Wire - "On The Box: 1979" (concert)

This gem comes from Herbert who tweeted about a week ago "whatever your indie band does, [Wire] did it first".  Prior to this tweet, I wasn't really familiar with Wire -- I knew that a band of that name existed, and I have some of their stuff on remix LPs, but that's not really representative of their sound.  Apparently they've been active off and on since 1976, as well as being quite influential if not exactly popular.  Unlike some of their contemporaries (e.g., The Clash, The Jam, The Cure) I don't think they ever made it in the US onto radio, MTV, etc.  Maybe they should have been "The Wire" instead of just "Wire".

Herbert's tweet included this 1979 concert for the German TV show "Rockpalast", which Wire released in 2004 as "On The Box: 1979", a joint CD/DVD.  Despite having the standard issue awkward, subdued TV audience, this is actually quite a nice time capsule of a band I was mostly unaware of.  A track listing is available, but trust me: you probably haven't heard any of these songs.



I'm not really familiar enough with the band to rate this, so I'll just link to the Pitchfork review.