The Clash – Live At Shea Stadium

The Clash are more than just punk rock icons, they’re musical icons; and as of late I’ve been really getting into them. Because of that, the announcement that they’d finally be releasing the recordings of their famed shows at New York’s Shea Stadium in 1982 as they opened for The Who excited me.

The record opens up with an introduction by Kosmo Vinyl with some very memorable lines: “we ain’t got no baseball. No baseball tonight. We ain’t got no football, they’re on strike!” He then goes on to introduce The Clash and the first words out on the mouth of Joe Strummer are both quirky and memorable: welcome to the cashbah club.

The punk rock four pieces then jumps into London Calling and for the next fifty minutes played through their entire catalogue. Starting from the early days of Career Opportunities and going all the way through to the massive hits of Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock The Casbah.

Just like their studio albums, the best thing about Live At Shea is the flow between diverse styles and structures. This makes them possible to go from the straight forward punk songs, like Police on My Back, Tommy Gun and Guns of Brixton – a song that still packs a thumpy bass punch –into the more experimental (or some would say traditional) reggae and funk jams of Armagideon Time and The Magnificent Seven.

Throughout the record, which sounds surprisingly good considering it was recorded over twenty six years ago and only became unearthed when Strummer was packing for a move, you get treated to the weird conversations of Strummer to the crowd. Calling the crowd guinea pigs and informing them that if they move the rain won’t get them is only some of the tongue-in-cheek commentary he supplies. The real gem comes when he yells at some people talking in the back which, he claims, is very distracting to them as they’re trying to play some music.

Live at Shea Stadium is a wonderful document of a band at the top of their game. It feels as if they’re playing in a small club and not in front of seventy thousand wet fans in a baseball diamond. Still, the record isn’t necessarily a “must-have.” Hardcore Clash fans will need it to complete their collection and it works nicely as a “best-of” summary but it’s not much of a necessity for casual fans of people just getting into them.