Hot Water Music

Live At The Hardback (1999)

Scott Heisel

[sigh] It's all that I didn't want in a live recording. Hot Water Music has, does, and always will impress me with the amount of energy and urgency they put into their songs. So, when I see that they are doing a live album, I almost wet myself. Then I get it. The songs -- They left out my favorite ["The Bitter End'], but crowd pleasers like Alachua, Manual, and Just Don't Say You Lost It are there. The crowd -- almost nonexistant, except for when they let the audience sing the lyrics. This ruined it for me, not having any extra noise. In between songs, there is some talking by the audience and by HWM, but for some odd reason, it is set extremely low under the music, so to hear it, you have to crank your stereo. I wanted to feel what the crowd feels, I wanted to hear them scream, to hear them yell, to hear them go wild for this fucking AWESOME band. I mean, there were over 500 people at the show (so says the liner notes), so where's the energy? Unless you're a fan, I would pass.

[taken from A different kind of greatness webzine]