Pure Reason Revolution released their third album last year to widespread acclaim 'Live at Scala' captures the band at the end of 2010 in front of 600 fans highlighting tracks from the aforementioned album 'Hammer and Anvil'.
PRR have come some way since their first outing as a contemporary sounding prog band, steadily mixing in more and more electronica and experimenting with their sound. The sound on this DVD is excellent, the bass and rhythm big and booming but never dominating the mix and it gives a real sense of the power and energy that the band have.
All the elements of 'Hammer and Anvil' that were so good are to the fore here, the trademark harmonies and the big hooks coming over particularly well and the double salvo of 'Black Mourning' and 'Valour' sounds fantastic. Opinion is divided on singer/guitarist Jon Courtney's vocal style and I have to say that whilst it blends really well with bassist Chloe Alper and guitarist Johnny Willcox in the harmonies, when he is singing solo his voice sounds very exposed and rather weak in comparison to the full sound of the band overall. It's not a major issue however as the real strength of PRR comes in the quality of the songs and the arrangements, both of which come over exceptionally well in this performance.
The performance is good as is the quality of the footage and there's a really nice mix of camera angles that keep it interesting. The main body of the set is made up of the majority of the songs from 'Hammer and Anvil' with just two songs from 2009 album 'Amor Vincit Omnia' breaking it up. Of those songs it's 'Deus Ex Machina' that stands out (as it does on the album itself). Alper takes centre position on the stage and much of the footage is built around her, which perhaps emphasises her importance to the band. As well as providing bass and electronics it's her vocals that really help to define the PRR sound and it's fair to say that without her they would not be the band that they are.
They are joined on 'Fight Fire' by ex-Cooper Temple Clause member Tom Bellamy, who wrote the song and co-produced 'Hammer and Anvil'. This leads into the last song of the main set, the second song from 'Amor Vincit Omnia', 'AVO', which features some fine vocal harmonies. The encore features three older songs and these really emphasise how far they have come, particularly on 'Bright Ambassadors of Morning', they almost sound like a different band. It's good to hear 'Bullitts Dominae' and it's a timely reminder of why we're still talking about PRR some seven years after they first came to our attention.
A great performance, well produced and well filmed that serves as an exceedingly good record of the band that will stand up well in years to come.