As this is really the only Spirit video available, we'll have to put up with common complaints. The aforementioned MOOG with it's single note blasts from Randy, once the wrong note, mostly too loud, not adding anything really. Crowd noise? Not bad. Sound mix? Not enough bass and not enough Fuzzy vocals. Sure Randy's mugging for the crowd and eating his guitar gets a little too much at times. If you compare it to the mugging done by Frank Zappa in the Baby Snakes concert, you'd say Randy is a piker compared to Frank in the mugging department.
How good is it? For 1978 video, this print was really clean. Compared to the cuts that are on the net, night and day. Sure there's some scan lines and such every now and then from the different format, also dropouts more apparent with LCD/Hi Def televisions, but it's as good as it gets.
What earns raves from me is the performance. It doesn't get any tighter. Randy is Randy at his best. He toys with his guitar and plays it without care but skillfully. He makes it look really easy but the chords he's hitting are anything but. Larry Knight is beating the bass up, if only we could have heard him better. When Randy and Larry play together, the tightness continues. The flow is seamless. Then you add Ed Cassidy who does a little mugging himself, but mostly is sweating the beats and making it look easy.
The Spirit "golden 4" songs are as standard as it gets. Just the hits and really are not the stars of the set. "Rockpalast Jam" is one of the best electro jams. "Like A Rolling Stone" is performed over the top, the best live version by Randy. Dickey Betts comes in to jam at the end of the set and gives an idea of what Randy did just after Spirit broke up the first time. Jam. Ahhh, but the best is the drum solo. "It's All The Same" is a great song to begin with, and Randy gets his solo/mugging time, but then it switches to Ed, who plays a 7 minute drum solo that flows and grabs and never stops being something special.
I sure wish I was into this way back when. While it's not perfect by today's standards, it's still a good look in on a tight trio that was all but forgotten in America.
