in between interview segments with the show’s host. The songs performed are “She’s Gone” and “Interrupted Melody” (which is a song NOT featured in the actual concert on the disc). The performances were really good.

The concert itself was actually quite good. While the track listing remains the same as the CD, there’s a bit more talk in between the songs that you would think if you just listened to the CD. I really enjoyed the show more watching the DVD.

THE BONUS CD: I love the fact that there are 6 new studio tracks to listen to with this set. “Reckless Love” is probably the most Survivor sounding song I’ve heard from the group. It’s got a nice guitar sound to it. “So Deadly” is probably the best track on the bonus disc. It’s got a great tempo to it and includes a nice R&B tint to the vocal delivery. The three ballads “Stand By You”, “Feels Like Another Planet” and “Surrender To The Night” aren’t necessarily the greatest in the world but they are decent. The latter is a slow burn with a nice vocal from Toby Hitchcock.

“Dark Angel” is a mid-tempo rocker with both Peterik and Hitchcock taking turns on the lead vocal. The studio version of “Black Ribbons (Voices Of The World)” avoids the pitfalls of most tribute/benefit songs in that it stays on point and doesn’t devolve into a sugary effort that would put diabetics into a coma. It really works as a song.

The Bad
THE CD: The concert starts off a bit slow as it seems Toby Hitchcock takes a couple of songs to really warm up to the live show. His delivery on the opening two songs “Criminal” and “Gone” seems a bit tentative. This is a shame since both songs are actually fantastic tracks on the studio albums. I give Pride Of Lions credit for changing the arrangement of the classic Survivor hit “Eye Of The Tiger” around, but it didn’t help. Of the 14 songs performed this is the one song that was just purely bad. I didn’t care for the delivery or the new arrangement at all.

The method of the delivery on the CD had each song played and then there was a fade out before the next song started. This is a cardinal sin on live albums. The studio albums are supposed to fade out in between songs, not live albums. A live album is supposed to give you the feeling of being at a performance. The fade-outs on the live disc ruin that idea completely. The stage patter between songs is kept to a minimum on the CD, but when you watch the DVD, you see that there was much more going on in between songs. This is why the fade-outs ruined the feel of being at a live show.

THE DVD: I don’t know what kind of film the Italian TV show was using but it was a very rough and grainy look to the show. The host conducting the interview would finish asking questions in English and then turn around and repeat the information in Italian. While I don’t speak Italian, that portion of the show was fine to deal with. What I didn’t care for was the simply terrible camera work during the show. The angles kept catching the host in the background during the performances. During the interview, the host was shown half on screen and half off screen. It looked like a badly conceived student film.

THE BONUS CD: There’s nothing of note bad about the disc.

The Verdict
THE CD: A couple of vocal hiccups don’t detract much from the enjoyment of the concert. At least not like the fade outs in between songs do. It’s still a very solid and worthwhile capturing of the band in a live setting. I did find myself wishing the set had been a little bit longer because the band did leave up quite a number of songs I would’ve loved to heard performed live. However, I still found this to be a really good live disc and I’ve been playing it multiple times over the past week or so. I think you’ll enjoy it as well.

THE DVD: The things I said about the vocals in the section on the CD still apply, but watching the DVD you get a better grasp of everything going on during the show. I didn’t like the camera work during the Italian TV show, but other than those two things, the DVD actually improves upon the show over the CD.

THE BONUS CD: I found the 6 unreleased tracks decent overall, but I can completely understand why they didn’t appear on either of the two Pride Of Lions studio albums. While listening to the songs I was aware that none of them sounded as if they would’ve fit thematically with the material that did end up appearing on Pride Of Lions and The Destiny Stone.

Did You Know?
The concert was recorded at the Lokerse Feesten festival. The song “Black Ribbons (Voices Of The World)” was written for the Madrid bombings that occurred on March 11th, 2004. It was Jim Peterik’s niece who initially introduced Toby Hitchcock to him.

Rating: out of 5

Related Reviews:
Jim Peterik - Above the Storm
Pride of Lions - The Destiny Stone
.38 Special - Drivetrain

-- Jay Roberts