Notes

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One of the great unsung live albums of the late '70s, cut contrarily by one of the most highly regarded live acts of the age. No matter that the Steve Gibbons Band entered the punk years as a distinct holdover from the pub days beforehand — alongside fellow semi-veterans Graham Parker & the Rumour, they served up a live set that wed years of on-the-board experience with an enthusiasm and energy that made the day's young blades sound positively anemic by comparison. In other words, you thought the Clash and the Jam were hot? You ain't seen nothin' yet. Bedecked in a sleeve that reprints eight of the band's most memorable live reviews, from clubs and concert halls on both sides of the Atlantic, Caught in the Act blisters with all the fervor that the printed page suggests. Dylan's "Watching the River Flow" might seem a strange opener, all the more so since it was the band's then regular set closer, but it's a relentless barrel-boogie regardless, a duel between Gibbons' half-spoken growl and the sything guitars of Dave Carroll and Bob Wilson. It is also a calm before the storm to come, as the band heats up, the pace picks up...by the time you reach "Speed Kills," you couldn't argue even if you felt like it. With not a single footfall out of place, still Caught in the Act has highlights — the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" zapped with unquenchable good-time fire, the possibly autobiographical chest-beater "Gave His Life to Rock'n'Roll," and, best of all, a charge through Chuck Berry's "Tulane" that celebrates the band's first (and, shame, only) hit single elsewhere in 1977. A huskily humorous "Clothes Line," meanwhile, pinpoints the sheer showmanship of the band in full flight — it's easy to remember the Steve Gibbons Band as a balls-on-the-line rock & rolling R&B band, and truly, they were one of the best. But they were also one of the funkiest good times of the late '70s live scene, and Caught in the Act could not have been more accurately titled.