Review Summary: "Live At Koko" perfectly captures Underoath at their prime, coming off the heels of a fantastic album and playing a great setlist to a very enthusiastic crowd.
Live At Koko is Underoath's second live release, and is by far their best. It was recorded at the first stop of their recent London tour, and is part of the Live from Abbey Road series. It is also the last UO release to feature drummer and vocalist Aaron Gillespie.
The show was recorded directly from the soundboard straight through the entire set, yet it sounds close to immaculate. This is quite surprising given all the different aspects of Underoath's live show, including Spencer Chamberlain's massively improved vocal range, Gillespie's tight drumming, and Christopher Dudley's atmospheric keyboards. The setlist itself is pretty well chosen, though there's gonna be a musical elitist/scene kid rift at the band's decision to not close with prerequisite single "A Boy Brushed Red." Oh well, they do what they can.
As said before, the whole show sounds extremely tight. Every part of the band comes out crystal clear and sounds excellent, most notably Spencer Chamberlain's vocals. They are simply massive. To listen to this and imagine that it is the same bloke on "They're Only Chasing Safety" is quite fascinating. Even on cuts from that album, Chamberlain seamlessly glides from high pitched shrieks to deep, guttural bellows that sound their most epic during the slower, more build-up oriented songs from
Lost In The Sound Of Separation, namely "Emergency Broadcast" and "Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear." The songs "Casting Such A Thin Shadow" and "A Moment Suspended In Time" from
Define The Great Line also use this newfound screaming skill to great effect.
Gillespie sounds as tight as ever on his kit, and every hit comes through remarkably well for a live recording. The only gripe i can find with the audio lies in that sometimes his vocals can be drowned out by the guitarists, and his own drumming. The guitars sound extremely good as well, with very few (easily audible) mistakes, and some improvisation during extended versions of songs.
This release is a necessary to any Underoath fan's collection, and is definitely preferable to
Survive, Kaleidoscope, which when compared to this sounds slapshod and unpolished. Definitely check this out for that little extra push you need to shell out money for concert tickets in the future...
Recommended Tracks:
In Regards To Myself
We Are The Involuntary
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
Breathing In A New Mentality
Young And Aspiring
*** it, all of them.
