Lau's second full release is a live one, an unusual move for a band with such a small canon of material. It is de rigueur for a regular band to this around about album number 5 or 6. Lau are not a regular band and playing live is central to the ethos of these guys.
`Live' is built primarily from `Lightweights & Gentlemen', but also gave us early visibility of some of the songs that would later appear on the splendid `Arc Light' including `Frank and Flo's' and the peerless `Banks of Marble', a wonderful Kris Drever vocal track.
The record kicks off with an 8 minute version of `Stewarts' and is unique to this record. This is a live favourite of both the band and the audience and can change significantly from gig to gig. This version features a Martin Green accordion solo that is furious and I would suspect caused significant damage to the instrument.
Many of my friends tell me they cannot stand live albums even by their favourite bands as the experience of listening never captures the essence of the live experience and the sound tends to be of a lower quality. This simply does not occur here. `Lau Live' is a killer record and needs to be in your collection, buy it now.