:: Livid 2002 One Day Series – Superstars of 2002 and Life Members 1989-2001

Various Artists

At long last Livid organizers have decided to put out a double CD effort in tribute to the festival through new label Dew Process. SUPERSTARS OF 2002… is a double album collection – the first disc features tracks from some of the many great acts included on this year’s line up including those crazy Glaswegians Mogwai with Dial:Revenge, UK sweethearts Seafood with Cloaking, The International Noise Conspiracy, Morrissey, Oasis, Mercury Rev etc. Disc 1, I notice also has a very strong Australian line-up (12/20 tracks are Australian) with tracks from Powderfinger, Grinspoon, George, SFK, Machine Gun Fellatio, Dan Brodie & The Broken Arrows, The D4, Motor Ace and more. Although a very good run-down of the fun that was had at the festival this year, I think a lot was also missed that should have been included, I was actually quite surprised to see that…Trail of Dead was among those missing acts.
LIVID LIFE MEMBERS… The second cd focuses on loyal Livid performers from over the years, filled with many old favourites to bring back the fondest of Livid memories including yester-year anthems from Mudhoney with Touch Me I’m Sick, You Am I- Berlin Chair, Ratcat- That Ain’t Bad and many old forgotten faves from The Falling Joys, Weezer, Garbage, Dirty Three, Devo, Rollins Band, Pulp, Regurgitator, Clouds and more.
My only qualm about this fabulous release is the same as any other of these festival compilations (like Homebake, Vans Warped etc) is that I think it would be much more sentimental if the songs were live recordings of the featured tracks recorded at past Livid festivals rather than the standard album tracks featured. Other than that, this release gets the thumbs up from me, just slip in, turn up, ditch the control and relax (that is after skipping the first track of cd1…but maybe that’s just me, after being unlucky enough to catch a few minutes of their Livid performance this year).