Echo & The Bunnymen, Live In Liverpool (Cooking Vinyl) 9
This ain't no eighties nostalgia revival nonsense. Sure, they released the Crystal Days 1979-1999 boxed set last summer. But Echo & The Bunnymen are a fully functioning band, having also released their third new studio album in four years with 2001's Flowers (for a total of nine). And as their live shows indicate, they sound better than ever. Documented for posterity is their performance at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Though Trinidadian drummer Pete de Freitas is still missed, Ian McCulloch's voice has barely changed in twenty years, and Will Sergeant's slashing, snaking leads are as sharp as ever. Most of the classics are there, from the swaggering 1980 post-punk single "Rescue" (given an extra Doors-like keyboard-driven arrangement), the menacing "All That Jazz," 1983's "Back Of Love" and an absolutely stunning rendition of the middle-eastern sounding "The Cutter," and of course the killer suite from side two of 1984's Ocean Rain. Remarkably, newer songs like "King Of Kings," "Buried Alive," "An Eternity Turns" and the epic "Nothing Lasts Forever" blend right in. Those who thought, along with The Teardrop Explodes, Wah!, The Sound and Comsat Angels should have been the real Britpop explosion, these Liverpudlians have tried on the old crown for size and it still fits. U2 may have won the popularity contest, but the Bunnies have my respect.
