Friday, 18 May, 1990 – New Ritz, New York, USA

1. Zagreb
2. And Therein
3. Carry Bag Man
4. Sing! Harpy
5. I’m Frank
6. Wrong Place, Right Time
7. Telephone Thing
8. Hilary
9. Hit the North
10. Bill Is Dead
11. Black Monk Theme
12. Popcorn Double Feature
13. Deadbeat Descendant
14. British People in Hot Weather
15. Jerusalem
16. Victoria
17. U.S. 80’s-90’s
18. Tuff Life Boogie
19. Mr. Pharmacist

NOTES

• 01:19:37
• Good quality audience recording.
• Released as part of Take America Box Set by Cog-Sinister in February 2022

REVIEW

Two gigs only on a short American tour before moving onto Australia and then the ultimate break up of this iteration of the group. This is a tight performance with the group firing on all cylinders.

Bramah and Scofield replace Brady’s violin parts from “Extricate” with intricate guitar and keyboard sounds on “Sing! Harpy”. Hanley and Wolstencroft are particularly tight. There are huge washes and blocks of sound on the nine minute plus “Jerusalem” which is dense and intense. Bramah resorts to “rawk” guitar twiddles at times which seem somewhat strange, with for example a semi-guitar solo part way through “Jerusalem”.

Schofields singing is dreadfully flat in parts on “Black Monk Theme”. Mostly its about the “rock” elements of the band at this point in time reduced to reality by a short but sweet Mr P as the final statement. Probably the closest the band got to stadium rock before MES decided enough was enough and got back to basics.

Not essential but listenable.

Note on venue – the New Ritz was located at 254 West 54th Street, former home of Studio 54.