| Live at Max's Kansas City | |
| Type: | live |
| Artist: | The Heartbreakers |
| Cover: | JT_LiveMKC79.jpg |
| Released: | 1979 (original LP) [1] |
| Recorded: | 1978 (original LP) 1979 (CD bonus tracks) |
| Genre: | Punk rock |
| Length: | 34:44 (LP) 57:57 (CD) |
| Label: | Max's Kansas City (LP) Beggars Banquet (LP) ROIR (CD) |
| Producer: | Peter Crowley The Heartbreakers |
| Prev Title: | L.A.M.F. |
| Prev Year: | 1978 |
| Next Title: | D.T.K. - Live At The Speakeasy |
| Next Year: | 1982 |
Live at Max's Kansas City is a live album by The Heartbreakers. Recorded at a "reunion"/"farewell" show on September 16, 1978 at the famous Max's Kansas City nightclub, the album's performance - loud, sloppy, and laden with bawdy introductions and/or lyric changes to many of the familiar songs from their only studio album, L.A.M.F. - further cemented the band's live reputation. A classic of early punk rock, the album has been called "probably the best official document of any New York band of the era."[2]
The Heartbreakers had broken up in late 1977, after the failure of the L.A.M.F. album. Co-lead singer/co-lead guitarist Johnny Thunders remained in England and recorded his first solo album, So Alone, during the summer of 1978. His fellow ex-Heartbreakers Walter Lure and Billy Rath had participated in some of the sessions for the album, and after finishing the album, all three decided to play some gigs in New York "for old time's sake" and some "chump change."[3] With drummer Jerry Nolan reluctant to backtrack his steps after quitting the band over L.A.M.F.'s poor sound, the Thunders/Lure/Rath triumvirate recruited other local drummers to fill in. The band's first reunion gigs, billed as farewell shows, were at Max's on August 18 and 19 with drummer Lee Crystal. These shows went poorly - the Village Voice described them as a "depressing debacle"[4] and said that Thunders had "given up the ghost." Nevertheless, the band returned to Max's on September 15 (Friday) and September 16th (Saturday) with Ty Styx on drums, playing sets that included most of L.A.M.F. along with a few songs from So Alone and occasional covers. Both sets on the 16th were recorded; fortunately, the performances were up to the band's usual standard.
The band had continued to play occasional shows in New York throughout late 1978 and early 1979, and Jerry Nolan eventually returned to the drum throne. Released on Max's Kansas City Records and in England on Beggars Banquet Records through a logo deal with Max's Kansas City, the album was an immediate success upon its release in July 1979. As Robert Christgau put it, "This captures the boys in all their rowdy, rabble-rousing abandon, and I know that when I feel like hearing them I'll be pulling it off the shelf."[5]
The success of the album was enough to warrant a second live recording done at the same venue.[6] By that time, however, the band were all struggling with their various addictions, with Thunders' own heroin habit escalating. The first two nights of the three-night stand resulted in very little if any usable material, but by the last night, the band were in rare form, with Thunders and Lure delivering their usual witty introductions between songs. After playing five songs, Thunders suddenly left the stage, claiming he had to "tune up" - never to return that evening. Ironically, two songs earlier, the band had played their semi-autobiographical "Too Much Junkie Business".
Several years later, the five songs from the second recordings were remixed, along with the original album, in preparation for a long-awaited reissue of the original Live at Max's album with the "new" recordings appended to it. Walter Lure and Billy Rath participated in the mixing. Thunders was unable to participate due to other commitments, but was played the results, and gave them his full endorsement, requesting only that the 1979 recordings were released "just the way it is, including the talk." The reissue would not be released until 1995, a few years after Thunders' death. Both the original album and the later recordings were rereleased in 2015 on vinyl as "Live at Max's Volumes 1 and 2."
Bootleg recordings of the September 16 shows exist. The full sets performed that night were:
Early set (* indicates songs released on the live album):
Late Set: