Live: In the Red

Live: In the Red is like a book on Pussy Galore crammed into the size of a short story, as the late noise rockers run through 18 mid-career highlights (circa 1987-1989) in an economical 43-plus minutes. While the performances are energetic and efficient — there's little time wasted on instrumental wankery, on-stage banter, or crowd noise — the recorded versions of most songs still supersede the live renditions here, which aren't significantly distinguishable from each other. So it goes without saying that In The Red (coincidentally enough, or perhaps not so coincidentally enough, released by In the Red Records) is likely to be of greater interest to the completist than to the casual fan. Instead, the latter may want to start with the 1992 compilation Corpse Love or 1989's Dial "M" for M**********r, from which most of this material originates. The selections that work best live are those that also worked best in the studio: the garage punk "Understand Me" and Creedence Clearwater on crack "Dick Johnson" (both from Dial "M") and the post-mod "New Breed" (from 1987's Right Now!). Although the set was recorded at CBGB's in 1989, it wasn't actually mixed until 1997 — several years after the group, which consisted of Bob Bert, Neil Hagerty, Jon Spencer, and Kurt Wolf, had disbanded and its members had gone off to form combos of their own. As a whole, the sound quality is good but not great, although far better than 1986's lo-fi cassette release, 1 Yr. Live. The only non-LP track is the opening cut, "Nothing Can Bring Me Down" by the Twilighters. ~ Kathleen C. Fennessy, Rovi