In many ways, 1968 was a dark year for Moby Grape; their second album, Wow, was a critical and commercial disappointment, the band began discovering just how bad its management deal truly was, and Skip Spence left the group as his psychological problems began to worsen. Live at Stony Brook University, NY, October 22nd 1968 was recorded as the band, now reduced to a quartet, was opening for Procol Harum at a college gig in Long Island, and a certain amount of the band's spark is audibly gone on this particular evening. While Moby Grape are mostly in good form here, they don't always sound as if their hearts are in it (at one point, someone very pointedly tells a heckler to shut up in a tone that suggests they are not to be argued with), and while the band's two-guitar attack is muscular, it lacks the sparkle they had with Spence on board. However, Jerry Miller and Peter Lewis still shine on their guitar solos, and the harmonies with bassist Bob Mosley and drummer Don Stevenson joining in are fine. But between the occasionally dispirited performance and the fuzzy, lackluster audio, Live at Stony Brook University is recommended only for the most committed Moby Grape fans; if you want to hear this band on-stage in its glory days, you're better off picking up Sundazed Records' 2010 collection Moby Grape Live.
© Mark Deming /TiVo