King's X has been together for almost 23 years now. Within that time span, they have released ten studio albums and one "best of". It's only fitting that after all this time, a live album would finally see the light of day in order to showcase how most of the studio work would come across in the live environment.

"Live All Over The Place" is a two disc package that includes over two hours worth of music recorded over the years during various points of their live shows. Most of the tracks concentrate on material from later albums like "Dogman", "Ear Candy", "Tape Head", "Manic Moonlight" and "Black Like Sunday". Of course, the band manages to cover earlier material from albums like "Out of the Silent Planet", "Gretchin Goes To Nebraska" and "Faith Hope Love". However, there aren't any songs from "Please Come Home Mr. Bulbous" or the self titled "King's X".

I had actually read some reviews by people who bought this album on amazon.com and even sampled some tracks. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical in purchasing this CD because there were alot of things that people said about it that didn't seem to warrant me shelling out $15. When Circuit City had it on sale for $9.99, it made it worth purchasing.

The first disc contains songs that are considered electric versions where the second disc includes a mix of electric and "acoustic" versions. The "acoustic" versions sound more like cleaner, electrical versions. I wish they would have used real acoustic guitars, (six or twelve strings), as it would have given the songs authenticity. The use of acoustic guitars in King's X music was very prominent on the first four albums, which for me, represent the pinnacle of their songwriting.

For the most part, the recording quality of the songs are good. They are not as polished as one would hear them from something recorded in the studio. I believe part of the reason why they picked a majority of songs from albums like "Dogman" and beyond is because "Dogman" marked a critical turning point for the band. They had dropped producer Sam Taylor after four albums and started writing songs that were more groove oriented, more relaxed and less complicated both musically and vocally. These songs just seem to translate better in the live setting. The transition of the songs flows pretty well from one track to the next. It's really hard to pinpoint what songs were recorded when or where since there is no documentation in the CD booklet, (which does include some great live shots), that tells the listeners otherwise. Also, the performances don't sound that much different from each other. Naturally, it all sounds like one show. Most of the performances are tight from the playing standpoint. However, I'm a little disappointed with the vocals, most of which are done by Doug Pinnick. At times he sounds, slow, tired and strains. He also goes on preaching binges. In the song "Believe", he gets a bit political at times and tells the crowd to accept who they are and not to let anything else dictate that. The crowd doesn't play much of a factor as far as singing along and all.

Another beef I have, as with any live album, is the choice of tracks. For whatever reason, King's X doesn't do "Black Flag". This was somewhat of a hit for them when they did the video for MTV. Also missing from the set is "It's Love", another video and single that helped them further their career. I also would have preferred other songs from "Gretchin Goes To Nebraska", "Out of the Silent Planet" and "Faith Hope Love" instead of some of the ones they included here.

Over all, if you are a King's X fan and have seen them live, it only makes sense to get "Live All Over The Place". However, some of these live versions might make you pull out the studio versions, which happened in my case.