Psychobomb -U.S. Tour 2000-

A live album from High Rise feels so accurate a representation of their entire vibe that Psychobomb works as a default greatest hits collection, insofar as any random assemblage of High Rise songs is gonna include archetypal material. Yes, they do more-or-less the same thing, repeatedly; yes, it’s always great. Their albums are usually so far in-the-red that the live recording quality of Psychobomb actually peels back the layers of fuzz and gives a better glimpse of the sturdiness of their songwriting, and clarifies that the motorpsycho frenzy of their playing on the albums is no one-off. Also, Asahito Nanjo’s vocals still sound lost in space, even live. For a good twenty years there, High Rise were the greatest amp-overload, pure rock’n’roll experience; Psychobomb documents them near the end of that run, playing to the faithful in Seattle and New York. It’s a rough riding thrill.