Waiting For The Punchline

Extreme | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Label: A & M
• ASIN: B000LWJU7G
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets, January 9, 2006

By 

William Slack "spiderfingers" (michigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Waiting for the Punchline (Audio CD)

I had to review this album so that I could help get the word out to other possible consumers. Put simply: BUY THIS ALBUM! Obviously, I feel very strongly about this. For fans of the guitar, whether it be electric, acoustic, whatever, you must listen to Nuno's work here. He is amazing.

I lean more towards the bluesy guitar players of the seventies. Page, Kossoff, Bolin, Clapton, West, Lowell George, etc. These are my mainstays. I also really enjoy the 80's players, Gilbert, VanHalen, Malmsteen, LeTekro (if you haven't checked out his work with TNT you're missing out), Wylde, Jake E. Lee, and a host of others. In short, I dig good guitar playing.

Well, to my ears it just doesn't get much better than this. It's not so much Nuno's solos that give me the shivers, cause they often do, but it is the rhythm work that is staggering. I don't know else how to put it. Shadowboxing gets me everytime, puts me in a whole other world. All I know is that out of my nine hundred or so titles, this one gets played as much as any other. Maybe that's the best compliment that I can give it.

Do yourself a favor and give this one a try. Listen to it, listen to it again, and then again. I almost guarantee that if you are into quality guitar work, that you won't be dissappointed. Also, try Cry of Love and Brother Cane for great guitar work.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last album?, June 7, 2001

By 

Bill Allison "Bill Allison" (Southwest Missouri, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Waiting for the Punchline (Audio CD)

Extreme's fourth major release was a move that threw most of their longtime fans for a loop. Their self-titled debut toyed around with childhood through a mature perspective, their second album "Pornograffiti" raised the bar a little bit by emphasizing a little stronger on the concept apprpoach. It dealt with finding love in a cynical world. The music was more fun, the band had grown more comfortable playing together, and Cherone had fully matured as a vocalist. III Sides to Every Story (their best work in my opinion) was talent pure and simple. I still play that one at least once a week.

In 1994, the band released "Waiting For a Punchline". The fourth installment featured a new drummer, a darker, more serious tone and an almost-angry overall feel. It was too late by then. The music scene had changed drastically by then and with the masses preferring Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, no one really gave Extreme the full attention that they deserved. It's really a shame. There are some really great songs on this record. "Shadow Boxing", "There Is No God", "Leave Me Alone", and "Unconditionally" are just a few of the songs that many, many people missed out on. Now, if you can find this album, you've really found something special.

It may be somewhat drier than their previous efforts, but upon multiple listenings, you will get the full jest of it. Man, I hope these guys get back together.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite Good, June 3, 2004

By 

Fred McGhee "fredmcghee" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Waiting for the Punchline (Audio CD)

Extreme was a band that was maddeningly confusing. Were they pop schlock balladeers ("Hole Hearted") ambitious progressive rocksters ("The Truth" section of III Sides to Every Story), blues based hard rockers, straight up metalheads, or symphonic world musicians incorporating Portuguese folk music into their musical stew?

The answer is all of the above and more. Let me tell it to you straight: this is an excellent album, played at a very high musical level, and lyrically very strong. Not overproduced or overengineered, this is also a record that allows the players to showcase their considerable musical skills.

Are there elements of "grunge" on this record? It depends how that question is asked, the last track ("Waiting for the Punchline") which is embedded in the "Unconditionally" track certainly could pass for it in some circles. In my mind, this is still Extreme, however. They were making heavy guitar based music with fattt blues basses a few years before the Seattle explosion (witness "Get the Funk Out").

The world is still catching up with Extreme. Someday, perhaps, it will get there.