To be honest, I veer away from buying live records these days. Much like comps, they take up space I can ill afford to spare considering I rarely listen to them. Despite the dubious nature of powerviolence live-and-in-the-wild as a listening experience, No Comment is the kind of band I make an exception for. And so here I am, breaking another of my own rules. Herein the band basically play their ‘Downsided’ 7″. Live. And on KXLU. I think these same tracks appear on their discography, but since that was such an exasperating listening experience (perhaps rivalled only by SSD’s poorly-conceived ‘Power’ collection) it and I parted ways long ago. Since I didn’t get around to reviewing the reissued ‘Downsided’ 7″, let it be said here: it’s a fecking masterpiece. A dynamite slice of pure, untrammelled vitriol that has rarely been equalled. This is those tracks recorded less well and slightly sloppier around the edges. ‘Curtains’ is truncated, which is a bit of a shame, since I’d be happy enough hearing them playing it for half an hour or so. Maybe there’s a recording like that lingering somewhere in the vaults? Maybe not. Otherwise, it smashes along nicely but still begs the question: why listen to this and not the studio stuff instead?
