AMG Review of Live 1988

Tim Sendra
All Music Guide

The Wedding Present have always been a dynamic and exciting live band and that energy is captured on the two concert recordings featured on Live 1988. The sets recorded in Valencia, Spain and Rotterdam, Holland have much overlap, mainly consisting of early singles and songs taken from their first album, George Best. Some songs from 1989’s Bizarro were in the set list for the Valencia show and it’s fun to hear early airings of great tracks like "Kennedy," "No," and the epic "Take Me!" David Gedge and the group are predictably full of fire and manic energy throughout; the trebly guitars of Gedge and Peter Solowka sound almost unhinged at times. It’s a shame the recording quality wasn’t just a little bit higher, as sometimes the bass is quite muddy, the vocals lost in the mix, and the guitars painfully thin. It can be a bit of a struggle making it through the whole set in one listen, but when the performances are so strong and the songs so good, a less than pristine sound is easy to overlook.