There's only a couple of bands whose live albums I personally feel are all essential, and Flipper is one of them. I love all of the early Flipper albums and I've been spinning their recent reissues like mad, but the reissue of their Public Flipper Limited live album might be getting the most play of all - these guys were fucking madmen on stage back in the 80's, and they are one of those rare bands that sound just as brutal and powerful live on tape as they do in the studio. And their stage banter between (and sometimes during) songs is brilliant and awkward and often really hilarious. I'm stoked that the new incarnation of the band has released this new live disc as a sort of companion piece to their new album Love, as it's got all of that primo Flipper-live action that I dig so much. Snarled performances, slobbering stage banter, but this time their live sets have a monster recording to give them all of the massive heaviness and oomph that their earlier live recordings might have lacked. Fight is comprised of material taken from two sets that were recorded in Seattle and Portland throughout 2007, both recorded and mixed by the legendary Jack Endino, and the sound is really huge. Half of the album is older classic material, songs like "Way Of The World" and "Shine" which open the album with a huge undertown of drugged heaviosity, and the other half features new songs from their album Love. New bass player Krist Novoselic (of Nirvana fame, natch) plays on all of the songs, and while I gotta admit that I was apprehensive about what the new Flipper songs were going to sound like, I'm pleased to report that the new stuff sounds pretty much just like the old stuff, that being loud, dissonant, sludgy art-punk monstrosities. Actually, some of these new songs are really growing on me quickly, like the dark, Sabbathoid "Why Can't You See" and the inebriated pogo bounce of the anti-authority anthem "Be Good, Child!". The classic cut "Sacrifice" sounds as heavy and sinister as ever. Bruce Loose's vocals are wrecked and powerful and slurred all at the same time, and the band is both loose and punishing, slamming through nine songs of their heavy, damaged art-punk. Essential for hardcore Flipper fans.