It doesn’t seem all that long ago when the face of mainstream rock music changed hands from post-grunge to punk rock. It was during this time, in the mid to late ‘90s, that bands like Greenday, blink182 and Sum41 rose to national prominence on the weight of three chord verses and sing-along choruses. California’s Unwritten Law was one of those bands, at least in the beginning. UL signed with major label Interscope in 1998 and rode the coattails of the aforementioned bands all the way into the public ear. Luckily by the time the band received mainstream popularity though, the tired punk rock structure of their songs had largely been replaced with a more challenging and rewarding alternative-rock sound. Since the band’s breakout 2002 single “Seein’ Red,” few things have gone particularly well for the band though. They’ve lost two members, including one founding member, and left Interscope to sign with Lava who subsequently dropped them. Currently the band is singed to indie label Suburban Noize and has just recently released their first live album/DVD, Live and Lawless.
Live and Lawless capitalizes on the new trend of spitting out a cheaply made live DVD to take advantage of a band’s well known back catalogue. So far this year I’ve come across exceptionally good examples (The Tossers’ Gloatin’ and Showboatin’) and a few bad examples (Thursday’s Kill the House Lights); Live and Lawless fits somewhere in the middle. The concert is shot at the small but packed Key Club in Hollywood, CA before a crowd of die hard UL fans that seem to know every word to every song. The crowd roars with anticipation when they hear a familiar drum beat or note from one of their favorite songs. Speaking of favorite songs, it was actually somewhat surprising to me at how many of these songs are absolute winners from the band’s 14 year old collection. Despite UL’s 22 song set list, the concert itself never seems bogged down or slowly paced. Just like with an album, the songs chosen for a set list should be chosen wisely to help aid the ebb and flow of the performance, aided by lead singer Scott Russo’s profanity filled interaction with the crowd, Unwritten Law does a great job at this
The concert itself is grade A, I may be a little biased considering I’ve been a pretty big Unwritten Law fan for a the better half of the last ten years, but Russo’s stage presence and charisma as a front man and vocalist helps to carry the show. The fact that the concert is shot cheaply and unimaginatively may be a cause for concern to some, but among big Unwritten Law fans it will be little more than an after thought. My disdain of live CDs though, unless you happen to call yourselves The Who, makes the CD portion of this set a wash in my opinion. Plus the audio CD leaves out a good five songs cut from the middle of the concert. This is a real shame for those who will end up making use out of the CD, considering the part that was taken out is one of the coolest moments in the show, an acoustic centerpiece that includes the terrific songs “Rest of My Life,” “She Says,” “Before I Go,” “Elva” and one of the band’s original punk opuses turned acoustic ditty “Shallow.”
One of the most rewarding parts of Live and Lawless is that after basically dropping off of everybody’s radar over the last few years and losing a few key members, Unwritten Law still has it. Or they at least has the ability to play their classics well, their newest song “Shoulda Known Better” sure coulda been better. For fans of the band, myself included, this really is an enjoyable watch that makes out as a better collection of past songs than the ill conceived greatest hits package, The Hit List, which came out last year. If the band can finally find some steady ground at their new label, you never know, there might be a chance that UL’s back catalogue will get even healthier.
"Live and Lawless" is on sale September 30, 2008 from Suburban Noize.
