Not Live At the Roxy

A gripping vision of the Adverts as they raged through spring 1977, Live at the Roxy may have been recorded a hundred miles or so away from the legendary club whose name it bears (it actually hails from Nottingham's Rock City), but no better document exists of the group at this stage in its development. Their debut single, One Chord Wonders, was already in the stores; the hit Gary Gilmore's Eyes was imminent, and the band had locked into the live set that was to remain with it for the next year or so. As roughshod and raw as the critics always insisted, the Adverts live were nevertheless a sight for sore ears, all jagged edges and pointed lyrics — who else would have opened their show with a song ("Safety in Numbers") that berated the herd mentality of the provincial punks? Elsewhere, of course, the anthems "Bored Teenagers," "No Time to Be 21," and "Bombsite Boy" provoke wild howls of approval from the masses, and the energy levels soar to palpable heights as the night progresses. In fact, if you could just add a shower of spit and lose a bucket of sweat, Live at the Roxy offers a damned-near perfect re-creation of what an Adverts gig was really like — lurid, loud, and utterly bewitching.