Glimpses of Brilliance and a Hidden Gem

Review Score: (8/10)
Hearing Billy Gould talk about Live at Brixton it makes sound this was a heavily overdubbed, over produced "live album" typical of most of the live albums put out by arena rock bands like KISS where the live elements like audience noise are generally mixed in after wards.

Still does this mean this is a substandard CD? No. It's basically the Real Thing live with one song, "We Care a Lot" from the band's first and second records. This CD showcases the greatness of the Real Thing / Rock mode FNM very well and also gives at hint at the weirdness that was to come for the band. The ever bizarre Mike Patton dropping in bits of the New Kids on the Block "Right Stuff" and Teknotronic's "Pump up the Jam" is a perfect example of this. Of course anyone who was lucky enough to catch the band live would know that they regularly included covers from guys like Take That (Back for Good), the Bee Gees (I Started A Joke), Portishead (Glory Box) in the sets as well as renditions of standards like Green Sleeves and Spanish Eyes.

But for me the real gem on this disc is the bonus studio track "The Cowboy Song" which along with "The Perfect Crime" from the Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey CD are great missing tracks for the Real Thing era of FNM. It really showcases the talents of the band a great keyboard hook by Roddy, Billy's masterful bass thumping and the grinding geetars of Jim Martin (founder of the Faith No More spiritual and religious sect). It's another one of those tracks that really makes you wish Faith No More would release a real B-Sides collection of these tracks and stuff like Das Schutzenfest or the Patton version of As the Worm Turns.

In short if you like the Real Thing or a Faith No More completist, you really should make an effort to find this album.

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