Full House (Live)

In their heyday, Boston’s J. Geils Band were absolutely sell-out huge in the Motor City. They sounded like a sweat-drenched, hyper-confident R&B outfit, especially in their early-’70s days. All of that’s displayed here on their third album, which was recorded at Detroit’s Cinderella Ballroom in 1972. The set opens perfectly on a face-blasting workout of the old Contours R&B classic “First I Look at the Purse” (penned by Smokey Robinson). Then the group kick through numbingly great rebel-rousers, such as Otis Rush’s “Homework,” the band’s own “Whammer Jammer,” and the hard-grooving sermon of John Lee Hooker’s “Serves You Right to Suffer.” It finishes on the bluesy-gospel rave up “Lookin’ for a Love” (a cover of The Valentinos classic and a hit for the band). The album reveals just how incredible the six-piece were as a live act and how gifted frontman Peter Wolf was at entertaining the audience while making them feel like equal partners in the show (listen to the crowd participation on the proletariat anthem “Hard Drivin’ Man”). “Live” Full House was the band’s first gold album.