Live In Brazil

The first live album, and the second album since they got back together, LIB is really incredible. I've heard a dozen or so bootlegs of theirs, and they are really tight live, so it's nice to have a high quality recording finally. All the favorites are here, and the renditions are probably the best I've heard. Everybody Knows is intense and Johnette's plaintive wail is haunting, Mankey's guitar quietly counterbalancing it. Vampire Song simply rocks, as does God Is A Bullet. Before Violent, Johnette rails (very) briefly about Bush (the politician, not the band), appropriately enough. With the rise of Clear Channel and the genericization of "popular" music, it's great to hear music that hasn't been focus grouped to death performed with passion and sincerity.

Hot spots: Scene of a Perfect Crime, Tomorrow Wendy, Days and Days, Mexican Moon, Everybody Knows, Joey.