Live And Dangerous

As I wind down featuring some of my favorite Live Albums, it's time to showcase a classic one that seems to land in a lot of top lists. That album however isn't without some controversy though. Some say it's a studio job with added crowd noise, while others maintain it's a Live album with a few overdubs here and there. In any case it's still a great album. I speak of course of 'Live and Dangerous' from Thin Lizzy.

Released in '78 and recorded from shows on the "Johnny The Fox" tour in '76 and the "Bad Reputation" tour in '77. Thin Lizzy had started to gain some commercial success with the release of 'Jailbreak'. Fans began to take note of the late Phil Lynott's great Bass playing and writing. Brian Robertson's Guitar work was also a standout in the band. So much so that after Robo left Thin Lizzy he played with Motorhead for a stint. The album originally was released as a double Live vinyl affair, but has since got the remastered treatment over the years. This version on the '13 remaster. Double Live still, but with two bonus tracks. At nearly twenty tracks long, the album features the classics as well as some of the more hidden gems that were Thin Lizzy. The controversy that lies with the record does tend to overshadow it a bit. Story goes that the album is 75% studio and 25% live. Logic behind it saying the album is just too perfect. Other believe it's the other way around, acknowledging overdubs and touch ups here and there. Whatever the case is, it's a stellar Live album.

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Dark Roots Of Thrash

Taking one last trip to the Bay Area for some more good ol fashioned Thrash. This time with some Testament. Often thrown into the second Big 4 group, along with other Bay Area vets Exodus and Death Angel, Testament has been delivering the Thrash since the mid 80's.

Testament has put out a handful of Live records through the years. With that being said I'm going with the latest in the double Live album 'Dark Roots Of Thrash'. What more could you want than a resurgent Testament and two disc full of Thrash? Throughout the years the lineup has changed a bit, more so during the 90's period than anything. But the band has also had a talented bunch of musicians playing in it. I mean the band boasts having three drummers who played in Slayer at some point. The band bottom line has always been talented, but perhaps lacking the recognition they deserved. However 'Dark Roots Of Thrash' pulls material from throughout the bands catalog and just melts some faces in the process. Released in '13 and with material pulled from the tour in support of the previous record 'Dark Roots Of The Earth', the band shows no signs of slowing down or losing a step. Simply put, if you like old Thrash then this is a Live records for you.

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No Sleep Till Bedtime

Time to throw this blog into some chaos, thanks to Strapping Young Lad. What's a little chaos anyways? SYL was one of the more chaotic and humorous Metal bands to come from the Great White North. Led by the mighty Devin Townsend, SYL brought their brand of chaotic metal to the masses for nearly a decade. They even managed to sneak in one of Metal's finest albums in 'City'.

We go to the land down under for this Live album though. Released in '98, the cleverly named 'No Sleep Till Bedtime', marked the first Live album for SYL. Recorded on October 11th and 12th of '97 in Australia. The album is somewhat more of an EP than an album. Seven tracks are Live, while the other two are studio bonus tracks if you will. This would have to hold fans over til '03 when SYL would release their next album. Devin went on to do a bunch of solo albums, while the rest of the band kept up with other projects of their own. While this album isn't everyone's cup of tea, it's still a great album to play when things get a little crazy.

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Unplugged

One last trip down the Grunge road with another MTV Unplugged performance. This one may have fallen by the wayside, but perhaps one track off it was responsible for breaking the band into the big time. The early 90's brought a wave of Grunge and Alternative bands to the American forefront. Sure you had the big names, but one band slipped in and make an impact, albeit at first as being compared to a bad Pearl Jam cover band. That bad was Stone Temple Pilots.

In '93 STP was trying to break through the Grunge/Alt scene and while the band has some success with their debut 'Core', rattling off four singles off that album. The band wasn't taking off quite yet. So in '93 the band did what all bands seemed to do at the time and that's cut an MTV Unplugged performance. The band churned out seven tracks in all. All cuts off 'Core' with the exception of a David Bowie cover "Andy Warhol", which video for has never surfaced,  but audio did appear as a B side of a few singles. The other non 'Core' track was a new song entitled "Big Empty". The song would go on to appear on The Crow Soundtrack as well as the bands next album, 'Purple'. MTV would later add the video for "Big Empty" into heavy rotation to promote The Crow Soundtrack. The song gained attention and by the following year when 'Purple' was released the band had broken through the scene. Of course the band would slowly fall apart by the new decade in part to frontman Scott Weiland's drug problems and frequent run ins with the law. The band called it a day in '02, but reunited with Weiland in '10 before splitting with him in '13. Currently STP is working on a new album with new vocalist Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. Take that as you will, the band sounds like a Linkin Park clone now. In any case enjoy this forgotten slice of Grunge/Alt Rock.

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Live! In Chicago

Changing gears yet again on the genre, we switch to some Blues Rock for this post. I featured Kenny Wayne Shepherd sometime back with his incredible '10 Days Out, Blues From The Backroads' album, which featured Shepherd playing with some Blues legends. This post will play off that previous post as it's a Live show recorded in support of that album.

'Live! In Chicago' marks the first official release for Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Released in 2010 in Chicago during the touring cycle for the '10 Days Out' album. Having released a handful of albums since he was a mere teenager. This Live record features some Blues legends playing alongside Kenny Wayne, including the late Hubert Sumlin, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Bryan Lee and Buddy Flett. This is pretty much a Live record that features some original material and some old Blues classics. This is a good chance to hear some old Blues tracks you may have missed or have never ever heard of. And while there's some good old classics from KWS, see "Deja Voodoo", "True Lies" and the classic "Blue On Black", the real gems here are the tracks with the greats. For Sumlin and Smith, this was pretty much the last record they were on, as both passed away in '11, a year after the album was released. Solid Live record from this generations SRV.

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Buried Alive

What better way to end a long career in music than by recording your final Live show and releasing it as a DVD/CD. Sentenced did that exactly with the '06 release 'Buried Alive'. The double Live album was recorded in Oulu Finland on October 1, 2005 and it marked the end of Sentenced.

Sentenced were one of those bands that changed style mid career. Much like fellow bands Amorphis and Katatonia, Sentenced started out a a Death Metal act, releasing some well received albums before changing their style to more Melodic Gothic Metal sound, starting with '98's 'Down'. The band was known for their morbid songs and downer videos. But what would one expect from a band from Finland.

By 2005 the band decided to call it a day. But not before releasing their last studio record 'The Funeral Album' and subsequent double Live album 'Buried Alive'. The Live album was a big send off, complete with a few songs with original vocalist Taneli Jarva, who joins the band to play some older material. The album pulls together material from the bands career and it just drips with emotion. The band you can tell towards the end knows there's only a few songs left before the casket goes in the ground. This album remains one of my favorite Live records of all time simply due to the fact the feeling is real start to finish. Plus Sentenced was a great band that deserved a lot more credit.

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