The Alarm remains one of the best concerts I've ever seen, and this CD pretty much shows why. Live is a glorious rave-up of the Welsh band's greatest hits from the 2001-2002 "Second Generation" tour. Frontman Mike Peters is the only surviving member of the band's original roster -- Dave Sharp, Nigel Twist and Andy MacDonald leaving to pursue solo projects after the release of Raw, the Alarm's last studio album, in 1991. For the most part, though, the new line-up synchs right in with Peters' punk-injected high-octane rock and roll, even to the signature Alarm sound of harmonica and acoustic guitar. Live albums are a mixed bag, and this one is no exception. I could do with snappier drums and crisper percussion, but if "Strength" is sleepier than the studio cut, "Knife Edge" is sharper; if "The Deceiver" is duller than on Declaration, the band drives harder on my favorite Alarm cut, "Absolute Reality." "Rain in the Summertime" is muddier than the original, but "Rescue Me" fights hard and takes names. It's a compliment to Peters' songwriting genius that all the best songs don't fit on one CD -- "Presence of Love" isn't here at all. Small cavils aside, you can hear every word on this disc, and the crowd sing-along adds to the blazing anthem for Welsh independence, "Sixty-Eight Guns" (one for each of the sixty-eight districts of Wales). Live, which is also being released on DVD, will probably do what live albums do best: send fans back to the studio albums for renewed encounters, and leave new listeners hungry for more. Revived, reinvented, recycled -- whatever, the Alarm has always rung true. Now they rock on once more.
Editors' ratings - Doug 5/5, Jason 4/5
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