{"id":40547,"date":"2007-10-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/fantasia-live-in-tokyo-dvd\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:31:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:31:32","slug":"fantasia-live-in-tokyo-dvd","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/fantasia-live-in-tokyo-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasia – Live In Tokyo (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asia fans who\u2019ve read my review<\/a> of their eponymous first disc are doubtless unhappy to see my by-line on another review of the band, and it\u2019s a reasonable response.\u00a0 If I shuddered at Asia<\/i> in 1982, how much more could I possibly like the same songs performed by the same lineup now that they\u2019re twenty-five years older?<\/p>\n

A bit, comes the occasionally surprising answer\u2026 a bit.<\/p>\n

This DVD was filmed in Tokyo during the 25th<\/sup> anniversary reunion tour mounted last year by the original members of <\/place>Asia \u2013 Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer and John Wetton, progressive rock stalwarts all.\u00a0 Said reunion tour was so successful that the band has continued playing together and there has even been talk of a new studio album.\u00a0 Be that as it may, Fantasia: Live In Tokyo<\/i> serves as a document of the group\u2019s anniversary tour and a testament to its enduring appeal.<\/p>\n

The strength and vulnerability of <\/place>Asia have always been one and the same.\u00a0 These four men are all superb musicians capable of making music of great complexity and depth.\u00a0 The music they made as <\/place>Asia, however, was essentially pop — overblown, often pompous pop that wore the label of \u201carena rock\u201d with more pride than it has ever deserved.<\/p>\n

Both pro and con are evident from the start of this set.\u00a0 \u201cTime Again\u201d is a solid opener, with a steady backbeat and room for some nice soloing from guitarist Howe.\u00a0 Bassist-vocalist Wetton, whose career at the mike has had its ups and downs, is in fine voice this time out, as strong and on the mark as I\u2019ve ever heard him.\u00a0 If only a group this talented didn\u2019t choose to wallow in clich\u00e9-ridden pap\u2026 as one is forcefully reminded when they segue straight into the cringe-worthy \u201cWildest Dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

A word of explanation is clearly in order at this point.\u00a0 The element that inspired my interest in sitting through this DVD — aside from morbid curiosity and a slight masochistic streak — is the set list.\u00a0 For this tour, the group invited each member to select a song from his own past in other bands for Asia to play.\u00a0 First on the dock was Steve Howe\u2019s pick, which allows us to hear what the Yes standard \u201cRoundabout\u201d sounds like played by Asia.<\/p>\n

If only they hadn\u2019t.\u00a0 Howe is spot-on, of course — he\u2019s been playing the tune for more than 35 years now and knows just how to caress its every nuance.\u00a0 But Wetton\u2019s voice is too low for the song, drummer Palmer\u2019s time-keeping is a Reader\u2019s Digest<\/i> version of the complex Bill Bruford original, and given the unenviable task of standing in for Rick Wakeman, keyboardist Downes only rewards the doubters.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Ironically, after that experience, the next catalogue piece turns out to be one of the highlights of this show.\u00a0 \u201cFanfare For The Common Man\u201d is the cut Palmer selected to represent his \u201cother\u201d group Emerson Lake & Palmer, and it\u2019s a fine choice, having been one of that group\u2019s high-water marks.\u00a0 In a new arrangement here\u00a0— no guitar in ELP, of course\u00a0— it\u2019s nothing short of revelatory, with Palmer and Wetton holding down a tight, strong bottom end while Howe and Downes rip through a stupendous five-minute mid-song jam that brings the crowd to their feet.\u00a0 Of course, most of them probably weren\u2019t saying what I was saying to my TV at that point\u00a0— \u201cWhy?\u00a0 Why, if you could make music like this, would you make Asia<\/i> instead?\u201d<\/p>\n

The point is only reinforced minutes later when they tackle Wetton\u2019s even gutsier catalogue number, and turn in a deeply satisfying rendition of \u201cIn The Court Of The Crimson King.\u201d\u00a0 Like the others, Palmer \u2013 once again standing in for that promiscuous progger Bill Bruford \u2013 brings his \u201cA\u201d game for this classic cut, which is carried off with panache and earns the group one of their loudest ovations of the night.<\/p>\n

And then, we\u2019re back.\u00a0 \u201cThe Heat Goes On\u201d tries to strut, something this quartet is constitutionally incapable of pulling off, and looks silly attempting.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t get better when at mid-song, Palmer erupts into an extended drum solo that\u2019s every bit as impressive\u00a0— and musically irrelevant\u00a0— as Bruford\u2019s infamous Yessongs<\/i> solo.<\/p>\n

Irony of ironies, Palmer opens the next cut on cowbell, as the band plumbs the depths of pop pablum with \u201cOnly Time Will Tell.\u201d\u00a0 In the final sequence, <\/place>Asia injects some genuine fire into their other two big hits \u201cSole Survivor\u201d and \u201cHeat Of The Moment,\u201d elevating them from standard-issue arena rock to\u00a0— er\u00a0— unusually well- and energetically-played arena rock.\u00a0 Yee-ha.<\/p>\n

The DVD\u2019s interviews are nice, stitching together the threads of four disparate pasts that came together to form what their marketing team promo\u2019d as \u201cthe 80s\u2019 first supergroup.\u201d\u00a0 In the process, Wetton is frank about the fact that they were very purposely going for a big, bombastic sound, and that they picked Mike Stone to produce Asia<\/i> in substantial part because he had just produced successful arena rock albums for Journey and Queen.\u00a0 Regardless of what you think of the end result, points for honesty there.<\/p>\n

Fantasia<\/i> is an interesting historical document of a band that achieved great commercial success in spite of the whining of pointy-headed critics like yours truly, and for that at least they deserve some measure of respect.\u00a0 That, and the unique and powerful performances of \u201cCrimson King\u201d and \u201cFanfare\u201d which can only be found on this DVD and its companion CD set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7745],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-40547","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-asia","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52110,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40547\/revisions\/52110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40547"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40547"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}