ATARIS, THE - Live In Chicago 2019 LP (Clear Vinyl)

Label: Kung Fu

A quarter of a century spent in action might be a great excuse for any vigorous group to lose impetus, yet this ensemble don’t give a flying fuck about old farts as there’s a lot of venom in Kris Roe’s trio’s veins to be spilled on punters. And it’s about time the band’s fans receive a new on-stage document, what with their only properly issued live record arriving way back in 2004 and a few later releases either limited to smaller markets or not available on disc. The set the veterans delivered in Illinois in 2019 is well worth the worldwide exposure, the full-on energetic songs on offer a proud proof of the collective’s current capabilities.

It’s not a greatest hits display, even though the artists touch upon several notches in their catalogue – most pieces here hail from 2003’s “So Long, Astoria”: the group’s most successful album – but this array of has a fine flow to it and a nice, stentorian ring, too, from the solemn squeal of “In This Diary” onward to “All Songs At Once” – a fresh mashup of the entire gig, a mad essence of the trio’s pop-noise. The whole record does, so losing impetus might be out of question for another 25 years.