Anyone who was in the Rock and Roll trenches in the nineties and naughties looking for a fix of high octane well before Action Rock or Scandi rock or Garage Rock or Punk n Roll were used as descriptive words there were pockets of musicians all over the globe rocking hard from the Humpers, New Bomb Turks and D Generation to Glucifer and The Hellacopters. The Dragons and Electric Frankenstein as well as a whole bunch of others I could list.  Well, there was a whole scene in Canada too knocking out some top quality rock and roll from the likes of The Black Halos and the Parias to the Spitfires.

Well, it would seem there was about a decade of full-tilt life in most of these bands and that old adage of its better to burn out than fade away was certainly accurate. The CDs were fairly difficult to find before Discogs and Amazon and the records even harder to locate.  the one place these bands would excel was live (if you were lucky enough to catch them) but lots of them had the sense to showcase what they were all about with some quality live recordings. This is why we’re gathered here today to celebrate The Spitfires as ‘Live At The Pic’ sees the light of day finally after being recorded almost twenty years ago in Vancouver.

Mixing the attitude of the Pistols and other punks they had the guitar chops of a dirty AC/DC and I’m sure if you were to thumb through their collective record collection they would have owned the Thin Lizzys, Stooges, Alice Cooper, and Damned records you need to consume to get this music.

Opening with ‘High Test Sucka’ from their debut was a snotty enough opener that prepares you for the sonic assault of ‘Bringing Me Down’ that’s got a stinkin’ attitude and they really captured the magic here before kicking the shit out of ‘Alone’ lifted from the band’s third album, ‘Three’.  An absolute belter of a song from the gang vocals they really captured the energy and power on this recording and the show just soars from here with blistering renditions of ‘Drop Kick Me Jesus’ and the rock star riff of ‘Over The Edge’. Every inch a match for the likes of Gluecifer who must have been brothers from different mothers and you can tell they had by this point become a well oiled live machine.

For a few quid, you can pick up the Bandcamp digital or go the full hog and pick up the record from yeah Right! and I’m sure this record deserves to be heard on vinyl and played loudly it sure as hell was recorded loudly.  Its records like this that are making me pine for a live show. Hell, there’s even enough time to shoehorn in a flawless ‘Muscle Of Love’ that the Coop would be proud of.

Whilst we wait for venues to open back up and bands to get back out there let’s show some love for the bands that killed it night after night and managed to capture that magic with a live recording that has stood the test of time.  The Spitfires ‘Live At The Pic’ is one of those rare nuggets of gold that get found from time to time and maybe with some distance in the rearview mirror more people will appreciate how damn good a band they were.

Buy the record Here

Purchase a digital copy directly from the band Here

Author: Dom Daley