Jeff Scott Soto - Loud & Live in Milan 2019

With the world in lockdown, musicians and fans alike of all genres are climbing the walls and pulling their hair out all eager to find out when their next live concert fix will be, Musicians are doing what they can to keep their name out there and entertain us with the aid of social media – Acoustic sessions, Q & A sessions and generally engaging as best they can, that said the good folks at Frontiers have hit us with a Surprise digital only release (for now), a live recording from Jeff Scott Soto, released to the masses exactly one year to the day of the performance at the Frontiers Rock Festival 2019 in Milan, Jeff’s first of two appearances that weekend, which also saw him grace the stage with his Brothers (in arms) in W.E.T. the next day.

With a running time of just over 40 minutes, the listener is treated to an ear pleasing ‘Jeff Scott Soto Legacy’ set of all killer, no filler offerings. Along for the ride are JSS’s trusted cohorts: BJ on Bass, Edu Cominato on Drums, Leo Mancini on Guitar. This 10 track release is slick, raw and my god those backing harmony vocals are a dream.

A celebration showcase of songs from an 18 year Frontiers affiliation with tracks from solo albums: ‘Prism’, ‘Lost in the Translation’, ‘Beautiful Mess’ & ‘Damage Control’. Kicking off with ‘Drowning’ a belting, get the juices flowing rocker, the JSS well-oiled machine is off and firing on all guns. The mellow funked up drive of ‘21st Century’ keeps the course, copious amounts of AOR, Melodic & Classic Rock fused hooks during a well worked medley of ‘Believe in Me’, ‘Look Inside Your Heart’ & ‘Eyes of Love’, The light and shade of ‘Our Song’ with the moody riff intro and the catchy as hell chorus. Rarely played and my favourite from this release ‘Holding On’ offers an absolute Sublime JSS lead vocal and again, those backing vocals, complete with some Neo-Classic’esqe guitar noodling.

Onto the home stretch and the Talisman Big gun has to get an airing, ‘I’ll Be Waiting’ always a crowd pleaser, oodles of melody and huge kick-ass chorus complete with obligatory sing-a-long whoah oah oah oahs, Finishing off the ‘Live & Loud’ release and another stalwart in a JSS live show…from the movie ‘Rock Star’ what else but that ol’ fist pumper ‘Stand Up & Shout’ featuring the talents of Dino Jelusick from Animal Drive sharing the vocal duties.

‘Loud & Live’ is a cracking live release, captures the power of the band on top form, has that ‘I Wish I Was There’ feel about it, obviously lacks the content from other JSS live releases, but hey this was an afternoon slot at a Festival. This is scheduled to be released in physical form and will be packaged as a bonus disc to Jeff’s upcoming solo album ‘Wide Awake (In My Dreamland)’ due to be unleashed later in the year.

I have had huge admiration for JSS and the various projects that he has put his name to over the 35+ years in the industry (Yngwie, Talisman, Journey, Sons of Apollo, W.E.T, SOTO… the list goes on), a set of pipes that most of us can only dream of having, an incredible frontman, knows how to command the stage and get the audience on side from the get go and prolific in delivering the goods every time.