Search - Dictators :: Live - New York New York

Arrogance and hard rock fury

Dick Destiny (crypt@sun.soci.niu.ed | southern California | 12/07/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A reissue of ROIR's cassette release "Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take a Joke," "The Dictators Live: New York New York," is a welcome addition to your collection if you could never stand the fragile tape-only format. ROIR did reissue it on CD a number of years ago but that edition went quickly out of print. The new version contains three extra tunes from a Dics show at the Ritz in NYC in the early Eighties. I was there and I can tell ya it was a bitchin' performance. The crowd was nuts, desparate for faster and louder guitars and that arrogant Dictators magic. Bags of White Castle burgers were thrown into the crowd. Civilians were booted from the stage. Blood was spilt. Feminists uttered menacing epithets under their breaths. In "Master Race Rock," guitarist Ross the Boss' plexi Marshall peels out right over the face of the listener for three and a half minutes of hard rock fury. In 1998, it whales the tar out of anything current in the heavy metal genre. Killer versions of Mott the Hoople's "The Moon Upstairs" and "The Minnesota Strip" from the "Bloodbrothers" album are also not to be missed. -- Dick Destiny"

This is the face of pure rock and roll...

Monkey Knuckle Asteroid | 04/24/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes. Good. Finally this is available with bonus tracks and is on CD and is as good as it ever was. You should buy this. It is good rock and roll, it is live in NY, it is loud and abrasive and melodic and like a sing-a-long at the end of the world. Notable tracks such as "Loyola" and "Search and Destroy" and "Master Race Rock" and "Baby Let's Twist" are completely satisfying on every ostensible level....the stage patter from Handsome Dick Manitoba fulfills and exceeds expectations...for the price, you'd be hard pressed to find an album that better represents a band's energy and sound on stage and makes you just want to get up and dance on a car hood all night long...."

Raw, unpolished, perfect

Bloodbath_and_Beyond | usa | 01/31/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you're a fan of the Dictators, you're probably aware of this awesome live album. But if you're not, as this point in 1981, the band had three albums under their belt, all classics but nothing to show for it. At this point they had every now and then gigs, and this, originally recorded and released on cassette in 81, featured 12 great performances. When it came out on cd, they added 3 bonus cuts, which defiently makes this essential. Retitled "New York New York", the band wisely makes most use of their first and third albums while the second was an attempt at a more mainstream sound, it is considered their weakest. However, instead of just basically reproducing their two strong efforts, they added in some cool covers, and a few Adny Shernoff (bass player/sometimes vocalist/leader of the band for new fans) songs. Of course opening up with their epic Next Big Thing was the obvious pic, however Science Gone Too Far, which was the best song off their preceived "weak" sophomore album is quite a Taters classic and gets a brutal treatment here. The band pics their cover of Search & Destroy from the same album and lends itself to a hysterical brief "folk" false start opening, showing truely what a mezmerizing time it was to see these guys if you were a real fan of rock and understand all of its serious and cliche sides.From the second album is Young Fast & Scientific, which is actually labeled wrong on the album as the chorus lyric "Rock And Roll Made A Man Out Of Me". Also off the first album you get another of the key cuts from that release, Weekend, as well as one of the bands trademark songs Two Tub Man, and Master Race Rock. From their awesome third album Bloodbrothers, you get Bornero Jimmy, and Minnesota Strip, and one of the best songs off this release, Baby Let's Twist along with the ripping Faster And Louder. While Science, Weekend, Big Thing, and Twist are the choice cuts Dictator songs here, you get some really good covers that rank as some of the most playable songs here. Shernoff's own song Loyola is great, packing a more mellower sing along feel, it actually crafts a nice moment of pop perfection for the boys.(NY's other underground king band) Velvet Underground's What Goes On is great, featuring some top flight riffing from Top Ten and Ross the Boss. Shernoff's other contributions New York New York is a decent hometown anthem. Rounding out this collection of brisk raw rockers is a cover of Mott The Hoople's Moon Upstairs. Any true rock fan who is aware of Mott, tips their hat to the Taters for picking a song from another criminally underlooked band that made great music on every album they put out. The best thing about this though, is that yeah, perhaps its just another live album but not really, it's raw, totally unpolished, shows what a great fun band these guys were on stage, and the Handsome one's side splitting stage tactics never get tiring. This is just as worth having as their other four albums for sure. It plays almost as a seperate record itself, not just another filler for your collection to say you have everything, these versions are much dirtier and heavier than the studio albums albeit not the slightest thing against them."