Premiata Forneria Marconi - 1972-12-26 - Modena, IT (AUD/FLAC)

(Audience FLAC)

Bobo Club

AUD B+

Franco Mussida - Lead Guitar, Vocals
Giorgio Piazza - Bass Guitar, Vocals
Flavio Premoli - Keyboards, Vocals
Mauro Pagani - Violin, Flute, Vocals
Franz Di Cioccio - Drums, Vocals

Disc 1
01 Appena Un Po' (10:43)
02 Generale (15:20)
03 Dove...Quando... Part 1 (5:51)
04 Dove...Quando... Part 2 (13:29) Disc 2
01 Impressioni Di Settembre (8:06)
02 Per Un Amico (6:47)
03 Il Banchetto (8:15)
04 E' Festa (6:39)
05 La Carrozza Di Hans (10:40)
06 Drum Solo (cut) (2:33)

TT - 88:28

Got this in a snail mail trade about 10 years ago. The mighty PFM live in Modena on the tour for their second album "Per Un Amico". This album, along with their first "Storia di Un Minuto", is generally considered to be one of the high points of early 70s Italian Prog and all the tracks at this performance are taken from these.

This performance is particularly interesting as it took place the night before Keith Emerson attended their show in Rome, loved them, and signed them up to ELP's Manticore label. Tracks from their two Italian albums were then rerecorded with English lyrics by Peter Sinfield and released as the "Photos of Ghosts" album. I prefer the Italian originals though (even though I don't speak Italian) as it was pretty obvious that the band found it very difficult to sing in English, a language they didn't speak, and the Italian originals flow much better. Just think of the voices as another instrument, unless you speak Italian in which case you can enjoy the lyrics as well!

Anyway, this is PFM performing the originals in Italian in front of what sounds like quite a small (although wildly enthusiastic) audience. Performance is very good, and it's a testament to the band's skill that they were able to effortlessly pull off such complex arrangements in a live setting. Some versions are also considerably longer than their album counterparts with a lot of jamming taking place. Fantastic.

Sound is not perfect by today's standards, but is very good for a 40 year old audience recording. Vocals, keyboards and guitar are very clear although the bass and drums are a little muddy at times. There is also a fair bit of tape hiss. Overall, listenable and enjoyable though.

So, if you like PFM, this is a rare opportunity to hear them perform their classic early tracks in their original form rather than the somewhat compromised English language versions they would stick to live for the rest of the 70s.