LIVE

My favorite live album. By this time, in the mid to late 70s, Earring had a two guitar lineup, which allowed lead guy George Kooymans more freedom as the other guy held down the fort. Barry Hay makes a great live frontman, confident and energetic, with just a dose of self- deprecating humor. The songs comprising this double live album are a journey from peak to peak to peak. "Radar Love" gets its definitive treatment ? it's stretched out to 12 minutes, but instead of boring us, it manages to capture the building intensity of the studio version and build the intensity even slower and greater ? exhilarating! The Byrds song "Eight Miles High" goes through ten minutes of guitar exploration, with the two guitarists soloing off each other, but with an inner logic that makes the time fly right by. There's one or two tracks I could do without ("Con Man"), but overall this is what I look for in a live album: it supplants the respective studio versions in every way, and makes you feel like you're right there at the concert.