Frontiers Records

As Frontiers Records are so awfully good at, they once again present us with a reincarnated version of a B-list eighties rock band. Featuring four out of five original members, the band follow labelmates Tyketto by asserting their rock dominance late in the game. While most of us remember Kix for the MTV hits “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “Cold Blood,” they provide us with much more here. The rabid hometown crowd digs it as Kix shows how down and dirty they really were a set of rock tunes along the lines of Kiss, early Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, and Great White.

The band rip right into the fiesta with “No Ring Around Rosie” with its dirty guitars and gritty vocal work. It’s hard to not notice by mid-song that the band are in prime form, in fact, I doubt that they have ever sounded as good as they do in 2012. It rips flawlessly into “Atomic Bomb,” a similar sounding tune that does well to keep the high energy flowing. By track four the band slows the pace and offers up their massive MTV hit, “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” In retrospect, this dark and dreary tune has quite a bit in common with Enuff Z’Nuff and the latter day Oasis. It was a great song then and it holds up just as well now. “Cold Blood” fares just as well, gaining a little extra aggressiveness from the live setting that makes it reek of cool. The audience is really into it and they jump in with a classic rock and roll drunken sing along! The AC/DC riffage of “Blow My Fuse” is the highlight here for me, sounding a lot grittier than I remember it and just coming off like a wall of sound. The boogie beat “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” ends the show in a sixteen minute plus fury that makes me want to go see Kix the next time they come to town.

Overall, this album really surprised me. I have always liked Kix but I’ve never been as excited about their music as Live In Baltimore makes me. These guys are rockin’ live and with a reunion album in tow for 2013, it’s quite likely we’ll see a lot more of these guys in the near future!

Reviewed by Mark Fisher