Reel Big Fish – Our Live Album Is Better Than Your Live Album

Live albums are always a tricky thing to do, because for it to work, everything needs to fall into place. The band has to have a solid reputation with a strong back catalogue to dive into. The sound has to be perfect, and you have to get a strong feel for the band’s performance – because when it comes down to it, a live album is basically just a “best-of” album and there has to be something unique there to get the fans, who already own all the songs on the actual CDs, interested in buying. And somehow, Reel Big Fish made all those pieces fall into place, to give one of the best live albums in recent memory.

First, the sound is impeccable. The album has been recorded perfectly, everything is evenly mixed – and it sounds incredibly smooth. Of course, the band had some help in creating this so called “perfect live show” – because really, you know there’s always some slight mistakes in a live show; but to prevent those mistakes, the band recorded 37 songs over the “Deep Freeze Tour” in January 2006 picking the best songs to make it seem like an seamlessly perfect show. This does hurt the flow of the album at certain times, but those times are barely perceptible, and other than the slight lack of chatter that is so common within aReel Big Fish, you could hardly tell. And while the sound is impeccable, that does take away from the “live performance” aspect of the album because the crowd is barely audible during the songs and a big part of any concert is the crowd.

Although, probably the most impressive thing about Our Live Album Is Better Than Your live Album is just the shock and awe you get by looking at all the track listing, and realizing “wow, Reel Big Fish have released some any songs over the past decade.” I mean, there’s Beer, The Bad Guy, Everything Sucks, Valerie, Turn The Radio Off, Where Have You Been, Don’t Start A Band, Dateless Losers, I Want Your Girlfriend to Be My Girlfriend Too, She Has A Girlfriend Now (featuring guest vocals by Rachel Minton of Zolof The Rock & Roll Destroyer), Sell Out and more. Of course, they also through in their signature cover songs like Take On Me, Boys Don’t Cry, Talkin’ Bout A Revolution and Kiss My Deadly. The only song they’re missing is, in my opinion, Suckers; but you can’t always get every song you want. Plus, on top of the two disc live album, Reel Big Fish also threw in a live DVD of a performance in it’s entirety at the Alley in Fullerton.

So while the title may be arrogant, it is true, Reel Big Fish‘s live album is better than most live albums out there; and I, for one, can’t wait to see them live again and skank along to these songs in person once again.