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The Velvet Underground - Live at Max's Kansas City Audio CD

A fair review of the The Velvet Underground "Live at Max's Kansas City" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Velvet Underground reviews here, or go back to the The Velvet Underground tabs.

The Velvet Underground Band: The Velvet Underground
Title: Live at Max's Kansas City
Rating:
Release Date: 2004-08-03
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: I'm Waiting for the Man 2: White Light White Heat [#] 3: I'm Set Free [#] 4: Sweet Jane [Version 1][#] 5: Lonesome Cowboy Bill [Version 1] 6: New Age 7: Beginning to See the Light 8: Who Loves the Sun [#] 9: Sweet Jane [Version 2] 10: Ill Be Your Mirror 11: Pale Blue Eyes 12: Candy Says [#] 13: Sunday Morning 14: After Hours 15: Femme Fatale 16: Some Kinda Love 17: Lonesome Cowboy Bill [Version 2][#]

Quality of recording quite poor
Like sitting in a small, tinny bar with maybe 20-30 patrons. Good selection of music but the production quality is really bad. This album is really only for people who have to own every single thing VU did. Otherwise, go for the 1969 live album (recorded in Texas).


Trivia note: the double Pernod guy is...
. . none other than Jim Carroll, poet, novelist, Velvet Underground enthusiast, and future rock and roller, responsible for "People Who Died" and other great songs. He and Brigid Polk, who taped this record, apparently sat at the same table that night at Max's!.


Still great..even without Mo Tucker
You also get an extended version of 'Some Kinda Love' and nice live versions of 'Candy Says' and 'I'm Set Free' on this remastered deluxe version. Though I miss Mo Tucker's drumming on this concert recording (she was on hiatus having a baby at the time!) the sound quality is noticeably improved over the original edition. Sell your copy of the old version and get this! .


Live and loud
" It was the original rock'n'roll club, with drag queens, actors, hit singers and underground hits in the same room. It seems appropriate that rocker-muse Bebe Buell once wrote and sang, "Cut my teeth at Max's Kansas City/My soul is pure rock. It had Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and then-waittress Debbie Harry hanging out in the same place.

Alas, there hasn't really been a place like Max's Kansas City since. So it seems appropriate that a momentous rock occasion took place there: Lou Reed did his final show with the Velvet Underground. Fortunately, a pal named Brigid Polk taped the whole thing, and this "legitimate bootleg" is a rough-cut little slice of what that night was all about.

It opens with drums being clattered, instruments being tested, and a lot of background chatter. Then Reed offers a dignified intro ("you're allowed to dance, in case you don't know"), before launching into several songs that are primarily from "Loaded" and "White Light/White Heat," with stage chatter between songs.

Apparently Reed unexpectedly changed the second set (on the second disc), including material from the "Nico days," early in the band's existance, including a spare, stripped-down version of "I'll Be Your Mirror," a gentle "Candy Says," a suitably hungover-sounding "Sunday Morning," and the way-too-long "Some Kinda Love. "

The album is bootleg quality, especially since they didn't have digital recording then, and Polk used a tape. So it's very fuzzy around the edges, a little incoherent here and there; "Femme Fatale" is downright murky. But it's all in remarkably good shape when one considers that it is from 1970.

And to some degree, its rough quality can be seen as a blessing. People like me -- who were born way after Max's Kansas City faded away -- can get a brief taste of what the nightlife at Max's was like, when fashion, art and pop all collided. So the background voices and clattery tuneups just add to the "you are there" quality.

It's also noteworthy because the songs included are among their best, and because Reed delivers them with so much emotion. There's a certain poignancy to his introduction when one realizes that it would be his last show with the Velvets. And it gives a bit of extra oomph to certain songs like "I'll Be Your Mirror. "

"Live At Max's Kansas City" is not the best-quality live album there is. But it is a small slice of the psychedelic nightlife for anyone who wasn't lucky enough to actually go there.


A CLASSIC "OFFICIAL" BOOTLEG
The ambience is perfect. This is SO WORTH IT!! The Velvets at nearly their greatest live and a classic NYC-sleaze-nightlife document. The band sounds wonderful. The only better Velvets live documents are the CDs, "Live 1969 Vol 1" & "Vol 2". This is a very close second. Stay away from the "Quine Tapes" - awful sound quality. This DELUXE version of "Live at Max's Kansas City" is the one to have!! (Rather than the old single disc version. ) It is a HUGE improvment!! If you're even thinking of getting it, GET IT!! .


You can see a complete list of all The Velvet Underground discography, or go back to the The Velvet Underground tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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