This week we are going way back to 1974. Many people know the J Geils Band from their 80s hits “Centrefold” and “Freezeframe”. But before this outfit went mainstream, they were considered one of the baddest live bands in the world, even by the Rolling Stones whom they supported on a 1982 tour. The best live album they put out, and a contender for the greatest live album of all time was Full House. Recorded at the Cinderella Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, it captures the madness and exaltation of a band at the peak of its powers. The music has so much energy that it literally explodes out of the speakers. The drums crack like shotguns. The band is possessed. All the players are at the top of their game, every note has a reason to be there. Lead singer Peter Wolf’s vocals defy logic as he emits throat lacerating screams over a crowd that seems to have left its sanity at the doors of the auditorium. When Wolf banters in between songs, “Take out your false teeth Mama, I wanna suck on your gum”, it is clear that we are dealing with something entirely foreign, from another planet, dangerous, yet totally intoxicating. I discovered this record, courtesy of my mother, when I was 8 years and have been playing it ever since. There is only one way to listen to it: loud. You will be blown away. (PS. Start at 4mins in the video below from a 1979 show).
