What we have here is a four CD, warts and all, set from a concert performed by Jefferson Starship at the Roswell UFO Festival on July 3rd 2009. But, this is not the Jefferson Starship that gave us “Jane”, nor the Starship that built a city on rock ‘n’ roll, but rather in many ways this is a follow-on from Paul Kantner’s first Jefferson Starship album back in 1971. Although it is billed as Jefferson Starship, it could as easily be Paul Kantner and friends as they perform some old Airplane songs, some covers that have space themes, and generally seem enjoy themselves (as did the crowd). But, to be honest there is just too much here, and only the real die-hards will want to listen to discs 1 and 4 more than once. The first is taken from rehearsals a week before the event itself, and they spend nearly 19 minutes trying to get “Space Oddity” right (they don’t). But it’s okay as they have another go during set two (disc three, where there is a really bad chord as someone gets it wrong) and twice during the soundchecks (disc 4, they don’t get it right here either).
We also have some songs provided by ex-Grateful Dead keyboard player Tom Constanten (“I’m The Urban Spaceman”? Really?), plus folkie Jack Traylor who apparently was a major influence on a young Kantner. But, the actual meat of the performance that has been captured here does have some real gems. For some reason they cover Fairport’s “Genesis Hall” and it is sheer delight from start to end, while ending a set with “Somebody To Love”, “White Rabbit” and “Volunteers” is always going to please any fan of the band. These guys are incredibly loose, but for the vast majority of the time it feels as if it is forty years earlier with some wonderful songs and some superb vocals.
The booklet contains loads of photos of the event along with some useful information, but the question remains as to whether the casual fan would want to buy a four disc set when they would probably only play two, so should it have been released in a different format? That aside, it is something I enjoyed playing and any fan of Jefferson Airplane really ought to seek this out. For more details visit www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk
