The Party’s Over
In contrast to the (rather glorious) slickness of the Go-Betweens’ last two albums of the 80s, Tallulah and 16 Lovers Lane, the band remained a somewhat raw act onstage up until the end. And this December 1989 recording is pretty much the end — it’s one of the band’s final shows, before Grant McLennan and Robert Forster got back together in the late 90s, sans drummer Lindy Morrison and multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown. They don’t particularly sound like a band on the verge of a break-up here, however. They’re breaking in a new bass player, playing new songs, and generally enjoying themselves, it would seem. The new songs are one of the main draws of this set — they would later show up on Forster and McLennan’s respective solo albums, but it’s certainly interesting to hear fully-fleshed out Go-Betweens versions of such great tunes as “Easy Come Easy Go” and “I’ve Been Looking For Somebody.” The classics sound great here too, including a great “Clarke Sisters” and an appropriately majestic “Bye-Bye Pride.” After 20 years, love goes on!
