When Sponge hit Los Angeles’s Whisky A Go Go on November 4 last year, their Electric Cattle Gods collection of lost out-takes and b-sides was still fresh on the shelves, while the band themselves had been on the road since the beginning of September. It was a grueling schedule but fans, filing out at the end of the shows, often reckoned they’d just witnessed one of the greatest shows of their lives.
Over-excited hyperbole? Judge for yourself. Heading your way on November 13 - that is, just nine days on from the LA show’s anniversary - the beautifully bombastic Live At The Whisky A Go Go appears as both a special CD/DVD combo pack and a staggering red/tan/black/haze splatter vinyl LP. And 14 tracks (nine on the vinyl) that not only tell the story of the night, they also reflect the long history of Sponge themselves.
"The Whisky A Go Go over the years has become a Sponge tradition," says the bands Vin Dombroski. "So to memorialize our days at the Whisky with a set that includes the hits was a special moment for the band. Stepping onto that stage still gives goose bumps and still makes me feel like a tourist!"
It’s almost 35 years since Sponge burst onto the music scene with their effervescent debut album Rotting Piñata, and two massive hit singles,“Plowed” and “Molly (Sixteen Candles)” - both, of course, are featured here, with “Molly” also spinning out as the first single - and video! - from this triumphant performance.
VIDEO:
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/sponge_mollyliveatthewhisky
Of course, there was not time for the band to play every one of the classics that mark out their maverick journey through the 90s and beyond. But “Rotting Piñata,” of course, is here, alongside fellow first album highlights “Drownin’,” “Rainin’,” “Neena Menasha” and “Plowed.”
From their sophomore set, Wax Ecstatic, we hear “Have You Seen Mary,” “Got To Be A Bore” and the title track; 2003’s For All The Drugs In The World unleashes its mighty opener “Treat Me Wrong”; 2005’s The Man sticks us with “Glue,” The Beer Sessions serves up the show’s seething opener “Jump While The House Is On Fire” and “Sick Of It All.” And from their 2024 celebration of their one breakthrough year, 1994 delivers Blur’s nightclub anthem “Girls and Boys,” thrusting and thumping the band into the show’s closing salvo.
Vividly shot for the accompanying DVD, and sounding as raw as you could want, this is Sponge as they ought to be experienced, lurid, live and magic in the mosh pit.
CD/DVD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=sponge+live
Track listing
1. Jump While The House Is On Fire
2. Wax Ecstatic (To Sell Angelina)
3. Rotting Piñata
4. Molly (Sixteen Candles)
5. Glue (CD/DVD only)
6. Got To Be A Bore (CD/DVD only)
7. Have You Seen Mary
8. Treat Me Wrong (CD/DVD only)
9. Neenah Menasha (CD/DVD only)
10. Sick Of It All (CD/DVD only)
11. Rainin'
12. Girls & Boys
13. Drownin'
14. Plowed
