I never gave much thought to the James Gang because they pretty much happened before my time. My first band played the hits, Funk #49 and Walk Away, but I'd never even seen their their LP's. Then one day, twenty years on, I saw a clip of Walk Away on VH-1 Classic that blew me away. I was also surprised when I heard that they were doing a reunion tour. Why would Joe Walsh need to do this when he's in the fucking Eagles and can charge 300 dollars a seat? After listening to a bootleg copy of one of the 2002 shows I realized this band had a few more good songs and they could still cut it live(with a little keyboard help). Next day while browsing CD racks I couldn't find anything new so I headed for the James Gang bin. I should have bought the studio James Gang Rides Again but the $6 dollar price tag for Live In Concert suckered me in. Well it rocks, with sloppy sound and total stereo separation of the bass and guitar. It starts off with a few heavy bloozy rockers then Walsh switches from guitar to keyboard for Tend My Garden, the song on whihch Tom Scholz supposedly based his "Boston Sound" on. A quick acoustic track follows and then back with a blistering version of Walk Away. The album ends on a long note with a 17 minute jam complete with bass and drum solos which I could probably do without. A 7 minute Funk # 49 might have been better. But hey, 20 minutes of good music for 6 bucks, who could walk away from that.
buy it now
walk away (2002 version)
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