Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If turning 40 is monumental, a slap in the chops of Time as you steadfastly refuse to give in to the demands of your generation’s apparent slow decline, then taking your life out on the road, swinging from the beat, commanding the pulse, taking the sense of the live and life and moulding them into one giant, and electric, beast.
Recorded during the Stray Cats tour of their sensational studio album, 40, Rocked This Town: From LA To London is not just a grand force of songs placed together and designed to sell a back catalogue to the newcomer, or indeed remind the long term fan of what they might expect when they attend their next gig; it is a powder keg of emotions waiting to explode and with the fuse lit by the extremes of three men to whom the music is all about sincere drive and a pulse that will not die down, that will not behave in a sedate fashion.
In a world of the frighteningly similar, Stray Cats have always, and thankfully, lived on a different plane, and as the critically acclaimed tour in honour of 40 captures the ear, that sense of diverse, electric, eclecticism is to be found, not lurking in the shadows, but up front, proud and with all the spotlights glaring.
As with many live albums there is no sense in picking over the bones of any particular song, unlike a studio album where the sense of the new allows the feelings to arise of contemplative delivery, the live recording is more about the depth of performance, the appreciation of the crown in attendance and the one gift, the glory that comes with such effortless aural pleasure, of knowing how much you would have enjoyed the gig if you had the fortune to be there.
This may be born out jealousy, the desirousness of the situation and the anticipation of the sweat and adrenaline fuelled evening at hand, but that doesn’t matter, not in this circumstance, for all you need to know as songs such as the magnificent opener Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me), Double Talkin‘ Baby, the classic Stray Cat Strut, Cannonball Rag, When Nothing’s Going Right, Lust ‘N’ Love, the groove of Fishnet Stockings and the finale of Built For Speed and Rumble In Brighton, wash over you, is that the one hell of a night that Rocked This Town: From LA To London was so good, so dynamite, that it would have been a blast.
Rock and roll, the Rockabilly smile and strut, the good will of a night captured in all its glory, colour and dynamism, it’s what the Stray Cats were placed upon this Earth to provide, and as they rock every town, they prove they do it so well.
Stray Cats release Rocked This Town: From LA To London on September 11th via Surfdog Records.
Ian D. Hall