Dead Boys - Night of the Living Dead Boys

In March of 1979, two nights of the Dead Boys (2 shows per night) were recorded at CBGB's, the last live shows of the original band, per the CD sleeve. Unfortunately, Stiv (supposedly purposely) sang a good portion of the set off-mic so that Sire (their label at the time) could not release a live album without the band's permission. According to the liner notes on this Bomp! Records release, the band was pretty shambolic, as well, and quite a bit of editing went into creating usable instrumental takes of the songs. Because of the vocal issue, when Stiv agreed to this release, he had to go into a studio and re-do all of the vocals (and, allegedly, the stage patter) with the help of a couple of willing groupies. So, how much of this is really a "live" album is up for debate, but the same goes for most live albums, apparently.

Whatever the case, it's a fun document, opening with a previously unreleased song, "Detention Room", which is vintage Dead Boys to the point of it being a mix of a few of their other songs (I thought it was an early version of "Son of Sam" until I realized that they had already recorded that song by this point)! Rudely dedicated to Mama Cass (who had recently died after choking on a sandwich), we get "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth" followed by "All This and More", a potent "3rd Generation Nation" (much improved from the castrated studio take), and they show their 60's roots with their pretty straight-forward cover of the Stones' "Tell Me".

They show some different roots when they sing that they don't wanna be no "Catholic Boy", they almost go pop in "Won't Look Back", and bring it back to their original Ohio days for Peter Laughner's "Ain't It Fun", from their stint in Rocket From the Tombs (as well as the Boys' first LP, of course). If this is indeed a patchwork of more than one take then the engineers did a stellar job as this is a smoldering performance! "What Love Is" loses some of the harmonies that I always dug, but makes up for it in shoutin' exuberance and hot lead playin' by Cheetah and some fine, rollin' bass lines by Jeff Magnum, who really makes his presence known throughout, funnily enough since they once had to bassist. "Ain't Nothin' To Do" is proper punk rock, "I Need Lunch" is actually a bit slower than the studio version and then speeds up into a manic take, and they finish their set with a frantic run through of their "hit", "Sonic Reducer".

Apparently, there are a couple of versions of this record and the one that I have includes several songs from a Dead Boys "reunion" at the Ritz in 1987, although just Stiv and Cheetah from the original band appear (interestingly enough, since earlier "reunions" had the other guys and not Cheetah). Here, they're pretty loose, throwing in covers, opening with noisy "Route 66" and a shambolic "Hang on, Sloopy" (Stiv claimed that Rick Derringer was at the show, which got him talking about this and they just wing it) with Stiv rambling about Ohio during the song. He babbles a bit again as an intro to "It's All Over Now" (which was supposed to be their final song, but they did an encore and spoiled it! Of course, it should have been "The Last Time") and, after a long, kinda nonsensical monologue by Stiv, the band bashes'n'crashes to a finale with "Ain't It Fun" and vicious "Sonic Reducer".

The fidelity is good here, not great, but certainly more than listenable and the performances are pretty fierce. Good stuff from one of Ohio's finest bands!