Electric Six Live: Absolute Pleasure

Electric Six are my favorite “local” band – one of my absolute top favorite bands period –  and I’ve seen them live a fair number of times.  I’ve dragged a fair number of others along to experience them as well – but for those who still have yet to experience the thrill of Electric Six live, you can get tantalizingly close courtesy of their new live album, Absolute Pleasure!

There are so many little things that make the live shows special, and Absolute Pleasure captures many of them; my spiritual twin Tait Nucleus? (you can tell us apart by the fact that he as a CS1x, and I have a CS2X – oh, and that he actually does useful things with his!)’s little Smiths reference during Future Is in the Future for example, or Dick Valentine’s bizarre injection of Monifah lyrics into Danger! High Voltage! and WJLB references (no Everything Counts this time though?).  If only the liner notes could diagram the moves corresponding to songs such as Dance Commander, as well as indicate DV’s cape selection during each, it would be the closest to a live experience possible without having Dick right there in front of you!

The song selection is pretty outstanding – lots of classics, including Gay Bar - with interlude (though, shorter than I usually prefer!) – but some catastrophic omissions like Improper Dancing, with its classic Stop/Continue segment in live shows; the album also falls short of a Dance Trilogy hat-trick by leaving out Dance Pattern.  The now-standard It’s Showtime! opening track, with its many opportunities for cape-wearing, gives way to Down At McDonnelzzz rather than the more recent staple Gay Bar Part Two, with its lyrical tie to She’s White, which does appear later on the album.  The album ends with all-time fantasy closing song Synthesizer - I can’t recall if I’ve ever heard it performed live, but I know I’ve certainly wished for it every time.  Other stand-outs are When I Get to the Green Building, a song about local landmark Domino’s Farms, usually appearing later in sets as an arm-waving chill-out before the final disco pogo blast, and most importantly, spoke two of the dance triskelion, Dance Epidemic - not the most rousing performance compared to some of the shows I’ve seen, but it gets bonus points for being one of my absolute favorite songs of all time!  One surprise inclusion was Crazy Horses by The Osmonds (?!) – I have no real comment on this either way, just…surprise!

This album was just what I needed to brighten my day as the weather gets colder and the days shorter – and to tide me over until the next show! #PutALittleMustardOnIt!

[Update 2012.10.11: @electric6 tweeted the story behind Absolute Pleasure’s cover!]

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