As you may notice, we recently received a slew of cool indie releases worth noting from Rad Rockers. Many of these hot releases include established bands that find a way to do a custom release of some sort and sell it via mail-order to their fans and through specialty places like this. Three Crosses had their recent performance at Holland's Flevo Festival recorded, which has been released on Spark Records. I have long held these guys as a really good band that needed to be experienced live to be appreciated. Their albums showed off good songwriting, but the studio production failed to capture all the energy they're capable of. With the exception of the mistake with the track listing (it's all out of order), this package is top rate. The mix is good, marrying all the vocals with the instruments and the crowd. Extended jams, like that found in "I Should Have Known" are really what make blues rock special. This album's got it . . . in a few spots. I think it's the vocals that keep this band from knocking Aerosmith out, plus the organ is a lot more prominent than most hard rockers would allow. Available from Rad Rockers (see their full page ad in this issue for ordering info).
