Kix Live

Album Review

Although Kix began life as a hard-rocking band, by the late '80s the group had managed to smooth out the rough edges just enough to crossover into the then-thriving pop-metal world, scoring a major hit with 1988's Midnite Dynamite. But Kix always took a year or two off between albums, and blew their window of opportunity by issuing their follow-up, 1991's Hot Wire, smack dab in the middle of the grunge takeover. Perhaps as a contractual fulfillment, a live set was issued in 1993, Live, which managed to completely slip through the cracks upon release. Recorded in late 1991, an inadvertently humorous intro kicks things off, when an announcer declares Kix are "the dirty boys of the underground" (being on a major label, playing arenas, and having your videos aired on MTV isn't really underground, now, is it?). Regardless, the 12-track set contains most of the expected favorites, most of which are even more high energy than the original studio versions. Included is the Guns N' Roses-ish "Sex" (great title, eh?), "Cold Blood," and their breakthrough power ballad "Don't Close Your Eyes." It may not have been recorded in the same decade that gave us Max Headroom and Miami Vice, but Kix's Live manages to have the '80s written all over it. [Note: Live was reissued in 2005 on the Wounded Bird label, with the same track listing as the original 1993 release.]