Labels: Boss Tuneage
Review by: Joe Callaghan
A live album seems like a strange option for a band who have only released 1 studio record. I attended a couple of dates of the tour this was recorded on, and whilst I have a lot of love myself for Varsity Drag and Ben Deily, it was poorly attended, and the lack of atmosphere certainly translates onto this record. Infact, I don’t really understand why anyone other than Aerosmith or Queen would make a live album anyway. However, even though this sounds more like the demo recordings of a full length album, with a couple of Lemonheads covers thrown in, it’s still enjoyable. But, Ben Deily was a part of The Lemonheads who didn’t really achieve any mainstream success until after his departure. If this was Evan Dando’s new band, it would entirely different. But it’s not. It’s the other guy, and he wasn’t in the video for Mrs Robinson. The connection to his previous band can’t be avoided due to the inclusion of covers and the success they hit post-Deily, but Varsity Drag can be enjoyed regardless. Afterall, it’s just inoffensive, messy power-pop, picking up where Dando and Deily as a song writing unit left off. Slight off-key melodies accompany the pleasant buzzing of the guitars like it’s 199something all over again.