JUDAS PRIEST – Concert Classics (1998 RME, recorded 6/25/1980)
I was surprised to see this album was reissued in 2007 as Live in Concert. When I got it back in 1998, the record label was immediately served with a “cease and desist” because Priest had just released their own official ’98 Live Meltdown album, and this one isn’t authorized by the band. It’s a radio broadcast from 1980, the British Steel tour. It doesn’t even have the right drummer pictured on the back! The album was swiftly deleted and disappeared from store shelves, and most fans didn’t know it had come and gone. (Also, at the exact same time, Sony issued another compilation called Priest Live and Rare, further muddifying the clarification.) After it was deleted, I acquired this CD from Tom who had just opened his own branch of the Record Store. I paid $19.99, used.
As an unofficial part of the Priest discography, In Concert is worth picking up. Although Priest had released the live Unleashed in the East in 1979, Concert Classics was recorded in 1980 after British Steel. Therefore, a lot of crucial future Priest classics had been added to the set. You can’t argue with the tunes inside. Recorded live in Denver (you can tell this when Halford yells, “What you say, Denver!” right before the guitar solo in “Green Manalishi”), some of these tracks are lost gems. It’s nice to have the CD alongside Unleashed, as a companion.
The sound quality is OK, it’s not up to the standards of Unleashed (obviously). The vocals are not mixed loud enough. The bass on the other hand is mixed way too loud, and Ian Hill is not that interesting as a bassist. The band is also not the same lineup as the year before, due to the replacement of Les Binks by Dave Holland. Holland is a very blocky, robotic drummer. Play “Green Manalishi” for an idea of how the two drummers differ. Priest with Holland was that much weaker for it. I don’t think anyone would argue the point that Priest sound better without Dave Holland on drums.
Having said that, the rest of the band are playing great, and Halford’s voice was in fine, peak shape. He was able to hit all the notes in “The Ripper”. He didn’t quite nail the one on “Victim of Changes”, but he was close! This doesn’t sound like there were any overdubs or other assorted mess-arounds. Which is the way I like it.
Other notables: No “Metal Gods” (although the concert opens with the metal hammering sound from that song). “You Don’t Have to be Old to be Wise” is a nice surprise, and it sounds great live! There are plenty of tunes from Sad Wings and British Steel, a trio from Hell Bent, and samplings from Sin After Sin and Stained Class. The set list is well rounded.
3/5 stars. Somewhat collectible, since Priest would probably like this CD to be buried. Good tunes, and an important era of Priest history documented on CD for the metal historian.
GUNS N’ ROSES – New York, New York (Live at the Ritz 1988 – FM Radio Broadcast, Gossip)
‘Twas Scott who alerted me to the release of this classic Guns N’ Roses concert on CD. A few tracks from the gig are missing, most notably “Shadow of Your Love”, but most of what I remember seeing on MuchMusic back in the 80’s is intact. Although I do not recall seeing “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” on the TV version, I used to love this concert. I watched it over and over. I had seen it over half a dozen times before I even bought Appetite for Destruction. I dubbed an audio version to cassette, before my buddy T-Rev recorded the entire show for me later on. I used to know these versions better than the originals. It’s a pleasure to finally have them on CD.
Remember the sound of the guitars being picked up in the darkness before Duff’s opening bassline to “It’s So Easy”? I don’t think I’d seen a band on TV before who seemed so…dangerous. The sound of Duff singing the backing vocals are another element I distinctly remember. Axl could get pretty mobile on stage, and his vocals often fell apart mid-sentence, while Duff held it all together. He was Guns’ secret weapon, Duff McKagan. Up next in the spotlight is Slash with those chugging, scraping guitars on “Mr. Brownstone”. Axl then delivers his first classic monologue of the evening:
“I don’t know what by chance the television audience will see…what anyone will see…but what we’ll see tonight…is that we wanna dedicate this song to the people who try to hold you back! The people that tell you how to live! People that tell you how to dress! People that tell you how to talk! People that tell you what you can say and what you can’t say. I personally don’t need that! Those are the kind of people that been getting me down. They make me feel like somebody…somebody out there….is ‘Out Ta Get Me’!”
Funny story about this song. I had a highschool buddy named Anand who was the first kid I knew in our class to get Appetite. Anand had strict parents. One day he was down in the basement studying, rocking out to Appetite. His little brother strolled in during his homework, and kept coming around to bug him. He hung around long enough to learn the words to some songs, and returned upstairs to his parents singing, “They’re out to get me! I’m fucking innocent!” Anand got grounded.
Needless to say the chorus to this amazing song was beeped when I first saw it on TV. I loved it anyway. That Izzy Stradlin riff kicks it classic-style, while Duff once again holds down the backing vocals. Slash is shambolic, losing control several times but always pulling it back together, cig in mouth the whole time. I love this one big sour chord he hits at 2:25 into the song. If I remember he almost fell at that moment in the show; the audience were pulling at his guitar, but all you can hear is this big awful chord. Then it happens again at 3:00! And again at 3:10! The whole solo is a fucking disaster, and that must have been fun for the people in the front row. Guns N’ Roses were so in the face of the crowd that there was constant physical contact. That’s a fucking concert.
“Sweet Child” comes early in the set, and obviously it’s not nearly as sweet as the album version, and Axl’s hoarse. Still, Axl hoarse in 1988 is something very different from 2014, and it sounds great to these ears. “My Michelle” is credited on the back cover as written by Rose and “Stardlin”, making obvious that this is not an official release. I hope Izzy Stardlin gets paid his due royalties. The band get more and more reckless/loose/inebriated as the concert goes on. Again it’s McKagan who seems to be holding it together and cheerleading from behind.
A very intense version of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” follows which I am less familiar with because it didn’t make the TV version I had seen. Axl dedicates this to a friend named Todd who had “danced a little bit too hard with Mr. Brownstone”. Needless to say, it’s very cool hearing this song played by the classic five piece lineup. With Steven Adler on drums, it’s more to the point. The arrangement is slightly different than what you know from the Use Your Illusion I album, but it still has the slow singalong part that later evolved into the “reggae” section that they were known to play live later on. Axl was a charismatic frontman and this was his moment to show off his power over an audience.
His next introduction was another memorable one:
“About five or six years ago I hitchhiked here, and ended up stuck out…in the middle of this place. Climbed up out of the freeway, and this little old black man comes up to me and my friend with our backpacks and about ten bucks between us…and he goes, ‘You know where you are?! You in the jungle, baby! You’re gonna die!’ That’s a true story, that ain’t no lie. So ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, rats!”
This was the only tune of theirs that I knew really well back in early ’88. It is played tight, possibly the only song of the night that is. There’s magic in hearing this lineup play this song, their song. And speaking of them, I always enjoy Axl’s band introductions: Mr. Duff “Rose” McKagan on bass guitar. Mr. Steven “Popcorn” Adler on the drums. Mr. Izzy Stradlin on the white guitar. Axl says he and Izzy have been together for 13 years. He saves the most recognizable member for last:
“And last, but definitely not least…in a world that he did not create, but he will go through it as if it was his own making…half man, half beast…I’m not sure what it is, but whatever it is, it’s weird and it’s pissed off and it calls itself Slash.”
Slash then introduces a song about “a walk in the park”, called “Nightrain”. Of the songs they played that night I thought “Nightrain” was a little less than great. It always seems to be the one I wait to finish. Then, Slash opens “Paradise City” with a little surf rock guitar before the classic opening lick. This is the song where things got a little out of control for W. Axl Rose. Doing his trademark slinky snake dance, he got a little too close to the crowd and was pulled in. The band kept on playing and Slash took an extended solo, but you can see Axl trying to climb out. Security finally pulled him up, and then you can see Axl getting his bearings and checking himself over. His shirt and several pieces of jewelry were ripped off, but as soon as Axl sees that he is OK, he resumes snake dancing and finishes the song! Slash’s solo during Axl’s “down time” remains a show highlight, as does Axl’s quick recovery!
For encores you get Aerosmith’s “Mama Kin” (dedicated to Steven Tyler) and “Rocket Queen”. The former is fast and tight, and the latter is epic and ominous. It is a natural closer, especially with Slash’s extended soloing. Axl delivers the closing in full-on ragged scream mode, as it should be.
I’m very glad to have this time capsule of a concert in my CD collection. Highly recommended.
KISS – The Ritz On Fire (2013 Gold Fish, recorded 1988)
This is hard to get. I got mine via eBay; Scott the Scot found his locally. Fandom went into panic mode when all Amazon pre-orders were abruptly cancelled. We all figured that Kiss’ lawyers stopped its release. It had still made it to the manufacturing stage, and enough copies have surfaced on the market that it is already a collectible that can be afforded.
If you love that poorly documented period that is late 80’s Kiss, you will love The Ritz On Fire. August 12, 1988, The Ritz, New York City. A radio broadcast, from the Crazy Nights tour. It’s not live album quality, but it’s a radio broadcast and therefore listenable. There are issues on some songs, such as “Love Gun” where Paul’s voice is too low in the mix while the drums remain more than audible. It’s such a joy to have a live recording with Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick that fans will be happy to overlook such defects.
It’s also cool to revisit some under-appreciated Kiss klassics: “Fits Like A Glove” from Lick It Up, “War Machine” from Creatures, and “Tears Are Falling” from Asylum are among the songs that are hard to find in live form. It’s also a pleasure to hear this lineup tackle Destroyer‘s “Shout It Out Loud” which was rarely performed back then.
MVP: No disprect to the late Eric Carr intended, but Bruce Kulick blows me away with his dexterity and diversity. His solos are highlights of every single song. He doesn’t emulate his predecessors, nor does he play inappropriately for the songs. Also worth mentioning is Paul Stanley. Once they get the vocal levels right, it’s a pleasure to hear Paul Stanley at his vocal peak singing live. The songs aren’t all downtuned like they are today, and some songs like “Crazy Crazy Nights” are really up there.
Eric Carr…he had his own style, and after hearing Eric Singer ably fill his shoes for so long now, we can be reminded how Eric Carr played them. He had his own signature drum rolls, and of course that unmistakable raspy voice on “Black Diamond”. Nobody was confusing Eric Carr with Peter Criss, on the drums or on the microphone; Eric’s rasp was completely different from Peter’s. He was almost a cross between Criss and Simmons.
Best of all, this is really live. We saw Kiss “singing” to backing tapes at Dodger Stadium on Saturday January 25 on national television. Meanwhile, Paul wasn’t actually singing anything at all. Not so on The Ritz On Fire. Yes, keyboardist Gary Corbett was backstage sweetening the sound and adding backing vocals, but they were live. The Ritz On Fire is all the stronger for it.
JUDAS PRIEST – Concert Classics (1998 RME, recorded 6/25/1980)
The sound quality is OK, it’s not up to the standards of Unleashed (obviously). The vocals are not mixed loud enough. The bass on the other hand is mixed way too loud, and Ian Hill is not that interesting as a bassist. The band is also not the same lineup as the year before, due to the replacement of Les Binks by Dave Holland. Holland is a very blocky, robotic drummer. Play “Green Manalishi” for an idea of how the two drummers differ. Priest with Holland was that much weaker for it. I don’t think anyone would argue the point that Priest sound better without Dave Holland on drums.
mikeladano.com 