Kansas
(Legacy)
At the time of its initial 1978 release, Two For The Show provided a welcome breather for a band that had cranked out an amazing five albums in the space of slightly more than three years. This unparalleled burst of creative energy was matched by ascending commercial fortunes, Kansas having achieved multi-platinum sales status with albums like 1976's Leftoverture and the following year's enormously popular Point Of Know Return. As the band rolled across America in support of the latter album, they knew that it was time for the obligatory live set, thus shows in Michigan, Maryland, and New York City were recorded for posterity.
Released as a gatefold double-album with mock Norman Rockwell cover, Two For The Show is, in many aspects, the quintessential '70s decade live rock album. In a move that would be unheard of in this ProTools era, all the songs here are presented entirely live, without overdubs or enhancements of any sort. While this means that some of the original album's thirteen extended songs fall prey to lackluster performances, more often than not, the recording captures the unique prog-rock flavor and instrumental virtuosity that was (and is) Kansas. This 30th anniversary reissue of Two For The Show has been expanded into a massive, two-disc, 24-song woolly mammoth with ten additional, previously unreleased songs, packaged in a deluxe gatefold cardboard digpak.
For a generation raised on video games, whose familiarity with Kansas may be primarily through the "Rock Band" or "Guitar Hero" game soundtracks, Two For The Show may be a real eye-opener. The band's penchant for instrumental solos and lengthy jams pre-dates '90s-era bands like Phish and their ilk, every song here sounding curiously out-of-time in today's digital, three-minute, celebrity soundtrack world. Well-known Kansas tracks like "Point Of Know Return," "Carry On Wayward Son," and "Dust In The Wind" are accompanied by obscure-yet-entertaining fare like the bluesy, hard rocking "Lonely Street," the Keith-Emerson-meets-the-Phantom-of-the-Opera "Miracles Out Of Nowhere," or the funky proto-metal booger-rock of "Sparks Of The Tempest."
Live rock ‘n' roll albums are considered hopelessly obsolete by the musical digerati these days, so it figures that double-gatefold-live relics like Two For The Show would smell a lot like a Naugahyde leisure suit to the eternally-cooler-than-thou crowd. Then again, with the next generation of teen-aged whizz kidz rediscovering the joys of vintage vinyl, searching for artists that actually know how to play their instruments, perhaps the unique Kansas blend of pop, prog, and hard rock isn't really as ancient as the hipsters would have you believe, eh?!
Stand-Out Tracks: C'mon, if you don't know these already, I'm not going to be the one to tell you. REV. KEITH A. GORDON
