The Stooges

Rehearsing ahead of their first show of 1973, at Detroit's Ford Auditorium in March, the Stooges ran through more or less every new song they had at that point, as a host of deeply posthumous archive albums have demonstrated. This disc, however, marks the public debut of ten songs taken from two newly discovered reels of tape, and capturing the band as it works to nail just a handful of numbers. But if two versions apiece of "Raw Power" and "I Need Somebody" and three of "Head On" leave you thinking you can pass this one by -- that's because you haven't heard them. The band is blazing here, across those songs and through the three that complete the disc: "Search and Destroy," "Can't Turn You Loose," and "Gimme Danger" are as tight and coiled as they ought to be, and paired with the Detroit Rehearsals Spring 1973 disc that documents the rest of the band's activities at this point, this could be the most exacting glimpse into the heart of the beast as any CD could muster. ~ Dave Thompson, Rovi