Volkher's post

The second guest post is from Volkher who writes Living with music.

Here it is:"Thin Lizzy: A Live Band!I hope you're not going to throw any tomatoes at me, but Heavy Metal and Hard Rock are only one genre I regularly listen to. On top of that, my in-depth experience in the field is somewhat limited and spans the period 1976-1982 (plus a few years, give or take). Of course, I also have all the old AC/DC, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin plus a ton of other discs, but my main listening and live-experience period for this type of music, aside from theregular bouts I have experienced since then, was end 70s/beginning 80s.No matter how many discs I have, and they certainly run into the hundreds,there is one band that I always felt connected to in a special way: ThinLizzy. In a nutshell, I never missed a Thin Lizzy gig and once friends literally had to carry me to one, raging fever and all. Never missed one,ever.To me, Thin Lizzy was always the epitome of a working class working band, if you know what I mean. They didn't pull off any of the usual live eye candy crap (besides a traffic light on stage to announce the beginning of the concert, the odd pyrotechnical flash in the pan, plus maybe Lynott's silver bass guitar pick-guard he liked to redirect the brightest stage lights with), they usually came dressed like you and me, they got on stage and just rocked the house - always, even when Phil Lynott was strung out on whatever he was snorting, shooting up or guzzling down. They came on and put on a tight show for hundreds or thousands of devoted fans that even forgave them"Dear Miss Lonely Hearts", a catchy but utterly trivial tune.My problem with the band is and was simple: No matter how good the tunes were or how riveting the production was, their studio albums just didn't do it for me because they just didn't convey that sheer live power and atmosphere that these guys, in varying line-ups, could generate within seconds of walking on stage. Once Phil's bass strings started punching you straight in the gut, you just knew that Thin Lizzy was there to give you full value for your money, plus plenty more, and I don't think anybody ever went home dissatisfied. I know I never did.Case in point: "Don't Believe a Word" or "Suicide", both of which made every Thin Lizzy concert complete for me, just bore me to death in their studio versions. They're great songs and all, but live they were such powerhouses of tunes that just blew the roof off any concert venue. Thin Lizzy's music just needed that Phil Lynott input of trying to get the crowd to go wild andsing along, it needed those guitar trade-offs of the various lead guitar teams the band incorporated, and, last but not least, it needed that deafening punch and the class-A drumming of Brian Downey to shake your bones.Thin Lizzy's music needed that deep-down in your gut feeling of anticipation, the warm beer before the concert, the cheap wine we guzzled down hours before we even took off for the gig, the listening to their live album and bootlegs for an entire day before going to the concert, and, mostof all, it demanded that you went and saw the band with your best buddies.Hell, even for their appearence at "Rockpalast", whenever that was broadcastall over Europe, we all got together at a friend's house, lived it up until the live transmission started and danced around the living room, belting out each tune and doing that stupid headbanging bit.Way back then, Thin Lizzy was our band. We were in the know, we knew about every breath they had taken the previous years, we bet bottles of cheap wineon their possible set lists, we broke out the Whiskey and mass-producedice-cubes in anticipation of that one night we could get down and boogie ...and we nursed headaches for days after each appearance.It was a grand time, and Thin Lizzy was at the heart of it. Still today I think that they were perhaps the best Europe had to offer, and they were oneof the most honest bands around.So, if you want to know what Thin Lizzy was really all about, get "Live andDangerous" (one of the best live albums, bar none, with Robertson and Gorhamnear perfection) or the second "Live" album which had great music ... and anabominable mix. Unfortunately, we still all have to wait for a really goodlive DVD because so far, what's been put out just doesn't do the bandjustice, and I'm still hoping for a really decent remaster of their albums,but in the end, it doesn't really matter. I've been known to "watch" their"Rockpalast" DVD (Germany, Lorelei, August 1981) with eyes closed, and there was that feeling again ...Here's to Thin Lizzy, one of the greatest live bands of all time and to Phil Lynott, Europe's most honest (and self-destructive) rock musician.Cheers!"Volkher