Album of the Week:
The Dream Syndicate

The Complete Live at Raji's
(Restless)

This is a review of an older album which I recently picked up simply out of curiousity. You see, like many people, I loved the Dream Syndicate's 1982 album the Days of Wine and Roses. Now I'm not old enough to have bought that album at the time it came out, but I am old enough to have purchased their second album the Medicine Show when it was released in 1984. The Medicine Show had some good tunes on it, but I have to admit, I felt like it was kind of a let down. Then they released This is Not the New Dream Syndicate Album...Live, which was suprisingly quite lame. I found out some time later that the band did not want to release the album, but, for whatever reason, their record label put it out without their say so. Anyway, at the time, I figured they were shaping up to be one of those bands that has one great album, then continues on a downward spiral toward mediocrity, or worse. So I ignored their last couple albums, and forgot about them, until a couple of months ago. I had recently listened to Days of Wine and Roses again, and I got to wondering if these guys had eventually released something worthwhile which may have slipped by me. I did a little reading up and the resounding choice was Live at Raji's. (Followed closely by The Day Before Wine and Roses, which is sadly out of print.)
Live at Raji's was originally released as a single disc in 1989, just about at the time the Dream Syndicate decided to call it a day. The music contained therein was recorded in 1988, while the band was touring their last studio album, Ghost Stories. The original disc was kind of a semi-bootleg (although it was released by Restless Records) and was not widely promoted at the time, nor released in big numbers. The original was out of print for a few years, and then reappeared in 1994, expanded to include the complete Raji's concert over two discs. The tracklist includes half a dozen songs from Days of..., and a couple or so each from Medicine Show and Out of the Grey. There are two covers, "All Along the Watch Tower" and a blistering version of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean". The former is an abbreviated take which comes off more or less as a goof, which is probably why it wasn't included on the single disc version. Other than that misstep, which in context is forgivable, this set is near perfect. I don't mean near perfect in the sense that everything is played with technical precision, which bores the piss out of me. Steve Wynn is obviously keyed up from the outset, and the rest of the band follows suit. Now every fan of the original lineup will tell you that Paul B. Cutler is not a suitable replacement for guitarist Karl Precoda. Paul runs a little close at times to sounding like one of those "guitar store guys", (You know, those guys who sit at their local Guitar Center all day, jamming out too many note solos, and using every imaginable flashy gimmick to attract attention.), yet he somehow just avoids overdoing it. In fact, Cutler's riffs are creative and add depth to Wynn's well written, but fairly simple songs. That said, the driving force here is Steve Wynn's performance. Even Steve's audience banter has a manic tone to it. You can tell that he's ready for action. This isn't a one dimensional album, there are dynamics to the performance that allow for quiet and build up, but there is an edgy intensity throughout. Wynn's vocals are especially focused. I've heard many of these songs before, but have never been drawn so completely into Wynn's neo-noir stories of the American underbelly. I'm willing to make the bold statement that the tunes from Days of Wines and Roses are as good as the original versions. (Except for "Tell Me When It's Over", of which the original will never be bettered.) If you don't believe me, check out "That's What They Always Say" and "Halloween". The guitar breaks on both tracks are spurred by Steve Wynn's strangulated attacks on his Strat, which, depending on your point of view, are either sloppy and unprofessional, or inspired and brilliant. I choose the latter. And there's more good news - when Wynn goes off on his tirades, the normally reasonable Cutler also decides to attempt to lay waste to his guitar. Cutler and Wynn make a hellish racket that's barely held together by the ryhthm section. In a word, perfect. The real suprise for me is that the songs that I hadn't heard are actually damn good, and in this context, every bit as good as their older stuff. This album documents that this band was really at their peak in a live setting toward the end of their existence.