Idaho - People Like Us Should Be Stopped - Live Volume On
(Idaho)
It was only a few years ago that I was really against live recordings. I couldn't understand why anyone
would want to listen to a band live, in such an uncontrolled environment, when they could listen to the
band's studio recordings. Don't get me wrong--I loved live shows at the time--I just found the recordings of
live performances to be lacking enough quality to be worth my time.
Thanks to some amazing live recordings of the Black Heart Procession and Low, my opinions changed
quite quickly, and I starting buying and listening to a lot of live shows; enjoying the differences in
the songs, and the uniqueness of the performances, and even the variance of recording quality.
So, that said, I was extremely excited to buy Idaho's People Like Us Should Be Stopped - Live
Volume One CD. When I first listened to the album, I also began reading through the liner notes. The recordings
are from before the Forbidden EP when Idaho was still a 4-piece band, and they are taken mostly from an
Arizona show and from various shows in
Scotland and England. The songs mostly come from Idaho's 1993 Caroline album Year After Year, including "Here To Go," "Gone," and
"God's Green Earth." At the time of these recordings, the
band was experiencing quite a lot of problems including in-band fighting, heroin addiction, stolen
equipment, drinking, fist fighting, etc. Since Idaho have been basically a 2-piece band since, this
gives some probable insight the other members parted ways.
While the liner notes are interesting, I couldn't bring myself to enjoy the actual recordings. I
listened to the CD over and over, hoping that it would finally grip me like all of Idaho's recordings
do, but it never did. The songs sound like they are being played by a band on the brink of
destruction; loose performances, and a mixture of frustration, hopelessness, and anger all in the way
the instruments are played. The vocals are more passionate than ever, but in a way that doesn't
flatter the songs or the original vocal parts. In summary, it is the exact type of recording you
would expect from a band experiencing all the difficulties that the band was living through.
People Like Us Should Be Stopped - Live Volume One is an interesting document of the misery of
Idaho's tour, and on that level I can appreciate it, but it has certainly dropped my enthusiasm for
live recordings and has reminded me why I used to dislike live albums so much.
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