Off With Their Heads Live Dec 9th 2017
It’s not a secret to my friends how much I love Off With Their Heads. I recently flew out to Chicago just to see them play since they canceled their recent run of Florida shows. (I also was lucky to see Slingshot Dakota whose live performance blew me away!)
To be honest it was my second time seeing them, but my first time didn’t count because I didn’t know who they were, so when I went to see their acoustic set with locals Debt Neglector (too be honest they were why I was there. They are a dope ass band, and I see them every chance I get), I spent more time outside talking to my buddy Alex then I did enjoying OWTH’s set. I did buy Hospitals on vinyl when I left. Once I listened to it, I cursed myself for not spending more time just enjoying their set instead of having drunken conversation outside.
So the album I’m reviewing is OWTH Live DEC 9th 2017. Per Jump Start Records “This Off With Their Heads live set was recorded on December 9th, 2017 at the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market After Party held at Neshaminy Creek Brewing in Croydon, Pennsylvania. It features 15 OWTH tracks that span their releases Hospitals, From the Bottom, In Desolation, and Home. It is a 16-track recording, not a recording or mix direct from the board. It’s fun, sometimes it sounds great, sometimes it’s sloppy and there's feedback, but it’s perfect in every way. It’s a snapshot of the time and place it was recorded – a punk rock party in a brewery in a big dirty warehouse in Croydon, Pennsylvania.”
As I’m writing this I’m listening to this album for the dozenth time. They’ve just finished “Shirts” followed by “Drive” and both capture all the excitement and painful joy I felt when I saw them in Chicago last month. It was the first time I’ve ever been in a pit singing along to a band while wearing a mask, and it certainly made me feel older than my 46 year old self already feels.
So the recording is just want you want from a live record. Clean enough to love and gnarly enough to feel like you’re hearing it in the club while some dickass is spilling beer on you while dancing to the show.
There are enough “rough” parts in this that allow me to believe that this was a real live recording without the overdubs you’d hear on a Kiss Alive album. It’s a sincere and honest representation of what they were doing on that day and at that moment.
Sound wise the guitar could be a little louder, and the drums don’t have my favorite bass drum sound, but the vocals are crisp and clear and you get all the emotion and invective against the world that makes their lyrics so powerful and important to so many.
The beauty of live albums is that they serve as versions of best of albums except it’s the best of what they play live and bands very quickly learn which songs get the positive response they want when they play, and this album is no different. It’s filled with songs that are my favorites on albums and that I’d desperately want to hear when they play live.
I just flipped the record.
Side B starts with “Start Walking” , a banger of a song that cuts me to my quick.
“There are no words to describe
The awful feeling I have inside of me
Here comes the light and it takes my hand
It leads me where I never wanna feel
It's a long way back to be anything
It's a long way back to be anything that anyone could love”
God. I have felt that way too many times in my life.
It’s followed two songs later by “Focus on Your Family” which is one of my favorites. Then the hits keep coming with “Janie”, “Seek Advice Elsewhere”, Nightlife” and “Clear the Air”. Seriously the best B side ever.
This album is not available for streaming on services like Spotify nor can you find it on OWTH’s Bandcamp page, so if you want to hear it, you’ll have to order the vinyl to enjoy it. Trust me, it’s worth it. If only to hear the nearly out of breath and slight off tune but pure and honest ending to “Clear the Air”
