Another 70s comeback, the 90s reformation could hardly be considered prog-rock anymore (if one could call the Hendrix-inspired Garybaldi "prog" in the first place) on their only live release Bambi Comes Alive. It's obvious that some artists eventually run out of creative ideas. New albums by Yes, ELP, and Genesis have validated this more often than not. Guitarist Bambi Fossati, essentially Garybaldi in a nut shell and Italy's Jimi Hendrix, was quite a trailblazer in the early 70s starting with the Hendrix/Moody Blues/(fill in any other 60s beat outfit)-like Gleemen who put out one patchy album in 1970 (reissued on Mellow). Fossati would go on to leave his mark in the short-lived Garybaldi (especially with the epic Astrolabio) and Bambibanda E Melodie, Italy's answers to the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Santana respectively. Prior to this album, Garybaldi had recently reformed and released one studio album on Artis before this live album from 1993. Twenty years have certainly changed things a lot, and from the look of the cover it seems that Fossati's new "Mitch and Noel" may not have been alive when Fossati recorded Astrolabio. I'm afraid Garybambi '93 doesn't hold up quite so well to the original formation, and listening to Fossati's guitar style through modern equipment with an extremely mundane rhythm section doing a rather mundane set ("Johnny B Goode," "Hey Joe," "Little Wing") is quite depressing. Even "Nuda" and "Astrolabio 2" seem uninspired here.
(Originally published in Exposé #3, p.7-8, Edited for Gnosis 4/15/01)
