As it says on the back of this excellent box set of 13 live recordings made of glam-electro punks Suicide: “Not for the faint of heart or casual fan.” What it fails to add, however, is that if your heart is strong, your tinnitus minimal and your tolerance for lo-fi recording high, then you’re in for a treat.
Over the course of a year Howard Thompson (an early fan who licensed the band’s debut album for UK release via the Bronze imprint and organised most of these gigs) followed the band from NYC across Europe and back to America, recording each show on a Sony TC 150 – or a Dictaphone, as it would be known now.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the poor quality of the tapes, the confrontational nature of Suicide’s hyper-electronic situationism is brought to life as never before. Early shows in NYC are rambunctious and enthusiastically received. Less well received, however, is a gig in support of Elvis Costello in Brussels which, during an epic rendition of Frankie Teardrop, audibly dissolves into a full-blown riot after Alan Vega tells the crowd to go and fuck themselves. Skip the lengthy and pointless backstage chatter in Paris and listen to more great recordings from London, Liverpool and Germany. What must have sounded like insanity at the time – a mix of rock’n’roll, Krautrock and dub now sounds like sheer narcotic bliss.
