Drug Church / Self Defense Family vocalist Patrick Kindlon is a guy who cares a lot about live performances. That’s clear any time you see him put his entire body into one of his own live sets, any time you see how intentionally he whips a crowd into a frenzy. And it’s also clear because Self Defense Family just put out the live album Law of Karma Live: Fake Shit Wins But Not Tonight. Live albums can seem like a dying art in today’s world, but Self Defense Family’s new live LP is one that’s genuinely worth hearing.
For the occasion, Patrick also made us a list of seven of his favorite live videos that can be watched on YouTube. His picks range from Morrissey to Mazzy Star to Embrace, and as you’d expect from Patrick, his commentary is just as entertaining as these videos themselves. Read on for his list…
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The Angels – “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again” Live Melbourne 1988
Ever trip over one of those things everyone knows but is entirely new to you? Everyone on a whole continent knows about this next band. But it was new to me as of a year ago. I’m going through the process of becoming Australian. Partnership visa, eventual citizenship, and a little house in the bush outside of Perth. Part of that transition into Aussie is familiarizing myself with Australian music. Australians are very proud of their pub rock history. And they should be proud, really. They do it better than anyone. You’ve got at least a half-dozen genres that have distinctly pub-ish qualities here. The hard rock, punk, glam, and new wave in Australia all had plenty of pub elements for decades.
The Angels are considered hard rock, I think, but you can smell the pub. As I’m new here, I can’t tell if this track carries the same “could we please not” baggage that ‘Sweet Caroline’ has in the US. But the premise is the same. It’s a bar-participation song. It comes on and everyone who is game for it knows the cues. When the man says “Am I ever gonna see your face again?” the drunks reply with “no way, get fucked, fuck off!”
What’s most interesting is how allegedly organic it all is. The band didn’t write the ‘no way’ part. The crowd did. The original single does not contain the line. It wasn’t until later the band realized they tripped into a ‘thing’ and (as you can see by the shirt singer Doc Neeson’s shirt) they leaned in. For perspective, the ’88 live recording of the song charted higher than the ’76 studio original.
I don’t know why it should make me sentimental. It wasn’t part of my childhood, and whatever place it has in Australian identity doesn’t apply to me as a recent transplant. But for some reason it gets me misty. Maybe it’s the combination of doofy musicians lucking into genius and the staggeringly broad appeal of the song that makes me happy for those involved.
This is a fun performance and the band is on. But I like watching this for the crowd. And I think the band would agree.
Lungfish – live in Maryland 5.12.1998
I’ve found long-forgotten Lungfish live sets on dusty file-sharing networks that are better than my entire career, live and recorded.
The line “a music that is spoiled by recording” appears in the absolutely beautiful ten minute version of ‘Armageddon’ in this performance, and that proved true as the song never made it to a studio version.
Lungfish was formative for me in a few respects. Musically it became a big influence, clearly. But seeing them a couple times in the early ’00s unlocked something else. I credit Sick Of It All for expanding my teenage idea of live performance. But I couldn’t do what Lou does. I was never gonna be the best hardcore frontman. Lungfish demonstrated to me that there was another race to be run. I could fly my freak flag and let my body follow the music. Expressive at the risk of becoming off-putting.
What a band, man.
Killing Joke – live The Tube 16/12/83
I’m not one for theatrics. Three-to-six people on a stage individually expressing themselves is what thrills me. A modest lighting rig if you insist. But you can keep the costumes.
There’s exceptions to every rule. And Killing Joke is a big one. Jaz Coleman was so naturally theatrical that the addition of facepaint or uniform really fit the mood.
God, what a voice! I am humbled watching them. Frustrated, in so many ways. No amount of singing lessons could deliver me what Coleman has. Still has, by the way. I’ve seen them twice in the past ten years and the whole band still sounds like a thunderclap.
One of the all-time great British acts. If you ever find yourself in one of the moral hysterias of the moment, remind yourself Killing Joke was protested for ‘using fascist imagery’… in the service of their explicitly anti-fascist songs. Man, people are stupid.
Down – live September 21st, 1995, Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX
To make it through a set, I’ve gotta do everything right leading up to it. I need 6 hours of sleep. I stop eating 8 hours before we play. I avoid foods that make me congested.
And I still sound like shit.
On short tours I lack discipline, but anything over 10 days and I’m living like a monk. I just gotta.
So I’m extremely impressed by singers who can self-abuse and deliver much better performances than me.
“This song’s about not even being halfway able to say no to dope.”
I’m out here drinking green juices and centering my chi and Anselmo is doing a better job completely loaded.
Look at the economy of movement in his performance. He’s not running from one end of the stage to the other. He’s doing a convulsive Quasimodo lurch at big moments. And it pops. Imagine being 15 at this show. You woulda gone home and told your mom you are an outlaw now and she can never stop you from living hard.
When I first got into music, I knew a lotta guys who saw themselves as Rollins-style warrior poets. And I never got it. Somehow gruff and pretentious at the same time. Seems like a difficult guy to be, and a painful person to be around. The ‘theatre kids’ of music. But I’ve come to appreciate the self-hating-caricature-of-damaged-masculinity thing a little more. Misery swagger. Anselmo really owns that space, so I gotta give respect where it’s due.
And let’s not leave the actual musicians out of the conversation. The band truly is ripping here.
Mazzy Star – “Fade Into You” 10/2/1994 Shoreline Amphitheatre
Speaking of brilliant voices. Look at this. The band is inert. Couldn’t move them if you tried. Glued to the stage.
Typically this would be torture for me. I don’t need to watch talented people stand.
But the voice carries the day. Do you hear this? I had to check it multiple times to ensure it wasn’t a studio outtake dubbed over a live video. I mean, c’mon. It’s unfair how rich that voice is.
Morrissey – “Meat Is Murder” (live)
People can talk what they want about Morrissey, but he provided me an actual HUMAN MOMENT and I can’t say that for his critics.
“Meat Is Murder” is the song everyone goes and gets a drink for. Even if you love the track, the live performance is often performed in almost total darkness with graphic video of animal slaughter projected behind the band. It’s not what everyone goes to a show for, even Morrissey fans. But if you’re game for it, the moment can be deeply affecting. I’ve seen Morrissey a number of times and the last one stands out to me for the delivery of this song. I’ve been to a thousand hardcore shows. Lots of messages delivered into my ears over the years. But nothing compared to the raw indignation and disgust Morrissey transmitted to the audience that night. I tried to find that show on Youtube, but this is the best I can provide. He’s not calling meat eaters cruel idiots the way he was when I saw him, but the vibe is the same.
Embrace – “Building” (live last show)
While we’re on the topic of frustrated frontmen with contempt for their audience…
I imprinted pretty hard on the Minor Threat Live VHS when I was a teen. Ian MacKaye was so much more ‘performance’ than I assumed from just listening to the band. In small ways, he acted out everything in the song. Bordered on pantomime at times.
Here he is a few years later. Spent. Disappointed and discouraged by everyone around him. He’s telling it all with his face in this one. Barely moving because these people don’t deserve movement. He wishes he had a giant finger to wag at them. But instead he’s just got an expressive brow, and he’s gonna use it.
The recording is a nightmare and sounds like the show took place in an insulated shipping container buried in a peet bog. But you get the vibe.
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Stream the new Self Defense Family live album:
