// AP: TENESSENTIAL - Concert Albums

Concert Albums

Alternative Press - Rob Ortenzi on 11/22/05 @ 4:30 PM - altpress.com

Ideas can take shape in funny ways: When we ran a list of 10 Essential Punk-Rock Concept Albums in AP 201, writer Andrew Miller misread the title as "Punk-Rock Concert Albums," and, after a funny exchange with our editors, cleared things up by sending us his own list of just that sort for this month's issue. So, while you won't find any extended jams from the Mars Volta or Coheed And Cambria in this 10 Essential, you will find 10 discs that capture the fan-friendly fury of that all-ages show you just came from.

The Vandals Sweatin’ To The Oldies (Kung Fu,1994)

With Josh Freese pushing the pace behind his drum kit, the Vandals turned their clown-punk classics into brilliant blurs. An earlier Vandals model had written these songs (only bassist Joe Escalante remained from the original ’80s incarnation), and, as the new members sped them up with a savage smile, they closed an era while confidently announcing their arrival. Playing for a hostile, heckling crowd that had come to see headliners the Offspring, the group baited homophobes, butchered Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson and Grease soundtrack tunes, and delivered an extensive warning about the dangers of driving while masturbating.
Bad Religion Tested (Sony Germany,1997)

A casualty of Bad Religion’s Atlantic Records stint, this 27-track album became an import-only release. As the only official Bad Religion concert recording, it’s essential for fans of punk’s most combustible concerts. The band blaze through selections from almost every album up to this point, with two guitarists reinforcing every riff. The group didn’t waste microphones on crowd noise, but there’s no mistaking the live sound: The harmonies click into place at blinding speed. Some completists gripe about a set list that doesn’t include “Anesthesia” or “Atomic Garden,” but they’re forgetting the first rule about Bad Religion shows: No encores, no regrets.
Sham 69 Live And Loud! (Step One M,1987)

While many of their Class Of ’77 contemporaries demanded revolution, Sham 69 requested unity, foreshadowing one of hardcore punk’s central themes. Everyone from 7 Seconds to Atari Teenage Riot has covered Live And Loud!’s album-closing anthem, “If The Kids Are United,” but Sham 69’s legacy transcends the band’s signature song. This London-based group converted punk’s energy into cathartic bar-band shout-alongs. A cover of the Yardbirds’ “Mister, You’re A Better Man Than I” reveals Sham 69’s gritty rock roots, while the incendiary version of the Clash’s “White Riot” showed the band could go punch for punch with their pricklier peers.
Dance Hall Crashers The Live Record (Pink & Black,2000)

Dance Hall Crashers started as an Operation Ivy side project, but when Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman left to form Rancid, the band metamorphosed into a female-fronted ska outfit on the prominent checkerboard label Moon Ska Records. After five years, the group reinvented themselves again, becoming a peppy pop outfit that dabbled in rapid-fire reggae. This set covers the Crashers’ entire career, though it translates the horn melodies from the band’s earliest work into guitar lines. The harmonies between Elyse Rogers and Karina Denike remain crisp in the concert setting, and both singers enunciate clearly, ensuring that their tart lyrics pack a wince-inducing sting.
Bad Brains Live And Loud! (SST,1988)

Given that Bad Brains concerts could be frightening, with singer H.R. recklessly brandishing his microphone stand and stage-divers crushing unsuspecting heads, the band’s live recordings deliver all the insanity without the likelihood of injury. Released two years later, Youth Are Getting Restless offers a rowdier crowd and a slightly superior set list, but Live, recorded at the height of the band’s I Against I metal obsession, gets the nod for its relentless rhythms, searing solos and raw sound quality. The reggae-rock trailblazers excel in this small-club setting, thrashing through 14 tunes in front of a few true believers.
Black Flag Who’s Got The 10 1/2? (SST,1986)

Henry Rollins literally wrote the book on punk-rock touring (Get In The Van), and this blistering set is its serrated soundtrack. Released two years after the group’s initial concert album, Live ’84, Who’s Got the 10 1/2? encapsulates Black Flag at their creative apex. Guitarist Greg Ginn had evolved from rudimentary chord progressions to jazzy ax improvisation, and his expanded range injects fresh color into the group’s classics. Bassist Kira Roessler and drummer Anthony Martinez establish themselves as the class of Black Flag’s revolving-door rhythm sections. And Rollins’ spoken-word career starts with this record’s between-song banter. (SST, 1986)
Descendents Liveage (SST,1987)

On Descendents’ studio albums, the band’s massive hooks occasionally overshadowed their instrumental acumen. Liveage definitively documents Karl Alvarez’s buoyant bass lines, Bill Stevenson’s deceptively dense percussive patterns, Stephen Egerton’s agreeably erratic guitar lines and Milo Aukerman’s commanding charisma. Alvarez and Egerton had just joined the band, and they bring a few new melodic twists to Descendents’ impressive back catalog. This set list splits evenly between bratty blasts (“My Dad Sucks”) and emotionally engaging material (“Silly Girl,” “Clean Sheets”). Green Day and Blink-182 followed this lyrical formula, but they never even tried to mirror Descendents’ compositional complexity.
Ramones Loco Live (Warner Bros.,1991)

Loco Live contains 32 tracks, a testament to the Ramones’ legendary efficiency. The only segue between most of these tunes is a curt “1-2-3-4,” and the Ramones turn themselves from a guitar-based Beach Boys into a hook-heavy speed-metal act. From the optimistic “I Believe In Miracles” to the cynical “Bonzo Goes To Bitburg,” from the oldies-influenced “Do You Remember Rock ’N’ Roll Radio?” to the bop-bereft blitzkrieg “Wart Hog,” this set exposes the myth of the Ramones as power-chord primitives. Recorded in the twilight of the Ramones’ reign, Loco Live presents a comprehensive collection of the band’s triumphant experiments.
Mekons New York (SST,1987)

New York plays less like a live recording than a concept album about life on the road, collecting country-punk tunes from a number of club gigs and supplementing the music with bawdy back-of-the-tour-bus chatter and goofy crowd-interaction snippets. Track titles such as “I Can’t Find My Money” and “Trouble Down South” double as potential plot twists, and an alcohol-addled cover of the Band’s “The Shape I’m In” serves as a summarizing theme song. Mekons had undergone massive restructuring two years before this cassette-only release, and most notable among the seven new members is Sally Timms, whose honeyed, twangy tone makes the band’s jagged sarcasm easier to swallow.
NOFX I Heard They Suck Live (Fat Wreck Chords,1995)

They may be defiantly DIY about their own releases, but NOFX were as shocked as anyone when entrepreneurs started hawking shoddy high-priced bootlegs of their shows. Fittingly, the band’s cheekily titled response wasn’t an attempt to clean up the audio quality of their live recordings; instead, I Heard They Suck Live gives the group a chance to bare their personality, genital-warts quips and all. During a set that relies heavily on crowd-pleasing, shticky songs, the band save space for raucous renditions of their impeccably crafted melodic-hardcore mainstays “Bob” and “Linoleum."