Customer Reviews

Live at the 40 Watt

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I listen to a wide variety of music but the Vigilantes of Love have earned the place as my favorite band! The most disappointing thing about this live album is that it is not a double CD! Every cut is a real treat, capturing the intensity and passion that this band bleeds out their pores. The are definetely the most underrated band in America. "Avalanche" is great on the studio release but is phenomenal live as are all the cuts. This album is full of smart lyrics and great music. Buy this album!

It's amazing how good VOL sound live, but generally speaking even great live bands don't make great live albums. This is not true of VOL, and this album is proof. They are quite able to duplicate their excellent studio sound in concert, or maybe it's the reverse, either way they sound fantastic. I needed only see them once to be convinced that I needed to buy all their albums. Live Bill's emotional connection to his music just pours out. Sound wise they are fine folk rock, similar to Sister Hazel, Gin Blossoms and The Counting Crows. Any of their albums is worth owning, and this one, which features tracks from a number of the studio albums, is a great starter. Standouts include "Could Be A Lot Worse', `Avalanche' and `The Opposite's True'. I also highly recommend VOL's studio albums TO THE ROOF OF THE SKY, BLISTER SOUL and AUDIBLE SIGH

I prefer the sound of studio recordings. Never really did like live albums. But there were a few that were not bad: David Bowie Live At The Tower Theatre; Grand Funk; Peter Frampton Comes Alive; and finally Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. But as big a fan of the Vigilantes Of Love that I am, I can't say I like this record. I bought it because it had two previously unreleased songs on it and I was hoping to find, between the songs, Bill Mallonee talking a lot like he sometimes does at concerts. But I was let down; the cat got his tongue.

As the title indicates, this live album is one concert recorded in one night at one location. But that's not a hundred percent true, only because at the beginning of the cd it starts off with seventeen seconds of a very old acoustic Southern blues song that was sampled in, fades out, and then you're Live at the 40 Watt with the vigilantes. (The liner notes don't reveal who that old recording is. It's not VOL. It sounds like it might be from 1949. Or perhaps it's Woody Guthrie)

The other reason this isn't an entirely live album is due to the last song, "The Ballad Of Russell Perry." This is a studio recording (recorded in England), and isn't available on any other cd. It's a great song that tells a classic, American baseball story. It involves just one acoustic guitar, one Mandolin, and Bill's voice. It's the best song on the disc because of it's superior studio sound compared to the rest of the live songs. The contrast makes it sound so crisp, clean, and clear.

One interesting tid bit about this particular Vigilantes concert is that they've included a keyboard player (Randall Bramlett from Steve Winwood's band), which, if you're a VOL concert fan, you know keyboards are rarely or never seen on a VOL stage.

Speaking of instruments, it must be said that Kenny Hutson does a great job with the mandolin on "The Opposite's True." Live song or not, Kenny goes to town on those strings. That's probably one of the few good things about live recordings, the musicians have the opportunity to stretch out their performance without being locked into the studio time-length of the song. And nobody does it like Hutson (except maybe Billy Holmes).

The other song that was unavailable elsewhere, at the time "Live At The 40 Watt" was released, is "It Could Be A Lot Worse." This song was later included on "Audible Sigh."

The liner notes to "Live At The 40 Watt" include some commentary written by the singer, song writer, guitarist and leader of the Vigilantes of Love, Bill Mallonee. You also get the lyrics to It Could Be A Lot Worse and The Ballad Of Russell Perry (but not the other songs).