Customer Reviews

Trouble Bound

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know I'm going to sound like an oldtimer in writing this review, but back when I was in high school in the early 1980's I had the pleasure of growing up in Southern California when music was so alive. Bands like X, Van Halen, Los Lobos, the Plimsouls and the Minutemen were playing small clubs and creating excitement about new music. Some of it was punk, some of it was hard rock, and then there were the Blasters.

Some folks said the Blasters played rockabilly. Some even thought they sounded Country. Then again, they were playing blues too. The bottom line is that they played the best American music you would ever want to hear, and they were absolutely the best live band around.

Alas, things don't last forever. The band, which features brothers Phil and Dave Alvin couldn't stay intact in their original form and that was a good thing. Dave went on to a great solo career and even won a Grammy and continues to be one of America's great songwriters.

Given the Blaster's heritage, the band re-released a compendium of all of their recorded music titled Testament. The two CD-set enabled the band to offer a more permanent public release of music that had long been out of print.

Last year, the band played five concerts in Southern California and this CD was recorded at one of the shows at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. The band also toured after the release of this CD as well.

I had the pleasure of attending two of those shows and feel honored to have had the opportunity to witness two of the greatest rock and roll shows I've ever seen. This CD is faithful to the quality and energy of those shows and is worth your investment.

Yes, the band members have aged a bit. Phil is a bit heavier and Gene Taylor has plenty of gray hair in that bushy beard. But they will give any band in the world a run for their money. This CD doesn't have a single track on it that won't make you want to sing along or dance. This is what American Rock and Roll is supposed to be.

Why, oh why has massive acceptance escaped this band? They continue to be one of the vital forces in American music, after more than 20 years. The caliber of live performances contained herein will never be matched by 75% of the CDs on Billboard Magazine's weekly Top 10 in sales in any given week, even with millions of dollars in studio "sweetening." Talent and tunes!!!When I win the mega lottery, this is the band I'm hiring to play at my celebration party.

Just got this slab and all I can say is - Dave and Phil make some of the best music to ever grace a CD. Why didn't these guys ever become stars?

A great live album featuring all original members and some new, never before heard tunes (in addition to the old classics). "Shakin'" is a standout number.

As Phil has said many times: "We're the Blasters - thanks for coming down here tonight!"

A great live album! You can bet your booty that any fan lucky enough to have skunked their way into these fab reunion concerts was as happy as a clam -- before, during and after the shows. This is a powerful concert album, showcasing the Alvin brothers at their full strength. Sounds a lot better than most concert records, with fiery guitars, a powerful rhythm section and none of the sluggishness that often accompanies this type of just-one-more-time get-togethers. If you're a Blasters fan, you won't be disappointed.

Reuniting a band whose 1980s hey-day was already a throw-back to decades-earlier R&B makes for a complicated timeline. The chronological jumble is further muddied by the working version of the band that's been on the road ever since this original line-up gave up the ghost. Amazingly, this reincarnation of the band's original lineup sounds as fresh as the day they broke out of Downey, California -- their rock 'n' roll licks as powerful as the sources from which they're drawn. With so many backward glances, one might expect these shows to be little more than a nostalgia fest, but the Blasters shake off any yearning for the past to keep their rock 'n' roll hearts vital and beating strongly in the present.

Guitarist and songwriter Dave Alvin split from the band after 1985's "Hard Line" to pursue a successful solo career as a roots-folk-country-rock troubadour. Big brother Phil has continued to take a variation of the Blasters on the road (in between working on his graduate math degrees!), and dropped a pair own solo albums of his own. The Alvins' solo work has shown the brother's individual talents to great effect, but neither has benefited from the creative tension they spark as a pair. Even the revised Blasters road line-up (swapping Greg Hormel for Dave Alvin), with Phil's lead-singing and Dave's songs intact, never fully captured the essence of the original band.

Reunited for a pair of shows at Los Angeles' House of Blues, the original line-up (including Bill Bateman on drums, John Bazz on bass, and Gene Taylor on piano) fire on all cylinders, offering up many Blasters' classics, including landmark tunes from Dave Alvin's catalog ("American Music" "Marie Marie" "Long White Cadillac" "So Long Baby Goodbye"), and expertly picked covers, including Harold Burrage's "Cryin for My Baby," Little Willie John's "I'm Shakin," and Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Too Tired." Both Alvin's are in top form, with Phil's voice a blues-soaked wail, and Dave's lead guitar raging away with intensity throughout.

Previous official issues have contained concert tracks (notably 1982's "Over There: Live at the Venue, London," and the recently issued "Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings"), but this is the first CD to show off the full-fire of the original band's live show. It's a blessing that the Alvins were able to (temporarily, perhaps) overcome their brotherly animosity long enough to play these dates. The seventeen tracks perfectly capture what was so exciting about the Blasters in the first place, and, even more impressively, what's still exciting about them today. This is earnest, sweaty, gut-wrenching rock 'n' roll, in the same league as its influences.

Great band And great recording, often not the case with some of their other recordings,

A definite for all Blaster fans

Founded by brothers Phil and Dave Alvin, the Blasters tore up the early 80s L.A. punk scene with their electric, punked-out, blend of rockabilly, blues and country. Breaking up shortly after their John Mellencamp-produced "Hard Line" failed to garner the national attention it deserved, and the brothers began fighting all the time, it looked like the Blasters would be nothing more than a vinyl-only footnote to the later, Grammy-winning, career of Dave Alvin. Luckily, however, their catalog is being reissued and, even luckier, Phil and Dave have mended some fences. The result of that fence-mending was an intentionally brief live reunion last year that yields this scorcher of an album.

Joined by fellow Blasters John Bazz, Bill Bateman and Gene Taylor, the Alvin brothers tear through seventeen of their best songs, from originals like "Long White Cadillac" (later a hit for Dwight Yoakam) and Dark Night (featured in the film "From Dusk to Dawn") to blues classics like "Cryin for my Baby" and "One Bad Stud," all done with a fiery style that makes moving your body mandatory.

If there's a flaw to this album, it's that it's probably their last for another twenty years, given the brothers are back to their solo careers. But at least we have this one.

3.5 stars

Don't get me wrong, I'm as happy to see the Blasters back together as I would be if Carl Perkins crawled out of the ground and reached for a Stringbender. For all the crowing about Dave Alvin's maturation as a solo artist, the Blasters were his high-water mark for energy and just plain fun music. And there is plenty of energy here, but perhaps a bit too much bombast. A few of the tracks sound like Jimmy Thackery or some other uber-amplified bar-band drudgery. The Blasters worked because they could mix tasteful playing with driving, nine-pound hammer rock and roll.

Nevertheless, this is a welcome return. Good covers of Guitar Watson and Billy Boy Arnold, great version of "Long White Cadillac." ...

Call it 4 1/2 stars... I just couldn't bring myself to give it the same 5 stars as the more than comprehensive "Testament" collection. Starts out a little shaky... just a few lines into "Red Rose" it seems as though John Bazz may have flubbed just a touch with his bass, and since he's the one other member that's been playing steadily with Phil over the years, I started to get a little nervous. But it's pretty much uphill from there. Phil can still hit the notes well enough, though he occasionally sounds a little *winded*(?)[esp. "... Dream"]. This doesn't appear to be affecting his harmonica playing, though ("Cryin' For My Baby", "So Long Baby, Goodbye"). "Blue Shadows" moves a little slower, "Help You Dream" a little faster, and the latter also features some nice keyboard work from Gene Taylor before Phil comes back with the last line. Dave's best guitar... probably "Common Man" and "Dark Night". All three of the never-released tracks are a nice addition to the Blaster's catalogue, and "Sadie's Back In Town" kick-starts the final six cuts.... "Dark Night" slows it down until Dave comes in with his lead, then the final four will erase anyone's doubt that these guys still *got it*. Just listen to "American Music" and "Marie Marie"... then listen again... see what I mean? All right, so why not 5 stars? At 67 min. they could have squeezed at least 2 or 3 more tunes on there ( hell, why couldn't they just make it a 2 disc set? I'm sure they played more than enough at the recorded shows). And we all have our favorites... I might have dropped tracks 6,8,9 and 11 if it meant I could hear "Border Radio", "No Other Girl", "Crazy Baby" and "Roll 'Em Pete". With a little luck, maybe they'll play them next month at B.B. King's in NYC.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We're The Blasters...or some incarnation thereof." And with that wry and probably all too telling salutation courtesy of Phil Alvin, Downey's finest are off to the races, tearing into "Red Rose" with a sense of purpose. Although Phil has kept various versions of the band together since brother Dave left to find himself back in 1986, this show, taped in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd at LA's House Of Blues earlier this year, marks the first time the original members of The Blasters (minus the late sax man Lee Allen, of course) have shared the same stage in what seems like forever. The good news is they haven't lost a step, revealing themselves once again as a sonic force of nature, still capable of unleashing an aural assault that will strip the enamel from your teeth and pulverize your spine to dust. As with any live album, it seems like someone's favorite song doesn't get played and for me on "Trouble Bound" it's "Border Radio," but that's just quibbling on my part. The pacing and set list are so rapturous that I didn't really even miss it until long after set closer "Marie Marie." Although reportedly capable of killing each other if the planets align just right, and perhaps that's the main component of the magic that is The Blasters, it's encouraging (and probably naive) that Phil and Dave were able to cast aside their differences and, at least for one night, once again capture lightning in a jar.