AMG Review of Then and Now

David Jeffries
All Music Guide

Stop drooling over the track listing, this isn't the great Tubes compilation you've been waiting for. Although it may look like the collection that finally marries the early years with the later ones, Then and Now takes half of its tunes from Tubes World Tour and half from the demo-filled Dawn of the Tubes, with one track from the first album as a bonus. The live tracks from 2000 are powerful but lack the craziness of the old days, the early demos are pretty darn good, and the two studio tracks that were originally bonus cuts on Tubes World Tour show that leader Fee Waybill still has it when it comes to mocking. Hopefully, comps like this will put enough money in his pocket to get him back in the studio for real.