As a general rule of thumb I do not like live records at all, but when it's coming from the heyday of one of my favorite bands of all time, Integrity, and it includes a bonus DVD of the same performance? Fucking sign me up. As soon as I learned that Spook City Records was working on a CD pressing of the "Palm Sunday" release, I suddenly stopped caring that I had missed my chance to buy the limited edition (and rather expensive) vinyl pressing from UK label Aurora Borealis.
This 10-track live set was recorded way back in 1992 at Peabody's (Cleveland) with the lineup of Dwid, Aaron and Lenny Melnick, Chris Smith, and David Nicholi Araca; and given the time period the setlist was of course jammed with classics from the first 7" and full-length, as well as "Rebirth", which was a newer song at the time. This is also the somewhat legendary (and rumor-inducing) show where some troublemaking Columbus kids pulled a knife and cut the mic cord during the first song, allegedly stabbing a kid in the process. They then waited outside the club to pull more shenanigans after the show, but took off upon recognizing the fact that they were massively outnumbered by the locals. This is briefly represented at the end of the DVD with a snippet of chaotic footage filmed by some kids in a car of various bodies running by as gunshots are fired.
This material is 14 years old, so both the sound and video are understandably raw, but as picky as I am I really do find them to be quite tolerable (I've seen far worse in my day), and these songs are so embedded in my brain that everything comes across just fine—made all the better by loads of Dwid's antagonistically smartass banter between songs, such as, "This next song goes out to a pussy-ass chump tryin' to cut the mic cord. Quit 'scaring' Cleveland with that kind of activity, you fuckin' geek. Go the fuck back to your college town..."
I'd gush more since Integrity is one of the greatest hardcore bands of all time, but I don't have much time at the moment. I imagine all their longtime fans will be picking this one up, and that's the right move:
"Those Who Fear Tomorrow" was also recently reissued on CD yet again, but I haven't seen it yet. I've already got a million different versions of that album, but the newest edition is supposed to have a pretty chunky booklet with loads of old photos and whatnot. If you listen to any form of metallic hardcore and don't own that record there's something very fucking wrong with your existence on this planet.
Comments
I saw that re-release the other day. If its there when I go back, I’ll have to pick it up.
4.17.2006 | By Tyrone
The re-release is nice. It has all the lyrics and some really interesting flyers and stuff. It’s definitely worth picking up, especially if you’re an Integrity nut.
4.17.2006 | By Anonymous
Victory REALLY dropped the ball when they put out that “In Contrast Of Tomorrow” disc a few years back. i mean, how fucking hard is it to put together a compilation CD with all of the early Integ stuff? just put the full-length first and then everything else in chronological order. but they still totally fucked it up. ugh
4.17.2006 | By mark
face it, Victory is too busy releasing Top 100 garbage to even care these days. most likely it was just a BS album so Integ could fulfill Victory’s rumored 9 album contract haha. what was weird was Aurora-B releasing the vinyl considering they have their hands in the cookie jar of the latest doom and noise scenes.
anyway, this album has to be one of my all time favorite live records. the audio is raw but not so much it hinders the overall feel of the album… i’ll have to pick this CD/DVD up soon.
also, Andrew, i saw the re-release of the TWFT but there are also two CD comps out there of Integ that i think compile their singles, demos and albums.
4.18.2006 | By -cja
holy s**t, dream theater??? i seriously hadn’t heard that since when it came out - 1992?! now i feel old.
4.18.2006 | By cosmo
Man, that intro crossed the boarder from epic, to cheese real quick…
Integrity is awesome. I need to grab that re-release as well.
4.18.2006 | By Carlzilla