AMG REVIEW: This solo acoustic performance, recorded live at the studios of WFMU in East Orange, NJ, on May 29, 1987, is one of the best live tapes in R. Stevie Moore's extensive catalog. Moore was in the middle of a career upswing at the time and his marvelous album Teenage Spectacular was about to be released; he repeatedly cracks jokes about a recent New York Times article about himself and he's clearly in a jovial mood, inserting non-sequitur jokes and offhand commentary into his lyrics. (It undoubtedly helps that the DJ on duty is WFMU stalwart Krystyna Olsiewicz, who is also Mrs. R. Stevie Moore; their conversations are utterly charming.) The performances are loose, occasionally almost to the point of shambolic, but focused and entertaining, and his between-song banter is both funny and pointed, particularly on the half-sung "Many Gripes," a call to boycott the musical mainstream. The song selection leans primarily toward new material that would appear on Teenage Spectacular and its follow-up, Warning: R. Stevie Moore, though Moore dips back into his Nashville days with a chaotic version of Swing and a Miss' "Me Not Right" and a softly sung take on 1978's "Treat Me." Listeners diving into R. Stevie Moore's live recordings would do well to start here.
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REAL AUDIO
