For the final show of the guitar maestro’s 2004 UK tour it appears that a well-positioned taper hit paydirt, as no less than three bootlegs of the show have surfaced – Sweet As The Rain, Wired Kingdom and the appropriately-titled The Last Gig. On hand were keyboardist Jan Hammer, bassist Michael Mondesir and drummer Mark Mondesir to help Beck make it a prog/jazz buff’s delight.
And it’s a justifiably excellent purchase for Beck fans looking for a terrific sounding document of that tour, and as setlists during the tour didn’t vary too terribly much, it’s probably the only one you need. (Although it would’ve been nice if Beck had done his covers of “Cissy Strut” and “Rolling And Tumbling” in Portsmouth as he did a few nights earlier in London.) Next to no crowd noise except between songs, solid instrument separation and definition, and no “distance” issues in the overall recording give this the thumb’s up.
Judging by the artwork of this set, Guitar Cycle appears to be part of the larger Main Stream family of labels. It has a 2-sided insert, 2-sided tray panel, both full color, with graphics and layout very similar to Main Stream’s releases. See elsewhere on the Wacks site for my review of a boot capturing the previous night’s gig in Warwick, also on Guitar Cycle. -- OSWALD
