Live W.A.S.P. Recordings Question

I've been on a tear lately, buying up W.A.S.P.'s back catalog. I'm getting near completetion on the studio albums and wondering if I should bother with the live discs. As I've mentioned in past posts, I'm not a huge fan of live albums. For the most part, I can take 'em or leave 'em, with some exceptions of course. But having never seeing WASP live, I'm curious. So my question is...

If I were to buy just one live cd, which would it be?

-Live...In the Raw
-Double Live Assassins
-The Sting

Double Live Assassins it is a double cd gives a good cross section of their material thru the years and it is one of best sounding live albums in recent memory.

If you're only gonna pick one, I'd tell you to go with DOUBLE LIVE ASSASSINS. I'm not a big live album guy either but I happen to like that one a lot.

I don't have THE STING but I'm told that the sound quality is awful. I do own LIVE...IN THE RAW and though it's got a great track listing of their early material, the production is absolutely terrible...it sounds like the band were playing at the bottom of a deep well and the recording equipment was at the top. On the other hand, LIVE IN THE RAW does have two songs on it that were never recorded for a studio album ("Manimal" and "Harder Faster") as well as an exclusive studio track ("Scream Until You Like It," which was the theme song to the movie "Ghoulies II.")

The production on DOUBLE LIVE ASSASSINS is leaps and bounds ahead of LIVE IN THE RAW so I prefer that one. It was recorded on the K.F.D. tour and even though I didn't like that album much at all (in fact, I traded my copy of it to Spec a while back), I prefer the live versions of songs from that album over the studio versions. They sound less processed and artificial.

DLA is definitely one of the best live albums of recent years. it's amazing.

Double Live...is the one I was leaning towards anyway. I liked that In the Raw captured their "early years", but Double Live... is, well, double. If 1 disc is good, 2 is better, right?

I've still got 2 or 3 studio albums I need to pick up, so they'll be first on the list, but I'll keep an eye out for DLA.

Double Live Assassins easily.

DLA.

Live In The Raw, just for The Manimal and Harder Faster And about sound quality, I find it to sound perfect, but I listen to a lot of old NWOBHM demos and 7in so my ear might be calibrated to a lower standard :p

steel warrior wrote:

Live In The Raw, just for The Manimal and Harder Faster And about sound quality, I find it to sound perfect, but I listen to a lot of old NWOBHM demos and 7in so my ear might be calibrated to a lower standard :p

I too have never thought the sound quality was bad on Live...In The Raw and I own three different versions. It's one of my favorite live albums of all time and has an absolutely incredible energy to it. It's a great representation of their first three albums plus two unreleased tracks and the song from one of the Ghoulies movies; but DLA is a better representation of more material from the "most outrageous band in the world."

My only complaint is Live In The Raw isn't an authentic live album. The crowd noise is mostly canned. That is why I chose the more real DLA for his first. But I'm with you, sentinel, LITR is bad ass.

Quote :

My only complaint is Live In The Raw isn't an authentic live album. The crowd noise is mostly canned.

Do you know that for fact or just speculating?

I suppose I'm speculating, because I don't have physical proof, but if you listen to it, you're able to tell it's canned. It's a perfect sounding live album, much like Unleashed in the East or Priest Live. The bands are good but not THAT good. But don't let me steer you away from it, it's awesome.