This concert from 2005 gets a great deluxe treatment here. We get two CDs along with a DVD of the show. I think this might be one of the better live shows I’ve heard from Greg Lake. He and his band make it through things you‘d expect to hear (“Lucky Man,” “In the Court of the Crimson King” and more), but they also include the epic “Pictures at an Exhibition.” It’s generally done pretty faithfully, but there are some efforts made to freshen things up too. All in all, I really love this set.

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An ambient synthesizer sound starts this. Then we hear the audience. The guitar rises up from there. Lake’s voice joins as it continues. They put in a pretty faithful version of the song. I think Lake and company do it justice, while also bringing a little freshness to it. A big part of that comes with the harder rocking instrumental break later in the track.

There is a real hard-edged blues rock vibe to this tune. It’s energetic and has a lot of charm and style. It also features some harmonica.

I have always loved this sort of jazzy mellower ELP tune. This live rendition definitely does a great job of recreating it. It’s one of my favorites of the set. The guitar solo section brings some new angles and even a little funk. It reminds me of Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians for some reason. The keyboard section really brings a lot of retro jazzy vibes.

I’ve also always been a fan of this tune. The keyboard part that starts it is pretty much perfectly faithful. I love Lake’s vocal performance on everything here, but he really makes this one work so well.

Another classic ELP tune, as Lake describes it, they rearranged this to feature more guitar. A lot of the track is played pretty faithfully, but they take it out into a full acoustic guitar solo section mid-song. That movement really takes up a lot of the track. They bring it back to the song proper to continue and take it out later.

Another classic tune, this rendition is just awesome. This is a highlight of the set.

This powerful ballad is so strong. It definitely becomes more of a power ballad later. Some Celtic elements are added into the arrangement further down the road, too.

They deliver a powerhouse performance of this rocking instrumental. While they start in a pretty faithful manner, it gets some seriously nearly metallic territory later. If anything I like this better than the original. Given how much I like that piece, it says a lot.

A full on rock and roller, introduced as such, this is a nice bit of variety. I really love the piano solo on this thing, but the whole tune works well.

The balladic tune gets a great live performance. There are sections that are more guitar based and others more aligned with keyboard music. It’s all so strong.

Lake provides a long story about the origins of this tune. This is another song that I’ve always loved. They put in a rather faithful rendition of the song, but the synthesizer really gets intense and dominant later.

Here we get another track from Lake’s tenure in King Crimson. This hard rocker has always been another favorite of mine. They really put in a pretty faithful version. In fact, this is probably the most “by the numbers” thing here. Then again, this track was so far ahead of its time. They really nail it.

This epic piece is an unusual choice for inclusion. It’s also a masterpiece. They both preserve the magic of the original and freshen things and up the intensity and power. This is really epic both in scale and scope. If anything, I think I like this version better than the version ELP did. It certainly captures all the glory while bringing some new things to bear, too.

When this stays pretty faithful the original, it works well. There are some parts where they take into a little more pedestrian territory that aren’t as effective for me. Still, the vast majority of this is stellar. It makes for an effective closer. After the band finish up there is a symphonic recording playing. That actually makes up about the last two-and-a-half minutes of the album. To me, it was a questionable decision to include it here because I don’t think it adds to the experience at all. If anything it takes away from the impact of the powerhouse closing. It’s used for the credits on the DVD, but honestly, I’m not sure it belongs on the CD.