BIG STAR : LIVE AT LAFAYETTE'S MUSIC ROOM

  1. When My Baby's Beside Me
  2. My Life Is Right
  3. She's A Mover
  4. Way Out West
  5. The Ballad Of El Goodo
  6. In The Street
  7. Back Of A Car
  8. Thirteen
  9. The India Song
  10. Try Again
  11. Watch The Sunrise
  12. Don't Lie To Me
  13. Hot Burrito #2
  14. I Got Kinda Lost
  15. Baby Strange
  16. Slut
  17. There Was A Light
  18. ST 100/6
  19. Come On Now
  20. O My Soul

Label : Omnivore Records

Venue : Lafayette's Music Room, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Recording Date : January 12, 1973

Release Date : 2018

Length : 69:52

Review (AllMusic) : Originally released as disc four of Rhino's 2009 box set Keep an Eye on the Sky, Live at Lafayette's Music Room captures performances Big Star gave in January 1973 at Lafayette's Music Room in their hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. This is the same site that hosted the band's legendary show during the May 1973 Memphis Rock Writer's Convention -- a gig that was instrumental in building buzz for Big Star -- so this comes tantalizingly close to replicating how Big Star may have sounded on that storied date. During this first half of 1973, Big Star were a band in transition, getting their sea legs after the departure of Chris Bell. His presence hangs heavy, with Alex Chilton singing songs Bell sang on #1 Record and his DNA evident on such newer songs as "Back of a Car" and "O My Soul," but it's also evident how Big Star are turning into a rangier, rougher outfit under the undisputed leadership of Alex Chilton. The band feels tougher and funkier, particularly on the clutch of covers that conclude the album: Gram Parsons' bruised country-rock classic "Hot Burrito #2" becomes a swaggering Stonesy rocker; a version of T. Rex's "Baby Strange" seems like the blueprint for the Replacements, and the band drills down to the essential sleaze of Todd Rundgren's "Slut." This rawness, so absent on Big Star's two finished studio albums, is the reason why Live at Lafayette's Music Room is worth hearing even for non-fanatics: It proves that this power pop group was also a rock & roll band.

Review (Omnivore) : It is well known that Big Star played a one-off promotional show for the Memphis Rock Writer’s Convention at Lafayette’s Music Room in Memphis in May of 1973. It cemented them into legendary status due to the writers who witnessed it and carried the message of Big Star out in their writing, even though the band had only released one album, #1 Record, and were unsure of recording a second after the departure of co-founder Chris Bell. What may not be so widely known is that the trio played the same venue four months earlier with the same power and passion opening shows for the Houston R&B band, Archie Bell & The Drells. First issued as Disc 4 of the Grammy® Award-winning Keep An Eye On The Sky boxed set, Live At Lafayette’s Music Room sees new light as a stand-alone release, available on CD, Digital, and for the first time, double LP. The performance has never sounded better thanks to new mastering and restoration from the Grammy®-winning engineer, Michael Graves with supervision from fellow Grammy®-winning producer, Cheryl Pawelski. The 20-track set features material from their debut, #1 Record, songs that would appear on the (not yet recorded) follow-up, Radio City, and choice covers from The Kinks, Todd Rundgren, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and T-Rex. Packaging features new liner notes from Bud Scoppa, who was friends with the band, and in attendance at the 1973 Rock Writer’s show. His most recent work for Omnivore was an integral part of the acclaimed Big Star boxed set Complete Third. Experience the only known document of Big Star at this pivotal point in their short, but massively influential career. Omnivore is proud to present, Live At Lafayette’s Music Room.

Review (Flood Magazine) : The Memphis denizens that filed in early for a good seat at Lafayette’s Music Room at a show in early 1973 were likely big fans of the headliner—Archie Bell and the Drells. Maybe they wanted to have the best view when the famed Texas soul band launched into “Tighten Up.” Less likely they were there for the opener—a band whose first album had been released the year before and who were now trying to operate as a trio after founding member Chris Bell had left. Big Star could have sounded busted and tired—the failure of the album on a commercial level wasn’t so far behind them to view it with a rosy hue, and the idea of cult success was probably viewed as likely as time travel. This recording, cleaned up and as polished as possible, does offer a type of time travel: a window into one of the most acclaimed (and equal parts ignored) bands of the 1970s. A few months later, the band would be performing much of the same set at the Rock Writers Convention, and if the band weren’t shifting any hard copies of the first album, at least they had the editorial ear of the boozing blurb writers of the time. Here, they had much of nothing, except for the songs. Which is why the band continues to move forward through history—why each corner of Big Star’s history seems to warrant deeper dives into the variety of roots which gave us “O My Soul,” “In the Street,” and “When My Baby’s Beside Me.” (Six-disc Chris Bell box? Check!) Take a listen to how perfectly formed their songs were and how powerfully they are delivered here—with rarely a misstep—couple that with the vacuum of crowd silence in between songs (The Velvets’ Live at Max’s Kansas City is practically Cheap Trick’s At Budokan in comparison), and you have an archival set of the highest import. Alex Chilton’s fiery guitar heroics during “She’s a Mover,” the segue into “Back of a Car,” rough and loud and full of power—could you imagine having these songs nailed down and in the can and no one was listening? The mind boggles. What these Archie Bell fans thought of during “Thirteen” and “The Ballad of El Goodo” we will never know, but they were probably pissed. How about those Flying Burrito Brothers, Kinks, Todd Rundgren, and T. Rex covers? More silence. Big Star would get more kudos a few months later at the famed Rock Writers gig, but the story of their three-album run still has the same sad ending. What they do here feels more remarkable: perform an incredible set, tight and dynamic—filled with quick changes and hooks, hooks, and hooks. But they do this in the face of indifference—the brilliance just bouncing off the walls—and you can hear it clearly, falling like that proverbial tree in the forest.

Review (Bob Mersereau) : It's not the best recording by a long shot, and it's not even the best performance even, with the three-man lineup barely able to keep up with the demands of the glorious material. It is an important document of this hugely influential band however, showing even more sides to the vision and richness of the group that set the template for alternative rock. And like the group's entire career, the flaws are part of the richness. It's amazing what the three of them could do in a live setting, and how close it really was to perfection. It was a 1973 gig the band had to do, thanks to a contract, but they were barely functioning at the time. Their debut, #1 Record, had flopped, and Chris Bell, the founder of the band, had quit. Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel showed up well-rehearsed though, pros at least, to open for Archie Bell and the Drells, with the crowd caring less about their music. But that didn't stop them from giving all they could. Without Bell, Chilton somehow manages to fill all the guitar roles, with some fine lead lines and chopping Beatles Rubber Soul chords. They somehow manage to approximate the complex studio work on songs such as "In The Street" and "When My Baby's Beside Me", including many of the tight harmonies. And even new material such as "Back of a Car" gets introduced, months before being recorded, and a year before it's release. There's a lovely four-song mini-set in the middle of acoustic material, include the tender "Thirteen" that is as strong as the record, but the mics also pick up the indifferent crowd chatting away during the songs at one point. At the end of another, there's virtually no applause. To fill out the hour, the group does some fun covers, including The Flying Burrito Brothers' "Hot Burrito #2", the T. Rex cut "Baby Strange", and Todd Rundgren's "Slut". The whole show has been released before, but it was on the 2009 box set Keep An Eye On The Sky, so this is stand-alone release lets you grab it if you don't have that. For completists, it comes with something new, a download code of an interview with Chilton and Hummel from 1972.