Exotic weird jammin' desert music from the guys who scored "Plagues & Pleasures." The Friends of Dean Martinez perform their old classics as well as newer material in this killer live set. It also includes the bonus CD "Live at Magnet- Berlin" - that's two Friends' CDs for the price of one!

CD REVIEW by F. Farnstrom
I first discovered FoDM a few years back, through Calexico, and have been listening quite a bit to their studio albums. I did not know much about their live appearances until recently, when I first heard an unofficial recording and then got the chance to see them live myself, and realized that they are very good live. I got "Live at Club 2" shortly after that.

In my opinion, the tracks on this album represent the very best material from their studio albums, performed live. All songs were recorded at a single show, though I suspect the CD probably doesn't contain quite the whole show. There is no talking between the tracks (which doesn't necessarily mean it was edited out - they really didn't say anything at all, besides a closing "Thank you," when I saw them perform live myself), and personally I consider that a good thing. While I like the studio albums, each one has a few tracks that don't really appeal to me and I find myself skipping, but "Live at Club 2" is very good straight through. The songs on this CD that I like the best are Main Theme, Summertime, Chunder, and A Place In The Sun, and if I had to pick the weakest ones my choices would be Tennesse Waltz and All The Pretty Horses. Anyway, if you already own their studio albums and are afraid that this one may be redundant, I definitely don't think it is, since their live sound and the versions of the songs are quite different than the studio tracks. If you're lucky enough to have obtained unofficial live recordings, I still encourage you to buy this CD to show your support for this great band, and to go to their shows if you have the chance.

I highly recommend this CD to anybody with an interest in FoDM. As if this wasn't enough, there is a bonus disc included, with another recorded show. This one is several years more recent (2004), so it contains quite different tracks and isn't redundant with the main disc. I actually owned the album and played it almost daily for several months before I even noticed that there was a bonus disc, so make sure to examine the CD case carefully.


WATCH A SHORT DOC FILM ABOUT THE BAND HERE:
From Tucson to the Salton Sea

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