List | S | S.P.O.C.K | 'Earth Orbit: Live' CD 1997

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	Intro	2:32
2.	Not Human	3:56
3.	All E.T:s Aren't Nice	4:04
4.	Mr. Spock's Brain	4:13
5.	Mirror World	3:57
6.	Take Me To The Stars	4:14
7.	E.T. Phone Home	3:37
8.	Alien Attack	3:16
9.	Troubles With Tribbles	3:34
10.	Spooky	2:57
11.	Neutral Zone	4:06
12.	Space Seed	3:40
13.	Astro Girl	3:48
14.	E-lectric	4:11
15.	Space Race	3:11
16.	Never Trust A Klingon	4:26
17.	Zugabe	1:32
	Total	62:41

Comments:

The first time I saw S.P.O.C.K live was at the 1997 Arvika Festival, some time after the release of Assignment: Earth. Since I wasn't too impressed by the album at the time (I've grown to like it more by now), I expected the concert to be a bit boring. How wrong I was! It was by far the best show of the festival, quite easily kicked the crap out of Front 242 (who were surprisingly weak, which they made up for at SSF later that year) and even the excellent Bob Hund. The three S.P.O.C.K guys really got the audience going, delivering a superb show. They even played a Twisted Sister (!) cover ("S.P.O.C.K'n'roll") which, no matter how unlikely it seems, really worked. Android even attempted playing electric guitar (a small plastic green toy guitar; Plasteroid keyed some up-pitched dist guitar samples to it in the background) but decided they were better with synths. In short, a great show. It was also the last show with Eddie, before he was replaced by new member Crull-E. A pity though that the audience booed when S.P.O.C.K didn't do a third encore (!).

Later that year, November 1st to be specific, I saw them live again at SSF (Stockholm Synth Festival). The show was a bit shorter, but essentially the same and quite good.

So how does this live recording compare to the real live experience? Well, if nothing else, it triggers a few memories. It's a bit sad they've edited out all the talk in between songs, since that is usually quite amusing (Android has a quite heavy southern Swedish accent when he speaks Swedish; how odd for a semi-Vulcan, don't you think?). The only stuff he's shouting here and there is in English, but I suppose that is because this compilation is aimed at the German market (or at least that's my assumption). He usually shouts things like old clichéd stuff as "everybody in the house say yeah!" and such, but he does it full and well knowing how silly it is, and it really works quite well.

A good thing with this compilation is that you get to hear some details you might have missed in the confusion of the real show, like when Eddie plays a riff from 'Dansande Man' (the biggest "hit" of his other band Page) in the middle of 'Neutral Zone'. I had heard he usually does that, but I think I missed it at either Arvika or SSF.

Some other songs are a bit re-made as well, like 'E-lectric' which is a bit longer (great version!), or 'Space Seed' which has a little snippet of the X-files theme, or the old 'Never Trust A Klingon' which has the chords from 'Strange Dimensions' in a short part in the middle. Actually, a lot of songs has some little extra hand-played melodies here and there (most of the show is on DAT or something, so these little hand-played bits are quite fun to hear).

To those who have never seen S.P.O.C.K live, this live album is probably the next best thing (although I'd recommend you to go see them if you get the chance, even if you're not a hardcore fan), and to those who have seen them it probably works as a reminder of how great they were live.

The last track 'Zugabe' is just crowd noises and not a song.

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