THERE’S KNOW PLACE LIKE HOME (2009)1. Belexes 5:43
2. Point of Know Return 3:25
3. Song For America 9:29
4. Musicatto 3:22
5. Ghosts/Rainmaker 4:32
6. Nobody’s Home 4:55
7. Hold On 5:07
8. Icarus II 6:57
9. Icarus-Borne on Wings of Steel 6:37
10. Miracles Out of Nowhere 6:40
11. Fight Fire With Fire 4:20
12. Dust in the Wind 4:13
13. Carry On Wayward Son 6:50
14. Down the Road (Afternoon Jam) 6:53
The band decided to celebrate their 35th anniversary in 2009 by recording a new live project. The venue was Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, where several members of the band had gone to school. Because it was an anniversary celebration, they decided to have symphonic backing for the performance, and so they used the Washburn University Symphony Orchestra. Since they already had symphonic arrangements for several of their songs, from the
Always Never the Same project, they used those, as well as Larry Baird (the composer of those arrangements) sitting in as conductor, as well as creating new arrangements not used on the earlier album.
The result is a very engaging and wonderful performance. It’s a great setlist, highlighted by several twists and turns, and appearances by former members, and for the most part, the orchestra sounds very good. I like this project a lot. The only downside is, again, Walsh’s vocals. For most of the concert, they don’t really bother me a lot (although I can see how they could bother some people), but there are a couple of spots that are just flat out bad.
Steve Morse joins the band for his composition “Musicatto” and Kerry Livgren shows up for “Hold On”, which has an incredible arrangement – after Livgren’s guitar solo, it goes into the outro section of “Peaceful and Warm” before coming back to “Hold On.”
Also, this has a pretty epic version of “Dust in the Wind”, featuring Livgren and Williams on acoustic guitar, and Steve Morse joining in with violin, assisting Dave Ragsdale on recreating the as-originally-recorded dual-violin solo, before going into the orchestral “solo”. I mean, holy crap.
The last track, “Down the Road (Afternoon Jam)”, was done at the soundcheck, and shows everyone on stage jamming on this song from the
Song For America album. It’s a lot of fun, especially watching it.
Livgren also joins the band for “Carry On Wayward Son”, and we finally get to hear the orchestral arrangement for that song, as it was recorded during the
Always Never the Same sessions, but not included on the release.
If you didn’t care for the orchestral arrangements on
Always Never the Same, you may not like this as much, but I would say that it works better in a live environment for me. Also, if you get to watch the video of these performances, as opposed to the audio only, that also makes a difference. They are all on youtube.
The DVD and Blu-ray release also include additional songs “Howling at the Moon” (which serves as the show intro, leading into “Belexes”), “On the Other Side”, “Cheyenne Anthem”, and “The Wall.”