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January 15, 2007
Live Wire
When Wire's own Pink Flag label released long awaited live footage of the band in DVD form on 2004's Wire: On the Box 1979, I was too thrilled to even consider that there might be more to come. So it was an extremely welcome surprise to behold the mammoth document that is the newly minted Live @ the Roxy / Live @ the CBGB Theatre double CD. The first disc's 34 tracks are made of two nearly identical setlists from Wire's inclusion in a London punk festival that gave the band its first big break. The second disc is taken from a New York City radio broadcast of the group's first US gig, at the newly-defunct 'GB's. While we can only hope the vaults are excavated even further, there's now at least one document from each of the three years which produced those undeniable first three records.
Some fun size tastes...
Wire - "Glad All Over"
(Dave Clark Five cover, Live @ the Roxy, London, UK. April 1st, 1977)
Wire handles this 60's garage rock standard more reverentially then they did with later versions of their own compositions. The main difference is that Colin Newman's petulant vocals make it impossible to hear this as a straight froward proclamation of joy. Maybe a sarcastic comment on the band's prospects at the time? You can hear for yourself the level of enthusiasm the band gets from the Roxy crowd at the end of their bill opening set.
Wire - "TV"
(Live @ the Roxy, London, UK. April 2nd, 1977)
Although they made a resounding thud in popular opinion, the Roxy staff were a bit more forward thinking. For the second night of the festival, the kids played third from the bottom to an only marginally less indifferent crowd. Two tracks from the concert ended up on a record called the Roxy London WC2 that cracked the Brit top twenty in punk's heyday, and had a direct result on getting the band a proper record deal. From that second night is this track, one of the few that didn't end up on Pink Flag. Typically basic, but catchy for the 1:17 seconds it's allowed to live and with a few seconds that lean on just a jogging bassline rather than a full blown sprinting assault. Not as structurally interesting as the new material that would eventually be regarded as timeless classics, but a pretty cool start point.
Wire - "I am the Fly"
(Live @ CBGB's, NYC 1978)
The highlight of the the second disc's radio recording is "I am the Fly," which would eventually be released as a single from their just recorded Chairs Missing album. Hard to believe, but the guitar sounds are even more annoying here than they are on record, more willing to commit to the insect buzzing of the song's subject matter. The lyric reading is less deliberate and stilted, which is actually a bad thing, taking away from the weird precision of the original. You also miss the collective power of the sing along that develops on the album, but it isn't a dealbreaker. The will to wrap what is essentially an infectious pop song in such an abrasive package remains impressive.
Wire - "Blessed State"
(Live on Rockapalast, German Television, 1979)
Overshadowed by the Wire: On the Box DVD is the accompanying recording of the TV special's live performance, which is invaluable for the sound quality a television studio (with a yet another audience full of deaf mutes) can provide. Perhaps a little fuller sounding than the brittle studio track, this version is what really awakened me to one of the seminal Wire songs, missed somehow in a billion 154 listens. Graham Lewis tackles the vocals in this Bruce Gilbert penned krautrock number, and his booming low register has a deadpan authority that suits the song better than Colin's perma-sneer might have. Although the live rendition loses a bit of intricate guitar interplay from the album cut, it more than compensates with late overlapping vocals from both Lewis and Newman that push the song from good to spectacular. The motorik rhythm section is untouched from version to version, with good reason.
Previously: Footage from the Rockpalast DVD was examined in a previous Retrohump Day entry...
// Wire - Live @ the Roxy / Live @ the CBGB Theatre buy
// Wire - Wire on the Box: 1979 buy
Posted by Jeff Klingman at January 15, 2007 02:30 PM
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Comments
Damn fine campfire sing-songs.
Posted by: Mr. Beer N. Hockey at January 15, 2007 10:49 PM
