Live In a Dive

One of the greatest bands to be featured in Fat Wreck Chords' Live In a Dive series, the Subhumans never fail to deliver the most inflammatory of old-school, pogo punk rock over the course of these 26 songs. The set captures the band's characteristic and influential mix of Sex Pistols crud, hardcore intensity, and ska-punk (perfected by the members in their Citizen Fish incarnation) and includes propulsive greats from their 1982 record The Day the Country Died (the Clash-esque "All Gone Dead," "Nothing I Can Do," and the thrashy "Mickey Mouse Is Dead" for example). It's one of the truly great punk shows committed to record, and the Subhumans prove that some two decades on, they could still play their old favorites with just as much intensity, political venom, and grit — and play them better, even. It's odd to have one of a group's most powerful collections of songs come out essentially disconnected from the social climate and revolutionary movement that produced them. But, by putting together such a masterful live concert album, the Subhumans illustrate just how impacting their music was and how relentlessly relevant it remains.