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Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome ANGEL!


Angel, an American rock/glam band from the mid 1970s still retain a small loyal following of fans despite having disbanded way back in 1981. In 1975, they began their recording career off as a progressive rock band that enjoyed long guitar solos, long spacey keyboard noises a driving tight backbeat with vocals devoid of any real melodic content. They slowly reinvented themselves as more of a glam/hard rock band, which more mirrored their darker contemporaries KISS, which were also on the Casablanca Records label at that time. This gradual change was a welcome one as the music became more digestible and just plain better. By the time their last two studio albums came around White Hot (1978) and Sinful (1979), the band were masters at writing their own hard rock songs that were anthemic and catchy. Although they did enjoy a slight boost in record sales, they weren't high enough for the band to feasibly stay together as a unit. They had one last trick up their sleeves for claiming some respectable success, a double live album release. For KISS, five years ago, this is the very move that made the difference in a very similar situation.

Their live set starts off with Tower, a song off of their first album, Angel. While I kind of detested the seven-minute studio version, this mercifully shortened live version makes for a fine opener. Can You Feel It immediately follows and what I notice right away from this song is the fine backing vocals from bass player Felix Robinson. His style mirrors that of Van Halen's Michael Anthony. The band proves to their captive audience that the band still rocks as hard as ever. The third song follows the first two in that this also is the opening song to one of their studio albums. Don't Leave Me Lonely is the lead in song from 1978's White Hot album. The song perfectly segues into Telephone Exchange, a favorite from their On Earth As It Is In Heaven LP.

Unfortunately, this live set does not cover their entire career. This concert was recorded live on their White Hot tour, and any of the fine songs from their 1979 album Sinful are absent, despite the later release date of 1980. Five out of the sixteen tracks were taken from White Hot, as it was their best and most popular at that point. The track Wild and Hot (from their Sinful album) must have been added as an afterthought, and the sound of it and the audience noises feel out of place with the audio from the rest of the concert. Yet again, it could have been a taster from their upcoming album thrown into the setlist, but I feel my theory stands. The version here has a totally different intro than the 1979 studio version. Speaking of out of place, including a cover here seems silly especially in retrospect. They covered Ian Hunter's All the Young Dudes pretty faithfully, yet it is unwelcome when the space should have been allotted for their own original material. They also added the live version of 20th Century Foxes from the Jodi Foster feature film Foxes where the band plays themselves and this song.

Despite their weaker material pulled from their earlier albums, this is a fantastic show. Even Greg Giuffria's keyboard solo stands as a dramatic highlight. The music and sound effects seem to play out a story of aliens coming to earth all friendly which then turns quickly into a gory horror show. The only annoying part of the whole concert is lead singer Frank Dimino's very odd stage rap intro to Rock & Rollers. You can't understand what the heck he's saying and the tones that he's making sound as if a four year old had found a microphone and started playing with it by making irritating sounds. Punky Meadows guitar solo was interesting, sounding closer to KISS's Ace Frehley's style and sound than ever before. Felix Robinson even gets a relatively short bass solo, which doesn't suck.

This live album is pure 70s hard rock fun, and stands as a fine swan song for the band. The band broke up a year later in 1981 when this live album also didn't do anything for the band financially. Too bad this wasn't released in 1978; it may have made a huge difference, as 1980 was already witnessing huge changes in popular music. Even with this said, I couldn't understand why Angel hadn't taken off a little bit more than they had. The fans that they had are still fans today, yet it's doubtful that they would ever garner fans of newer generations like some few bands are able to do. Angel's sound is definitely stuck in the 70s, their material is not all great, and they have very few CD releases in stores today, if any. But if you're a fan of hard rock music from the sunny 70s, then it may be worth it to check out Angel and just what they had to offer.




Angel
Live Without A Net
Length: 80:56 minutes
Released: sometime in 1980
Rating: 4 stars
the Songs:
DISC ONE:
1. Tower
2. Can You Feel It
3. Don't Leave Me Lonely
4. Telephone Exchange
5. Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
6. Over and Over
7. Anyway You Want It
8. On the Rocks
9. Wild and Hot
DISC TWO:
10.All the Young Dudes
11.Rock and Rollers
12.White Lightning
13.Hold Me, Squeeze Me
14.Got Love If You Want It
15.Feelin' Right
16.20th Century Foxes

Recommended: Yes