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1)Taking Back Sunday - Live From Orensanz
I've loved TBS since I first heard "this photograph is proof" on my friends crappy walkman mp3 player on the train to camden to buy goth gear (lol) and this for me is the sort of thing I was waiting for feverishly since 2006, a solid live recording album of TBS playing through the hits, to a crowd, interacting with the crowd but not impeding on the quality of recording (sometimes hearing 500 fat girls wailing along to songs can start to grate) and Live From Orensanz does not disappoint! Teamed up with the live DVD of them performing the album contains all the great TBS hits but with a live edge that gives a new life to the songs. If your not convinced, sit down with a cup of tea and listen to this spine chilling performance of "my blue heaven" and let the full live sound of this band soak through the core of you being.
Noisy, Boisterous, In Your Face, Raw, Honest and that's just the inhabitants of Ireland. Bang Bro's brand of Righteous Jams/Mental sounding brand of hardcore has been on constant play on my ipod since I saw them last year at the Grosvenor supporting Cornered and the aptly named "bang bro's do america" tape has been the only tape i've played in a cassette player in about 12 years. The live audio comes from their appearance at the much heralded Life And Death fest in Dublin and is the essential cross-section of their material covering both tapes and other releases and with a cro-mags cover to close their set, it's 15 odd tracks of the one of the most exciting and entertaining bands in europe at this current time.
3)Thursday - Live From Starland Ballroom
I love Thursday and back when they released "kill the houselights" which was essentially the b-sides and rarites album which accompanied the DVD of them playing to a sold-out show, they also released a CD of the live performance and I can safely say it's like a snapshot of Thursday at their finest point. The energy overshadows the rather questionable audio quality and with only 11 songs it feels a bit short and I can't help feeling that they are lacking a solid live album since they have now broken up, but with them playing not only classics like "understanding in a car crash" but also underrated songs like "jet black new year" these things are irrelevant as this album takes you on a journey not only through one of post-hardcore's strongest bands back catalogues but also leaves another high note in an almost faultless back catalogue.
4) Comeback Kid - Through The Noise
Comeback Kid came to me at the right time in my life, I was feeling unfufilled with my life (at the tender age of 16 aha) and with a lot of my friends turning their back on the music of their youth and moving onto maturer fields, I was left to restart my own musical discovery, to which I found CBK's "Broadcasting" and the rest is history. "Through The Noise" is an almost retrospective look at the bands back-catalogue and at around 20 songs long it's not exactly something you can just dip into, but if you sit down and really immerse yourself in it (being an official live album no expense has been spared on the post-mix) so you can practically feel the energy coursing through your veins as the album just constantly batters you with song after song ranging from the explosive opening track "false idols fall" all the way through to the classics like "broadcasting" and the debut of a few new songs like "hailing on me", the album reminds you why CBK have been such a mainstay in the hardcore community, just consistently putting out albums which never decline in quality and never compromising on the basis of the band. Not only for a fans curiousity piece but a great album to introduce people to hardcore.
5)Belle And Sebastian - Live In Belfast
B&S will forever be one of my favorite bands and although my music taste is now more orientated round dudes in XXL shirts punching each other in the face or fat dudes with long hair making stupid noises with their drumkits, my love for the scottish twee-pop sextet will never dull, so when they announced their double live album, I ran straight out of my college class at 9am to be the first person in HMV to snaffle it up and then spent the entire day just air-trumpeting to it. Live In Belfast is everything you could want from a live album: crisp mixing, a massive mix of old and new b&s songs, a few covers and the occasional audience participation part which just really hammers home that throughout their near on 16 year career that none of the spark or passion has gone from the band and even through dramatic line-up and sound changes, the heart of scottish indie pop reigns true. This album gets constant replays in my car but there's nothing better than hooking it up on a massive speaker system and just letting stuart murdoch's sultry voice take you away.
Honorable Mentions
Johnny Cash - Live At San Quentin -
I'd be a straight up idiot if I didn't mention the king of country and all over ruler of the live album Mr Johnny Cash. I think you all know what the deal is with this album and if you haven't listened to it you should because barring what your thoughts are on him, this proves that he not only is a natural showman but also he knows how to play a mean song or two on the guitar
Kylie Minogue - Live At Abbey Road
the seductive aussie songstress serving up a mix of hits at the famous abbey road studio, although it's a recent release it's always great to see a musician with such a long career contribute some live songs to her back catalogue
Cannibal Corpse - Live Cannibalism
you know the deal with CC, you know what your getting, 16 tracks of pure CC mentality with a cross-section of hits blasting through your eardrums and peeling your flesh away.
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