Published on Jun 28, 1998
Knowing that it’s been some time since Kansas graced the pages
of “The Daily Vault,” I spent some time browsing the aisles of my
local used record store in search of something unique I could
review. Sure, I could have dusted off the self-titled debut album
or any other title I have lingering in the Pierce Archives, but I
wanted something
different.
Lo and behold, there it was, buried under some Kinks tapes –
Live At The Whisky, a 1992 release I had never heard about.
After listening to it, I can understand why this album is so little
heard about.
Time has not been kind to Steve Walsh and crew. Once the kings
of AM radio with songs like “Carry On Wayward Son” and “Dust In The
Wind,” the band never really regained their foothold in the
industry when they reunited in the mid ’80s. Walsh’s voice is
definitely not the same as it was in 1976; the way he dances around
passages where his vocals would soar into the octave stratosphere
painfully demonstrates this.
It’s the hits that have fallen the greatest distance on
Live At The Whisky. “Point Of Know Return,” once one of my
favorite songs from Kansas, has lost almost all the magic that it
once had, especially in Walsh’s vocals. The same story is true of
“Dust In The Wind,” and even a guest appearance by former member
Kerry Livgren can’t save the day. “Carry On Wayward Son” comes the
closest of the three, but is still a disappointment.
The guitar work of Richard Williams and David Ragsdale is pretty
good, though I could have lived with cutting out about half of
Ragsdale’s violin work. At times, it seems like violin is thrown
into some songs just to show off – sorry, but it doesn’t work.
Many of the selections on
Live At The Whisky are going to be head-scratchers for all
but the diehard fan. However, the greatest performance on this
album comes on “Miracles Out Of Nowhere,” a song that, for its
running time, captures the old glory of this band and demonstrates
they’re not dead yet.
But if there was any question as to how much power Kansas has
lost over the years, one only need to go to the end of the tape,
where “Lonely Street,” a live cut from 1975, was tacked on. The
difference in Walsh’s vocals and the band’s overall performance is
night and day when compared to the bulk of the material on
Live At The Whisky.
I can appreciate why Kansas brought out
Live At The Whisky when they did; they wanted to show their
fans what the band sounded like today (back when 1992 was “today”).
But if they had one cut from the 1975 show in Cleveland, one has to
wonder why they didn’t release more material from that show.
Live At The Whisky is a painful reminder that time is not
always kind to bands, and Kansas was not lucky enough to dodge the
passage of time. This is a release that is strictly for the fans,
or anyone who is stuck in the ’70s.