Flipper's double live set is a perfect send-off to the original lineup of the band. Mostly recorded between 1980 and 1982, this set captures the band in all of their sloppy, drunken, drugged-out glory. Songs start, stop and "wander off" in all sorts of directions and all of this is punctuated by some of the funniest onstage banter this side of a Fear show.

The reviewer that described Television as the "Grateful Dead of punk" obviously never heard Flipper play live. While Flipper isn't going to go off on a 20 minute (technically precise) version of "Marquee Moon", "Sex Bomb Baby" goes for over ten minutes and other songs like "If I Can't Be Drunk" and "The Game's Got a Price" come pretty close to the 10 minute mark as well.

Most of the songs on this set were previously unreleased and there is a lot of great material here that will hopefully surface in studio form some day. The selection of unreleased tunes range from the punkish "New Rules, No Rules" to the blues grind of "Flipper Blues". In true Flipper fashion, the second disc closes with what sounds like Bruce saying "Are you satisfied yet, can we leave?"

Water Record has done a great job of reproducing the board game that came with the original LP version of this release. You can "tour" the US with Flipper and "every time you come to a town, you must stop there." The game cards were written by Will and have phrases like "Will Get Free Drugs - Plus 15 Points" or "Burned By Drug Dealer - Minus 5 Points".

Flipper is supposed to have a new disc in the can (produced by Jack Endino) so hopefully they settle on a new label soon.

Here is a live performance of "Shine" (which is one of the few songs from Generic Flipper that was repeated on the live disc) . This was recorded at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco when the band was opening for the (then) final performance of Throbbing Gristle.



On this note, tickets went on sale today for Throbbing Gristle's first ever New York show. The show is April 16th at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple and tickets are $35.

Links:
Flipper's MySpace Profile