Steve Lieberman – Viva The Gangsta Rabbi / 2006 Bad’lan / 6 Tracks / http://www.gangstarabbi.com / Reviewed 23 January 2006

I’ve always said that Steve Lieberman’s bread and butter would be made in a live show, so I felt really disappointed after turning on this disc and really such a fuzzy and oblique recording for this, a live concert that had Lieberman opening up for the Viva La Bam song. Sure, individuals can hear some of the vocals on the track, but the guitar and drums really are distorted beyond any reasonable level. The much more simplistic “Dogpark” comes through in as an easier pill to swallow, but this is really due to how the track is arranged instead of necessarily how the recording of the show has increased in quality in the last few minutes.

The guitars sound fairly solid through “Viva The Gangsta Rabbi”, but individuals could not even begin to decipher Lieberman’s vocals on these tracks. Sure, individuals can link words to tracks on the discs two cover medleys (featuring first a set of Ramones, then Green Day tracks), but what interested individuals want to know is what Lieberman eirself has to say. There are actually moments here – such as in “Dogpark” – where Lieberman busts out eir flute, but these moments are few and far between. This is most likely due to the fact that Lieberman can sit at a computer and layer a number of different instrumental tracks but in the live setting, it becomes harder to do when one only has two arms. While the heavier distortion of tracks like “Punkifier” really gives some beat to what normally is a skeletal arrangements, this increased distortion also has the added detriment of laying perfectly over Lieberman’s vocals to the point that fuzzy is all that comes through. It really is hard to screw up a Ramones cover, but the crowd definitely tries to with an absolutely anemic response to the beginning strains of “Blitzkreig Bop”. If the Viva La Bam crew are mostly (at least professed) fans of skateboarders, where the hell is the mass of individuals singing along?

It really is the same case for the Green Day covers; the audience seems to essentially be sitting on their hands in complete denial of the back cover, which shows presumably a number of individuals interested in the show. An interesting re-tooling of some of Lieberman’s songs, but the problematic recording of these tracks really keeps the disc from being all it could be; I’d still have to push the studio discs over this one.

Top Track: Punkifier

Rating: 4.0/10

[JMcQ]