The Dead Boys: Steve Bators, Cheetah Chrome, Jimmy Zero, Johnny Blitz.
Recorded at the Ritz, New York, New York, December 26, 1987.
Personnel: Stiv Bators (vocals); Cheetah Chrome (guitar, background vocals); Johnny Blitz (drums); Jimmy Zero (background vocals).
Audio Remasterer: Patrick Bird.
Recording information: Redan Recorders, London.
This reunion show with Stiv Bators, Cheetah Chrome, Jimmy Zero, and Johnny Blitz was recorded live at the Ritz in New York on December 26, 1987. It's an adequate document of the band, sounding pretty close to what they had sounded like a decade earlier in their heyday. It's more a souvenir for the diehards (now there's a bad pun for you) than something that's particularly essential or useful if you have their original recordings, and certainly not to be preferred to those 1970s recordings. The set list has what most fans will want to hear, though, including favorites like "Sonic Reducer," "Ain't It Fun," and "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth." Also there's a speedy, punked-up, and unnecessary cover of the classic early Rolling Stones ballad "Tell Me." Fidelity was never as important to Dead Boys records as it was for many bands, but the sound here is only sufficient, not outstanding. No liner notes, but the title's not a bad pun, both on the Dead Boys' name and in its reference to the famous 1969 Rolling Stones bootleg of the same name. ~ Richie Unterberger
