Michale Graves. Doesn’t ring a bell? Okay let’s give it another try. Misfits? Indeed he’s been the Misfits vocalist when they reunited in 1996 until 2000. After this he’s been doing a lot of things both in bands and solo and indeed Illusions Live Viretta Park is a live album by this guy.

 

For everyone who expects horror punk or any other form of punk; you can stop reading by now because this is a recording of the acoustic performance he did for the Illusion album. On the other hand if you’re not a narrow minded punk head you should keep reading. The album starts with ‘Blackbird’, ‘Fiend Club’ and ‘Almost Home’. The vocal capabilities of Graves are pretty impressive and I have to say that together with the acoustic guitar he does entertain me during these first couple of songs.

 

The problem that I have with this album occurs later on. I don’t know why but after a couple of songs I get bored a bit. I constantly get the feeling that it all sounds the same or that I’ve heard it all before. Add to this the lyrics that are most of the time not really as great as you would expect from a singer songwriter and you’ll have my conclusion. The extra addition of the demos of several songs can’t do anything about it either. This is probably nice for the fans, but that's about it.