For those unaware, recorded at the Shepherds Bush Empire, London on 6th December 2004, it features the full concert on 2CDs for the first time via Secret Records.

The Tubes started out in Phoenix Arizona in 1972, the year when compadre shock-rocker Alice Cooper made a name for himself by blending hard rock with outrageous stage theatrics. The two founder members, guitarist Bill Sputnik Spooner and Vince Welnick on keyboards then recruited front man John Fe Waybill and the rest of the band. Keyboardist Gary Cambra joined when the band re-formed in 1993.

Waybill, an ex-drama student, soon persuaded the band to move to the Bohemia of San Francisco’s Bay Area where their way-out musical and theatrical ideas found a welcome home. Long before the MTV age, the Tubes pioneered the rock video and on stage video projection.

The band then dreamt up outrageous stage characters such as glam-rock queen Quay Lewd (miraculously still alive and well and present here), Dr Strange kiss and severely repugnant punk Johnny Bugger.

This time they’d packaged themselves as The Tubes’ Wild West Show, dressed as cowpokes, cardsharps and bartenders under a medicine show backdrop. Yes, I was actually there at this very same show and had a front row mosh pit view of everything that this musical three-ring circus brought forth!

They twanged their way cheerfully through hop along fare such as Under the Double Eagle while Waybill - in one of many disguises, this time the Mad Cow Auctioneer - mimes hacking up a steer with a chainsaw.

After a brief punkoid blast of the Beatles’ I Saw Her Standing There (refurbished with the riff from the Damned’s New Rose), Waybill emerges again as a mariachi singer in a glittering sombrero, singing Aguena Sale la Rosa in flamboyant pantomime Spanish.

Unexpectedly, the band can muster a convincing degree of musical expertise. Original drummer Prairie Prince hammers out unswerving tempos, guitarist Roger Steen patrols the distant galaxies of acid-blues and space-funk, and bass man Rick Anderson knows when to winch them in from the great beyond. They also have a perplexing penchant for lapsing into ’70s AOR, however, with tunes such as Don’t Wanna Wait or their new-at-the-time Talking to the Moon giving off weird Foreigner-like emanations.

To shrieks and catcalls, Waybill eventually staggers out as Lewd, dressed in a pink feather boa, blonde wig, Indian headdress and skintight silver trousers - all balanced on outrageous foot-high banana-shaped boots - to sing Stand Up and Shout and White Punks on Dope. He dies during the latter, only to be resuscitated by a nun and a nurse, who reappear in tarty bondage gear for Mondo Bondage. All completely baffling if you missed ’em first time round though!

In conclusion, and musically, this is an INCREDIBLE live performances by one of the only bands to give AC a run for his money, live show wise. Stand out cuts have always been an emboldened She’s A Beauty, Don’t Touch Me There, Don’t Want To Wait Anymore, White Punks On Dope, and both Mondo Bondage and their rousing closer Talk To Ya Later.

CD 1:
1. Spaghetti Overture (6:28) 2. Ghost Riders In The Sky (3:36) 3. She’s A Beauty (5:59) 4. Don’t Touch Me There (5:07) 5. Under The Double Eagle (1:38) 6. Mad Cow Auctioneer (7:41) 7. I Saw Her Standing There (3:05) 8. My Asylum (5:04) 9. Malaguena Salerosa (4:14) 10. What Do You Want From Life (6:41) 11. Tumbling Tumbleweeds (2:26) 12. Russell Chaps Intro (1:36) 13. Tip Of My Tongue (5:32)

CD 2:
1. Don’t Want To Wait Anymore (6:43) 2. Life Is Pain (6:53) 3. Talking To The Moon (6:00) 4. TV Is King (3:10) 5. No Way Out (3:46) 6. Let There Be Drums (3:47) 7. Stand Up And Shout (2:51) 8. White Punks On Dope (6:36) 9. Mondo Bondage (5:50) 10. The Magnificent Seven (0:54) 11. Haloes (5:18) 12. Talk To Ya Later (9:47)

Official Purchase Link

www.thetubes.com www.secretrecordslimited.com