Live August 19 – 2005 – The Bowery Collection is the second live release from Living Colour to be recorded at CBGB’s. The last one, recorded in 1989 (and released 3 years ago), served as an opportunity to work out much of the material that would appear on their sophomore record, Time’s Up. This recording is more of a career retrospective and a love letter to Hilly Kristal, the proprietor of CBGB’s and the one to give Living Colour their initial break. As entertaining as it is to hear Vernon Reid noodle around on his guitar and listen to these tracks which have an energy and passion matched by the sociologically intense lyrics, the buzz is killed by awful sound. Apparently the source of the material is the soundboard from the club, and as romantic as that sounds, it comes off on disc as muddled. The mix is jarring and distracts the listener from the material and performances. The band also sounds disorganized as it labors a bit between songs before grooving into a new one. The material is mostly good, except for the assault on the ears of “Terrorism,” but the sound is so bad, you can flat out skip this release. (MVDaudio)
