Ed Kuepper – Ed Kuepper Live
Ed Kuepper Live – Ed Kuepper
By Chris Peken
The Ed-Man cometh. The Godfather of Australian punk, the doyen of Independence, the master and the servant Ed Kuepper continues on his very own merry way and releases another fine live album. The Kuepper way of re-invention is to change those around him, his latest incarnation is a little of the old – in the way of skin-thumper Jeffery Wegner who worked with Ed in The Laughing Clowns – and some of the new – in the way of former Sunnyboy bass-player (and fine pizza-maker) Peter Oxley. These two change the dynamic behind Keupper’s trademark wall of sound guitar playing. Wegner has always been precise and powerful in his drumming, his metronomic strikes lacking nothing in feel for their precision of execution. While Oxley has never been a “natural” bass player, rather he hulks over his instrument, bending it to his will; forceful and mesmerising to watch in his determination. Thus the Kowalski Collective is a more brutal outfit than its predecessors, what they lack in pop-finesse they replace with sheer force-of-nature power that propels these Kuepper classics forward – from the ancient Messin’ Part Two to the current Sam Hall. With only eight tracks though this is but a snap shot of the briefest nature, and should have ended with a great version of Eternally Yours rather than Collapse Board. Available only at gigs and on line for a bargain ten dollars.
*** 1/2
