I'm not sure if the world is really interested in yet another live album from David Coverdale's
Whitesnake. Loud sighs will probably greet the news that it's also a two disc set.
However, it did prove interesting to hear how his illustrious new band line-up dealt with the
Whitesnake back catalogue. Reb Beach, Doug Aldrich, Tommy Aldridge, Timothy Drury and Uriah Duffy. Premier league musicians every one. Surely they couldn't do anything but enhance classic tracks like 'Slide It In', 'Is This Love', 'Fool For Your Loving', 'Still Of The Night' etc etc.
The band's been together a while now of course and they sound tight and collusive. Together they absolutely nail down every riff, every rhythm and every chorus. Drury clearly has a ball on the
Deep Purple 'Burn' and 'Stormbringer' medley. Aldrich and Beach swap licks and riffs with what is either extremely well rehearsed sharpness or some kind of psychic anticipation. Aldridge and Duffy don't come through the live mix too well but what we can hear bustles busily, anchoring the music to solid ground.
On the more demanding material, 'Ready An'Willin' or 'Bad Boys' for example, Coverdale's scorched, worldly croon, usually punctuated by howls and throaty roars, now occasionally sounds thin, starved of the sensuality that made him infamous. Only on the middle of the road, melodic rock stuff, where he can throttle back and let the band take the strain, like on 'The Deeper The Love', 'Don't Break My
Heart Again' and 'Here I Go Again' does he emote satisfactorily, radiating vulnerability rather than macho power.
That said, only the ungracious would look to find fault with such great songs as 'Aint No Love . . .', 'Love Ain't No Stranger' and 'Slow An'Easy'. The performances are uniformly outstanding with Coverdale using all his experience to tease out what nuances he can create from lyrics that leave little if nothing to the imagination. Thankfully he avoids the parody and campness that could easily have crept into his stage performance at this time in his career.
Disc 2 includes four new studio tracks, none of which is truly outstanding. Only the balladic 'All I Want Is You' pulls away from the other three, all of which have a generic
Whitesnake sound, like they were written by a committee.
Still, on the twenty or so live tracks, the crowd just ate out of Coverdale's hands. There's a clearly an enduring fan base that will stick with the band in whatever form it takes, just as long as Coverdale decides to continue.
Written by
Brian Monday, December 4, 2006
Show all reviews by BrianRatingsBrian: 7/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
This article has been shown 3001 times. Go to the
complete list.
