801 provided
Roxy Music guitarist
Phil Manzanera with one of his most intriguing side projects. Although the band only played three gigs in August and September 1976, this album captures a night when everything fell right into place musically. That should only be expected with names like
Eno and
Simon Phillips in the lineup. (Still, the lesser-known players -- bassist Bill MacCormick, keyboardist
Francis Monkman, and slide guitarist
Lloyd Watson -- are in exemplary form, too.) The repertoire is boldly diverse, opening with "Lagrima," a crunchy solo guitar piece from
Manzanera. Then the band undertakes a spacey but smoldering version of "Tomorrow Never Knows"; it's definitely among the cleverest of
Beatles covers. Then it's on to crisp jazz-rock ("East of Asteroid"), atmospheric psych-pop ("Rongwrong"), and
Eno's tape manipulation showcase, "Sombre Reptiles." And that's only the first five songs. The rest of the gig is no less audacious, with no less than three
Eno songs -- including a frenetic "Baby's on Fire," "Third Uncle," and "Miss Shapiro"'s dense, syllable-packed verbal gymnastics. There's another unlikely cover of
the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," while
Manzanera turns in another typically gutsy instrumental performance on "Diamond Head." This album marks probably one of the last times that
Eno rocked out in such an unself-consciously fun fashion, but that's not the only reason to buy it:
801 Live is a cohesive document of an unlikely crew who had fun and took chances. Listeners will never know what else they might have done if their schedules had been less crowded, but this album's a good reminder. ~ Ralph Heibutzki