I'm gonna have to qualify this review as best as I can. I am a Rage fan, have been since "No Shelter" was on the Godzilla Soundtrack, sadly, but a fan nonetheless was I since 1998, two years before this was recorded and five before its release. I'm also a huge Portishead, Woodstock, and classic rock fan but as much as I like Live At Roseland, Kick Out The Jams, and all the great moments that occurred during the three days of peace, love, and music in 1969, among the hundreds of other well made live recordings, I have a new favourite.

My moment of realization occurred as soon as the bass kicked in on 'Born Of A Broken Man' where a noise erupts that could tear a fly in half, in the same vein as Michael Ivins' bass-tardization in the Flaming Lips' "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton" but way nastier. The whole album is superbly produced by Rick Rubin who creates a rich, full sound that mushrooms between your headphones. Also, each track sounds just a little more urgent than their already screaming studio work, more pressing and still quite relevant. There's also an excellent reworking of EPMD's "I'm Housin'" and a cover of MC5 which works to further reinforce this disk's place rightly in the live album cannon. Absorbing this disk one truly realizes what a loss Rage was in a world with a desperate need for a social conscience.

This collects most of Rage's best songs on one cd, and they are performed live! This is exciting because it is their first widely available live album; they were beyond powerful onstage, but they toured very little as a band. I wish that different songs from Renegades were included instead of "I'm Housin" or "Kick Out the Jams," and I wish "Wake Up" was included, but all of the songs here are really, really well played and show that Rage went out with a bang instead of fading into obscurity. That's what any band wants, after all!
If you are new to the band you should pick this up, along with everything else they put out (trust me, everything Rage made is beyond good, even their covers cd!). But if you want only one Rage disc with all of the hits, this should do until they come out with a Best Of disc for Rage's music. A lot of songs from Evil Empire are missing, so you will want to get Evil Empire also. I like all the versions of these songs, you will too, get everything they put out. That includes the Live and Rare Import, if you are willing to pay all the cash for it!

if you want better sound - buy the dvd - it is mixed by someone else

Why would you buy this audio CD when the DVD version sometimes costs less and includes more material?

First of all, this cd kicks majorly! Some don't think the sound is good, and I'll give 'em that one. But, its still one of the best dang live recordings out there. No one matches the rage and energy as Rage does. It was absolutlye beuatifull. The only two beafs to this wunderfull cd is that whoever mixed needs to have thier head rearagened. I hope the band had nothin' to do with this, for one reaseon.(two really) One is where the hell is "How I could just kill a man?" That song was wild! B-Real and Sen Dog actually came out and preformed it with them! It was dope yall. The other only problem I could'nt ignore was that they copletly took out Zack's rantings! I mean what the heck man?!?!?!? I wanna hear him discuss these things. You can hear and see 'em on the dvd though, but still. Other than that, it was a great cd full of energy and an overall great preformence
Peace