CACTUS: FULLY UNLEASHED: THE LIVE GIGS (2004)
CD I: 1) Intro/Long Tall
Sally; 2) Bag Drag; 3) Evil; 4) Parchman Farm; 5) Alaska; 6) Oleo; 7) No Need
To Worry; 8) Let Me Swim.
CD II: 1) Big Mama Boogie; 2)
Heeby Jeebies/Money/Hound Dog/What'd I Say; 3) No Need To Worry; 4) Parchman
Farm; 5) One Way... Or Another; 6) Bro. Bill; 7) Swim; 8) Bad Mother Boogie; 9)
Our Lil' Rock'n'Roll Thing; 10) Bedroom Mazurka.
Okay, as absurd as it may sound, this almost comes close to a great
album. See, even though by and large Cactus totally sucked as a studio band
with an obligation to come up with original songs and shit, live they could, indeed, get «fully
unleashed». The live side of 'Ot 'n'
Sweaty never did proper justice to their capacities — not only because it
already lacked the original guitarist, but also because there were physical limits
on the length of the tracks that downplayed their jamming skills. However, with
this sprawling 2-CD mammoth, presenting an entire 2-hour long show (the
original lineup's last gig at Memphis, Tennessee, on December 19, 1971) plus an
assorted selection of other live tracks (including, for some reason, the
entire live half of 'Ot 'n' Sweaty
as well!), Rhino Records have made the nearly impossible — made me re-appreciate
the band's talent and re-assess their status.
Formally, the classic Cactus line-up on stage did
not do much of anything that they did not do on the studio records, except
stretching out the songs (sometimes to really absurd, Zep-worthy lengths: ʻNo
Need To Worryʼ goes on for 20 minutes, all solos included). But either they
really went out on a limb that night, trying to make their last show as memorable
as possible, or, if that was their usual style, then it must be assumed that
(not unlike quite a few other hard rock bands) they held back in the studio,
whereas on stage all four players, all the time, tried to be louder,
wilder, more frantic and hysterical than anybody else. It does not get much
better than on the opening ʻLong Tall Sallyʼ — in the studio, slowing down the
Little Richard original never made sense, but here you won't even have to
remember that this is a Little Richard original. It's not at all important what
this is in the first place! That is, as long as the guitarist guts his guitar
like a screeching pig, the bassist lays it on so thick you'd think he had steel
cables for strings, the drummer pounds like Bonham's younger brother, and the
vocalist knows no other mode than ripping his voice to shreds (and he still has
something left by the end of the 2-hour show).
Essentially, this is pre-Spinal Tap-era,
«everything up to eleven»-style stuff, but this is precisely how they manage to
add excitement to their generally clumsy-lumbering manner of playing. In the
studio, their Godzilla just wandered around, mindlessly bumping into corners,
but here, it actually breathes fire and demolishes skyscrapers, sometimes at a
frantic pace (despite the presence of some super-slow blues, the overall pace
of the show is much quicker than the average pace of any of their studio
records). Check out the final wild romp of ʻBig Mama Boogieʼ, or ʻParchman
Farmʼ, or McCarty's feedback stunts at the end of ʻLet Me Swimʼ — crude,
tasteless, brainlessly violent, and perversely awesome.
Of course, nearly three hours of material is
overkill, but the re-release of the Puerto Rican material from 1972 really
does not count, and an extra live ʻParchman Farmʼ is quite welcome. And I
suppose that Cactus cannot be appreciated any other way than in «total sprawl»
mode: anything less than completely-over-the-top and killer boredom sets in.
But frankly, I am really surprised at how much I enjoyed most of these
15-to-20-minute live tracks — even the medley of rock'n'roll oldies, although
it is performed in the silly-lumpy-glammy way that most people were doing them
in the early Seventies (think Uriah Heep or Queen), is appealing in their
unsophisticated, unpretentiously rustic mode of performance. Even that
ultra-slow ʻNo Need To Worryʼ: the guitar solo that McCarty plays at the
beginning is so utterly ridiculous, it must have served as a basic inspiration
for all introductory solos by Angus Young.
In brief, if you do want to hear Cactus, this is the album to hear, and the most
ridiculous thing is that we all had to wait more than thirty years to hear it.
Not that it could have withstood competition with Live At Leeds or Made In
Japan, had it been released in 1972 as a triple live LP, but I'm fairly
sure it could have endured at least as a cult classic. Anyway, even if the
music is dumb, I still love me an album that pulls all the stops, and on
December 19, 1971, these guys were on some rich barbecue fire, so a thumbs up,
by all means. As far as I know, there's also a sequel out there (Live Gigs Vol. 2), but since the
material predictably overlaps, Vol. 1
is everything a sane music listener really needs from these guys.
You have convinced me. Going to give this a try! Sounds pretty cool
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