Album of the Day

Tales from the Big Bus, by Fish (1997): After the excellent Sunsets on Empire (produced in collaboration with Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson), Fish embarked on an extensive European tour that was documented on CD and DVD. The CD is a semi-complete (no encores) recording of the concert in Koln, Germany, complete with amble between song banter from Fish, some of it in German. Missing, unfortunately, for copyright reasons was the show's intro, delivered by none other than Lisa Simpson (Yeardly Smith is a Fish fan). The sound quality isn't great, but it does give you a good feel for the gig, as Fish gets the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. He injects some of the Sunsets material, "Jungle Ride" in particular, with an extra level of urgency and emotion that really makes it shine. The big Marillion-infused medley at the end of disc 1 is nice, but a little rough.

The companion DVD, of sorts, was recorded in Poland for broadcast on Polish TV. Musically it's very similar, but the between-song banter is almost completely gone, either through editing or Fish's concession to a less bar-bound crowd.