Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
We don’t perhaps appreciate enough the facility and ease of modern technology that allows us to still to be able to believe in the power of being there, that we can in part spend time perhaps with our favourite artists via a world of the unhindered view and the less than appreciative interloper readied with a supply of drinks and inane, loud conversation.
The pandemic has changed the world, and whilst nothing will ever replace the feeling of being part of an event, of seeing, of hearing with your own senses frothing at the bit in excitement and wonder, to have the facility to still hear quality and precision, the laughter, the joy, and the sincerity of a live performance within touching distance is a modern beauty waiting to be unveiled.
The difference between the crisis of the 1970s when live albums were churned out by the thousands as the studios found it was cheaper to record an evening with rather than spend money on capturing anything new by the band or recording artist and now, a time caught in the middle of a confidence of personal safety, is a gulf, an ocean where possibly rivers meet but the waters are miles apart; and yet When Rivers Meet and souls fly free, anything imagined is one of gorgeous encounter, no matter how you came across it.
It is to the glory of one of the most exciting bands, a duo of scintillating form and drama, to come the way of the listener in the last couple of years, that the framing of a living narrative is to be exulted and praised, and in When Rivers Meet’s The Flying Free Tour Live, the sense of freedom even for those caught in the bluster of the personal space at home is overwhelmingly cool and delivered with sentiment and awareness, and a sprinkling of exchange that can only lead to laughter, the one moment that truly captures the live set.
Across tracks such as Walking On The Wire, My Babe Says That He Loves Me, Don’t Tell Me Goodbye, Innocence of Youth, Bury My Body, and Kissing The Sky, the sheer depth of the married duo’s commitment is to be admired, and more importantly, enjoyed immensely.
Grace and Aaron Bond’s subtle awareness on stage is an explosion of wit and charm, and as the album progresses that promise of union and relationship, not only between husband and wife, but between lyric and music, is explored with blues heart, tender thought, and grit that is magnified and formed attachment.
The Flying Free Tour Live is reminder that whilst the live experience will never be replaced, we live in a time that all who care can still be entertained, educated, and enthralled; flying free has never felt so cool.
Ian D. Hall