Mudhoney (Live)

AMG Review of Mudhoney (Live)

Jason Ankeny
All Music Guide

Given the bone-rattling ferocity of Mudhoney's stage show, it's somewhat remarkable and entirely depressing that as of 2005, the closest thing to an official live disc is this rare promotional release issued by Reprise in tandem with the band's 1993 U.S. tour. Recorded in front of a hometown Seattle crowd on February 10, 1993, these eight songs span the duration of Mudhoney's career, from early singles like "You Got It" to latter-day efforts like Piece of Cake's "Suck You Dry" -- the band is in peak form here, conjuring primordial riffs as black and viscous as tar, and Mark Arm's vocals are so raw and so impassioned that you'll pop a lozenge purely out of sympathy. The centerpiece is an astounding ten-minute rendition of "Dead Love" that transmogrifies into an impromptu tribute to the Doors.