I've owned the Velvet Underground's "Live at Max's Kansas City" for a number of years. I always found it to be the perfect CD for those strange nights, where you are tired as hell, but you still can't sleep. In other words it's the perfect late night album to just hang out to.The album, which is sort of a quasi band released bootleg, captured the very last performance (not counting any reunions) Lou Reed played with his Velvet bandmates before heading off into the 1970's and beyond for a solo career. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't put this CD on the stereo in a pretty long time. But I purchased Rhino Record's newly remastered and restored version and decided to give it a try. Well from the very first note, the only thought in my head was "Boy that's what Rock 'n Roll is all about..." It's sort of the same feeling I sometimes get from listening to early Buddy Holly or Eddy Cochran. It's just basic, primitive, Rock 'n Roll. The show truely is great. It has a wonderful set list (classics such as "Waiting for the Man", "Sweet Jane", "White Light White Heat" ) with some incendiary performances.My personal favorite cut is the slow ballad, "Pale Blue Eyes". Lou gives an amazing delivery! While Rhino has now remastered the sound, it still has that 'bootleg' feel to it. The clinking of glasses and audience conversations (including a very loud discussion about Nixon bombing Cambodia) just seems to add to the recording's ambience. You really feel like you are there. I love this CD! It's what Rock 'n Roll music is all about.

Wow! There have been so many upgrades and additions to the Velvet Underground catalog over the last 7 or 8 years that it's difficult to keep up with all of them. Here's another worthy upgrade for us completists who must have every mix and every note of recorded tape available. While *every* album in the VU catalog can be considereed "essential" for different reasons, the revision and remastering leads this one ahead of LIVE 1969 as well as The Quine Tapes, as the best live document of the band (prior to the 1992 reunion).

THIS remaster offers an additional set's worth of material. It seems that the original producers 'cherry picked' the 'best' tracks for the original LP. Here you will find both sets, more or less complete (less in the case of the 2nd set, which picks up at the beginning of the second verse of "Who Loves The Sun.")

However, I wouldn't wish to imply that the material orginally deleted is in any way inferior-- it's not, these are performances that are as strong as anything on the album.

This set is historically significant for several reasons. The most immediate sonic reason being this is the first LP appearance of then 17' year old drummer Billy Yule. Billy's drumming is completely different from Moe Tucker's (who left temporarily to have a child), it's Rock n' Roll drumming with lots of drum rolls, fills and flash, a great departure from Moe's more sparse and primitive style. Personally, I find young Billy's style ameteurishly over the top, but it's not so detracting or distracting to take away from the overall ambience of the album. This is also Lou Reed's last night with the Velvet Underground-- Doug Yule and Tucker (rejoining the group after her pregnancy) soldiered on for another year and a half touring, but it wasn't really the Velvet Underground by that point.

The remastering of the sound for this CD is quite amazing. For those of us that grew up with the original LP release, it's hard to believe they were able to pull the sound quality up to this degree.

Here's another live set that I preferred over the popular favorite. The Live 69 set always seemed muddy and unlively to me. The Max's set, while lo-fi, finds the band in a much more relaxed setting and in fine form.

The lo-fi aspect of these recordings has been overstated, in my opinion. Those who purchased the Bootleg Series set will find this to be on par or better in terms of fidelity. The overall ambiance allows one to close the eyes and be right in the club.

The two sets recorded this night (the last night Reed was with the band?) show the Velvets as a tight rock n roll band. I think the ballads are some of Lou Reeds finest recorded vocals.

Velvets fans should buy this just because of the extra songs. The curious should check it out as a fine historical document. This was rock n roll.

...none other than Jim Carroll, poet, novelist, Velvet Underground enthusiast, and future rock and roller, responsible for "People Who Died" and other great songs. He and Brigid Polk, who taped this record, apparently sat at the same table that night at Max's!

For those of you who have the old vinyl (1 album) version of this you might as well throw it away or better yet trade it in if there's a store around that takes them still. The job they've done on remastereing the sound is superb. Even better than some studio releases I've heard. Really! Not to mention it's a 2 disc set with another whole set thrown in. I was at that show & remember it well. You might not know that this is a bootleg recording if it wasn't for the crowd talking. But you can overlook that because the music sounds more up front now than before. I won't get into reviewing all the songs because this would be too long. Besides those of you who own the old version already know how good the show was anyway. Those of you who don't will really appreciate this too. The last performance with Lou Reed and leaving on a high note at that. One of the most underated bands of all time. They only got their recognition many years later. A must have for all fans. P.s. Even the vinyl has been out of print for many years. One last note, the crowd really makes you feel like you're right there on the floor or at the bar.