PiL
- Chicago, Granada Theater, Illinois, USA
October 23rd, 1982
Running Order:
1. Where Are You?
2. Annalisa
3. Attack
4. Bad Baby
5. Chant
6. Religion
7. Bad Life (Mad Max)
8. Public Image
9. Under The House
10. Low Life
11. Public Image
12. Death Disco
Running Time:
72 minutes (approx)
Sound Quality:
(8) Audience Recording
Tape Gradings Explained here
review by TIM McALLISTER
Notes:
This tape is often mislabelled as 10.10.82 Chicago show. However,
the show was definitely 23rd October, not 10th.
The recording breaks after 'Bad Life', when the taper flips the cassette.
Review:
Levene has some trouble with his guitar during the first song, 'Where
Are You.' At first it's barely audible, then it drowns everything out
for a few seconds. Eventually that's fixed, and they play a faithful
rendition of 'Annalisa.' After this, a bunch of people start shouting
for 'Attack,' so they play it. Very close to the album version, but
with a little echo effect on the vocals. Next up is 'Bad Baby,' the
first song of the night from 'Metal Box,' and my favourite vocal of
the evening. Johnny does a great job with this one, and Levene makes
some interesting synthesiser noises. The next track is a great noisy
version of 'Chant.' Rock out, dudes!
Except for the chorus, Johnny seems pretty bored reciting 'Religion.' The band bashes it out pretty well, though. Nothing out of the ordinary, but in this case ordinary is pretty good.
'Mad Max.' The band starts it of tentatively, and while they're doing that Johnny sings some unusual lyrics. Once the song takes off, though, the lyrics are the same as on the album. Except he says 'Mad Max' instead of 'Bad Life,' of course. It's interesting to hear the songs from 'Commercial Zone.' They had just been recorded a few weeks earlier.
The next number is 'Public Image,' a good version. Lots of nifty distorted guitar. Johnny doesn't seem into this one.
Next, they do 'Under The House.' This is the only song off their newest album that they played that night. Atkins doesn't seem to make any mistakes on the complicated drum part. Are Levene and the bass player playing drums too? If not, they must be on a cigarette break or something, because it's just Johnny and a lot of percussion. Fantastic.
After Johnny calls the audience 'selfish cunts,' the first encore is 'Low Life.' This version seems to drag a little, to my ears, but it's good. Then they do 'Public Image' again. Why? Who knows. The guitar goes in and out a little - very unstable guitar sound. There are some bad backing vocals toward the end, perhaps from somebody in the audience.. I like this version better than the first one. The last song is 'Death Disco,' 'Swan Lake,' whatever you want to call it. A very danceable version, ten minutes long. The bass player does a good job replicating Wobble's parts. Levene makes quite a racket. There is a brief dropout towards the end.
This is a show I'd love to have been at, although the audience doesn't seem to appreciate it too much. There is one gentleman, rather near the microphone, who shouts "Johnny! Sex Pistols! Stepping Stone!" and so forth, for the duration of the show.
The recording sounds better coming out of speakers than through headphones. But it's a really good recording for the period. I give the sound quality a B+, and the performance an A+.
