Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: August 7, 2020
Album length: 51.22 min
Genre: AOR
Rating: 7.5/10
Fortune are a cult American AOR outfit who put out one studio album in 1985 and then vanished from the radar. The one and only, highly prized among fans of this now-archaic genre, and hunted down too. Let’s just say it’s one of the (very) best records ever released by a band that never landed the big hit and has stayed pretty overlooked to this day. Mostly it’s only the true connoisseurs of eighties radio-friendly rock who know it. Well, those very same Fortune released their second studio album last year. Yes, you read that right. It came out at the end of April 2019 on Frontiers Music Srl.
It gets better. Just one day after the release of the album “II” (RockLine review HERE), the first day of the annual Frontiers Rock festival went down in Trezzo Sull’ Adda, near Milan in Lombardy, and the first day’s lineup also included Fortune, who were given 50 minutes to entertain the crowd.
As expected, Fortune built the set from both albums, playing one of their very few shows ever — and as far as the old continent goes, the only one. It was an exclusive, and anyone who happened to be there can count themselves a lucky person, because they saw a cult AOR act on stage that will most likely never come to Europe again.
The band delivered at a high level. Considering they’ve actually played together very little, the members have of course been piling up experience in other musical projects over that hefty stretch of years. The big question was how the vocals would hold up. Larry Greene’s voice is a thing in itself and gives Fortune’s music its special stamp, its own character. In the studio it all holds water nicely, but on stage some flaws showed up, mainly in that the vocals project too little authority and don’t have quite enough power to overcome the trademark, charismatic riffs, which kept stealing the spotlight one after another. You notice it especially in the higher registers, where his voice gets particularly thin. Right from the opening Thrill Of It All, a bombastic classic from the debut studio album. It’s interesting, by the way, that the sound of this concert only reaches the level of a decent bootleg release, which isn’t surprising either, given the other releases from the same venue that Frontiers Music Srl has already put out. The place itself can’t exactly brag about great acoustics. Time and again the instruments “steal” space from each other in the mix. Suddenly the bass line pops out of the sound, and somewhere in the other half of the same song the synths bury the guitar phrases. In short, the sonic picture swings noticeably. Even though the albums “Fortune” and “II” came out 34 years apart, they’re very similar. Stylistically and in the arrangements. Which means the ideas on “II” are also very old and were created a long time ago.
Including Through The Fire, the song Larry Greene contributed to the soundtrack of “Top Gun” with Tom Cruise in the lead role, is of course a special treat of this document, though its place in the set isn’t all that surprising, since the band grabbed at every straw to use this release to remind people who and what Fortune actually are. Simple. They were nowhere to be found for far too long. Larry Greene and Roger Scott Craig, who isn’t in Fortune’s current lineup, spent the time in between making music with, among others, the band Harlan Cage.
Anyway, “The Gun’s Still Smokin’ Live” is a successful document in every respect. It’s really a nice keepsake for everyone who was at the festival that evening. They’ll grab it with both hands. As for Slovenia, the Adriatic Sea will split in half near Koper like in the Moses story if anyone turns up who’ll read, or even finish reading (to the very end), this review.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Thrill Of It All
2. Don’t Say You Love Me
3. Bad Blood
4. What A Fool I’ve Been
5. Through The Fire
6. Deep In The Heart Of The Night
7. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
8. Shelter Of The Night
9. Dearborn Station
10. Freedom Road
Lineup:
L.A. Greene – vocals
Richard Fortune -guitar, backing vocals
Mark Nilan – keyboards
Ricky Rat – bass
Mick Fortune – drums
