Recorded on their Language. Sex. Violence. Other? tour during 2005, this 20-track monster of a double CD-set pretty much covers the gamut of the ‘Phonics live concert experience. Whether you would want to re-live that experience is another thing. For, despite their increasingly lumpen brand of stodge-rock, Wales’ favourite sons continue to fill concert arenas and enormodomes around the globe.
It’s not even a greatest hits live sampler – ‘Step On My Old Size Nines’ and ‘I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio’, to name just two - are noticeably absent. And you’d think Jones’ Rod Stewart mimic on ‘Handbags And Gladrags’ would have make for a nice crowd-pleaser, but it too is omitted. What you do get are portentous dirges such as ‘Mr Writer’, ‘Madam Helga’ and ‘Vegas Two Times’ showcasing their Led Zeppelin-meets-the-Black Crowes agenda. Even earlier more pop-oriented numbers such ‘The Bartender And The Thief’ are given the heavy treatment and drowned in numbing layers of guitars. The anthemic singalong ‘Traffic’ fares a tad better – at least Jones lays off the effects pedals (if only momentarily) while, of the new numbers, ‘Jayne’ isn’t bad. But only the more recent chart-topper, ‘Dakota’ (a jewel among the thorns here if ever there was one) improves in its live incarnation.
Depending on where you stand, this is either essential listening or something to be avoided like the plague, but if nothing else they make latter-day Oasis sound good – no mean achievement!