Luna Live!

-2001

1- Bewitched
2- Chinatown
3- Friendly Advice
4- Pup Tent
5- Sideshow by the Seashore
6- Anesthesia
7- Tiger Lily
8- 4000 Days
9- Hello Little One
10- Moon Palace
11- Lost in Space
12- 23 Minutes in Brussels
13- 4th of July
14- Bonnie and Clyde

Bonus vinyl tracks:

California
Double Feature
Bobby Peru
Indian Summer

1/29/01- LUNA Live!

Live albums are rarely justified, even from the great and the good - you get the sounds, but neither the sights nor smells. But Luna’s credentials are stronger than most. In the studio, their VU-patented riff logic gets embellished with strings, keyboards and a general otherworldly ambience. On a
stage, however, they revert to two guitars, bass and drum basics - which as Dean Wareham himself says, “are probably the strengths of the band anyway”. Well, somewhat. Wareham and six-string foil Sean Eden belong to the New York hipster pantheon of electric guitar alchemists, and their groovy, meditative parlaying consistently elevates Live! beyond the realm of optional-for-diehards-only purchase. The tracklisting generously visits each of the band’s five albums - with a rare detour to G500 days with 4th of July - and proves what most Luna aficionados have long held to be self-evident: that for a nimble-fingered dude who sings like Kermit the Frog, Wareham is beyond compare.

Keith Cameron
MOJO Magazine

Too often a contractual obligation, it's a brave band that submits to the live album. So you have to admire Luna's nerve in subjecting themselves to the ordeal. Because, after almost ten years in obscurity, you suspect they were glad to find anyone had turned up to the concerts at all.

Recorded at three shows in Washington DC and New York, Luna (singer Dean Wareham's post-Galaxie 500 bolt hole) were never the most demonstrative of bands. Amazingly, here stripped of all studio extras, they're less flashy than ever.

Simplicity obviously works to their advantage. True, with all unnecessary distractions gone you're painfully aware of Wareham's stretching for the high notes, but from the leathery creak of 'Bewitched', to the arch pop of 'Moon Palace' via the rollicking fuzz of '23 Minutes In Brussels' it hardly seems to matter. Especially as the simple approach also leaves centre stage for Wareham's sly tales of debauched mischief-making. Obsessed with black-clad New York cool, this is a must-have curio for the fans. For everyone else it's a timely catch-up history lesson.