Face to Face
Live in a Dive
(Fat Wreck Chords)
3.5/5
Esteemed SoCal punk-rock band Face to Face have released a new live album, their contribution to Fat Wreck Chords’ long-running Live in a Dive series.
Recorded over three nights at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus Bar, the album features live renditions of songs spanning from their 1992 debut album Don’t Turn Away through to 2016’s return-to-Fat record Protection.
Although the band play with a velocity that fans have come to expect, the album feels a bit stodgy. The sound is comparable to a studio recording—a quality that is both favourable and faulty for a live release. Listeners may appreciate the consistency, but the album lacks a certain raw fervency that a live punk-rock performance should have.
Things pick up later in the album, when vocalist/guitarist Trever Keith announces that the band will play a song that they don’t play very often. “Should Anything Go Wrong” goes quite right for them. Perhaps they should play it more often.