Stitched together from a variety of shows on the final Husker Du tour in late 1987, The Living End may not be a true representation of the band's sets, but as a collection of tracks by an about-to-crack group still firing on all fours live, it's quite a treat. David Fricke's polished but not revelatory liner notes do contain a number of more elucidating comments from the bandmembers themselves, with Mould capturing the sense of things best: "The music was so strong, everybody got caught up in it. It was easy to say, 'F*** all this other sh*t' for an hour." Or in this case, an hour and a quarter of mostly previously released material, though there were two new songs -- "Now That You Know Me" and "Ain't No Water in the Well" -- plus a merry rip through the Ramones' classic "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker."

Buy the CD