AMG Review of American Nights: In Concert

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

In Concert is the successor CD set to the individual releases of Absolutely Live (which remains in print as a single CD), Alive, She Cried, and Live at the Hollywood Bowl -- as none of them presented more than a single angle or two of the group's sound and each confined itself to only a portion of the group's repertoire, the three-in-one release makes perfect sense and is a decent bargain. The picture of the group's live work is still a bit disjointed, however, due to the uneven levels of inspiration achieved at various moments -- Absolutely Live, taking up all of disc one, is the most consistent part of the set, and it almost specifically bypasses the group's most popular songs, whereas the second disc fills that gap but also shows some less than totally inspired moments, where "Light My Fire" and some of the blues numbers are concerned.