Rating: 5/5
Review:
A fine concert
This is a very good recording of a fine radio concert from
1977.
Blondie were still a slightly raw, slightly punk-ish band at
this time, and their performance is true to form: driving, slightly angry and
very, very good. Debbie Harry is in fine
voice and Clem Burke's drumming is especially brilliant, I think. It has the slight warts-and-all feel of a
live show with Harry not quite hitting some of her notes in the middle –
especially some of the less emphatic, transitional notes, which aren't great in
places – but that's what I like about a live recording: it's real, without
studio tricks and you get a real sense of the musicians themselves. The sound quality is pretty good, thank
heavens, and it's a fine set list.
Debbie Harry chats a little between songs but not much and the sense of
New Wave urgency comes over well.
I was nervous trying this, because there have been some
disgracefully poor-quality releases of archive recordings of bands recently
(Canned Heat at Carnegie hall is a particularly terrible example) but this is
very good. If you like Blondie, or just
music of this period, don't hesitate – you'll really like this.
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