Henrik Freischlader's band remind me a little of the Hendrixesque power trio formed by ex-Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower. I saw this band during their 1974 Bridge of Sighs tour and, while being impressed by their technique and passion, there was no getting away from the fact that they were doing no more than efficiently playing homage to past masters of the blues with practically nothing that related in the present times.
This monster box set contains 4 CDs, 32 tracks and over four hours of old school blues-rock.
It's like hiring a juggernaut to shift some gear when a small transit van would do the job just as well!
Shows 47 and 27 (who's counting?) are recordings of two complete concerts played in Arnsberg and Hanover in 2011 and 2012.
The redundant 's' in the 'live in concerts' title suggests some linguistic difficulties but, while the intros and between song chat is in German, everything is sung in accent free English.
There are five covers: Peter Green's I Loved Another Woman (played like a slowed down Black Magic Woman), Etta James'I'd Rather Go Blind, The Beatles' Come Together and two Hendrix songs: Crosstown Traffic and Foxy Lady, the latter pointlessly stretched out to twelve minutes.
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The best tracks are the shortest Longer Days like Hear You Talking, for example.
The most torturous feature self indulgent jamming which reach a nadir on a 27 minute Bad Dreams (Wolkenwinde) on disc one and a 24 minute Breakout on disc four which both feature an extended segment of duelling guitar and hammond organ which will have you reaching for fast forward button.
Danke aber nein danke.
Henrik Freischlader's website (in German)
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