Live albums are something I generally avoid these days, but when we’re talking about a band as legendary and crucial as The Comes an exception had to be made. This LP compiles two live sets, one apiece from ‘82 and ‘83. The first, recorded circa the band’s songs on the ‘Outsider’ comp, is an absolute assault: the guitars are crisp and jagged, and absolutely capable of slicing the top of your head off. Singer Chitose, meanwhile, howls and yammers without ever seeming to pause for air. It’s fiery stuff, and you really get a sense of just how frickin’ powerful this band must have been when crammed into a cramped, sweaty space where you couldn’t breathe for the stink of damp leather and cigarette smoke. The Chicken Shack set is a bit rougher round the edges and not quite so deadly in terms of delivery (maybe because it sounds like they might have been a last minute sub-in for Gauze?) but it’s still neat enough, and, when you lob in songs that didn’t find their way onto the brilliant ‘No Side’ LP and a chock-a-block booklet you have a neat lil time capsule that helps better document this seminal Japanese hardcore act.
