“Live” Full House was the band’s first gold album. Geils Band Live Full House (First I Look at the Purse, Homework and more). The album reveals just how incredible the six-piece were as a live act and how gifted frontman Peter Wolf was at entertaining the audience while making them feel like equal partners in the show (listen to the crowd participation on the proletariat anthem “Hard Drivin’ Man”). Then the group kick through numbingly great rebel-rousers, such as Otis Rush’s “Homework,” the band’s own “Whammer Jammer,” and the hard-grooving sermon of John Lee Hooker’s “Serves You Right to Suffer.” It finishes on the bluesy-gospel rave up “Lookin’ for a Love” (a cover of The Valentinos classic and a hit for the band). The set opens perfectly on a face-blasting workout of the old Contours R&B classic “First I Look at the Purse” (penned by Smokey Robinson). Two of their three live albums were recorded in Detroit at various venues. Although living in Boston, the band had always considered Detroit their second home because of their enormous popularity there. The others were Blow Your Face Out in 1976 and Showtime in 1982. All of that’s displayed here on their third album, which was recorded at Detroit’s Cinderella Ballroom in 1972. This was the first of three live albums recorded by the J. Geils Band - Showtime (Live At Pine Knob Music Theater, Detroit, MI/1982) (1982). They sounded like a sweat-drenched, hyper-confident R&B outfit, especially in their early-’70s days. The J. Geils Band were absolutely sell-out huge in the Motor City.
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