Live At Max's Kansas City

Though this is bootleg quality, recorded on a personal tape recorder from a table in a nightclub — sometimes catching as much audience conversation as it does band performance, it remains a fascinating document of Lou Reed’s final nights with the underground cult band he founded. This “Deluxe Edition” includes nearly all of the band’s final two sets and, in spite of its obvious imperfections, contains some of the finest rock n’ roll songs of any era performed with a committed jolt of energy. Drummer Maureen Tucker was pregnant and unable to perform, so bassist Doug Yule’s teenaged brother was brought in. Where Tucker was a tribal primitive, unwilling or unable to perform a drum roll (she played standing up), Billy slams full-speed ahead with a series of splashing rolls and aggressive hard-rock drumming that gives Lou Reed no time to contemplate. “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “White Light / White Heat” sound like a punk band’s cover version, while the quieter material (“Pale Blue Eyes,” “Candy Says”) retains a sweetness and intimacy that makes Max’s Kansas City seem like a comfortable community center where its inhabitants — including would-be punk-poet Jim Carroll — canvas the audience for drugs and discuss movies.