After five years of promises, Ten Years After finally release their first live DVD with the new line up, "Live At Fiesta City". Recorded at the Fiesta City Festival in Verviers, Belgium on August 30th 2008, in front of a 5000 capacity crowd, it is a great showcase of the band's talents in a live environment. What you see is exactly what happened that night: no technical doctoring, no overdubs, just TYA at their finest. Included on the DVD as added bonuses are interviews with each band member, biographies, plus a photo montage synchronized to "I Think It's Gonna Rain All Night".
This "fiesta" is in honor of the Virgin, and contains music by Roque Jacinto de Chavarria, a Brazilian Baroque composer (1688-1719), Juan de Araujo (Chavarrias teacher) and others. Dont let their unfamiliarity and the unfamiliarity of the other composers/arrangers on this CD put you off–all the music is flavorful, solid, Baroque fare, and much of it is rhythmically propulsive with an exciting Latin beat. Musicologist Bernardo Illari has put it all together to create a thrilling, vastly entertaining, and unique experience. It winds ups as a veritable pageant, beginning with a drummed entry into the cathedral, followed by the polyphonic sections alternating with purely instrumental ones and some nice monophony as well. Needless to say, Garrido leads his large instrumental and vocal forces with verve and understanding.