Just what we need. A live War On Drugs album. The pistol is loaded, pull the trigger.
Release Date: 13th September 2024
Label: Super High Quality Records
Format: Vinyl / Digital
Rolling waves
After three years when we’ve been captivated by the I Don’t Live Here Anymore album, plus shows in Leeds, Halifax and Liverpool, Adam Granduciel and the troops do the decent thing and serve up a live recording. One that repeats the formula of Live Drugs from 2020.
This new collection is compiled from recordings made on tour between February 2022 through December 2023 in America, UK, Europe and Australia. Mainman Adam Granduciel explains: “Live Drugs Again chronicles the evolution of these songs from the studio to stages all over the world, documenting our continued growth as a live band. This series ensures that these versions, and some of our favourite moments on stage, will live on.”
The live band – David Hartley (bass), Robbie Bennett (keys), Charlie Hall (drums), Jon Natchez (sax), and Anthony LaMarca (guitar)—as well as the group’s newest recruit, Eliza Hardy Jones, on keyboards and backing vocals – put in a real shift. It’s a testament to them that no matter how good the albums are that chronicle the studio work, the feeling is to always turn to the gigs and the live albums.
silhouettes in blue and green
Much of Live Drugs Again naturally pulls from the last album, offering in concert versions that like the rest of the set, expands upon the recordings into a living beast that shifts shape into more definitive takes. The sequenced pulse to Harmonia’s Dream, not for the only time, setting up a tension, pushing the intro as far as possible before launching into the song.
The motorik beat that’s part of the armoury set up by Charlie Hall, alongside the keyboard riff, make a sensational version of Burning sound like Dancing In The Dark on steroids. It even has Granduciel howling just after the halfway mark. Again, not for the only time, we witness him become increasingly intense and excited and snarling the lyrics in his best impassioned Dylan venom.
Photo: Mike Ainscoe (more pics here)
crush the burning in your heart
That relentless rhythm and beat continues into Come To The City which sounds like a march to war. Another whoop of triumph and into a guitar solo that wrings that neck brings closure to a breathless opening sequence where only the stripped back and starkness of Old Skin and Living Proof that finds a spot later in the set gives a pause for breath.
Amidst the opportunities to take a breath, In Chains keeps the tempos high – an explosive middle section emerging from the mid tempo chug – and perhaps shows Granduciel at his most Springsteen-esque, wearing the influence of his famous buddy on his sleeve.
walking through this darkness
The I Don’t Live Here Anymore B-side Slow Ghost gets the nod over the more electric charge and stomp of Oceans Of Darkness that we witnessed in Halifax. Maybe that (and Occasional Rain – and we wouldn’t complain at seeing Red Eyes again – that might make Even More Live Drugs in a few more years).
Those punctuation points where brakes dull the pace but not the passion lead to a mammoth Under The Pressure, that like Harmonia, hangs in the air for several minutes. The mid song breakdown and extended coda often picked up on by a crowd who opt (or not) to join for a communal chant of the melody.
Live Drugs Again is a landmark souvenir of the evolution of The War On Drugs over the past four years.
Here’s the winning version of Burning:
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