The Boomtown Rats

Touring on the back of Tonic for the Troops, the Boomtown Rats Hammersmith Odeon headliner marked just how far the band had come in a year -- 12 months previous, they were still rattling round the pubs and clubs. The concert reflected their new-found fame -- watching this beautifully shot document, the band both look and act like stars, in front of an audience who knows every word of every song, and responds with increasing zeal every time a new one starts up. With a set drawn (of course) wholly from their first two albums, the Rats retain much of their original punk spit and polish -- the slower numbers are fast, the fast ones are faster. But even as "Rat Trap" speeds past, the sheer magnetism of the entire band (and not just frontman Bob Geldof) is inescapable, and the camera team must be commended for ensuring everybody gets their moment in the lens. In fact, the only serious failing is that the entire concert wasn't filmed -- three songs (including a truly incendiary "Neon Heart") are included as audio recordings only. Other highlights -- the stop-start camera work that introduces "Like Clockwork"; the glee with which Geldof conducts the crowd through an a cappella intro to "She's So Modern"; some surprisingly effective non-concert footage scattered around the performance; and, finally, the bonus inclusion of a couple of solo Geldof videos, all-but-unseen in the U.S., and screaming at the injustice of that. Ultimately, however, it's the concert footage that matters and, though the Rats were yet to hit their live peak when this was filmed (another year, and they were truly unbeatable), still Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1978 ranks among the most enjoyable packages in the band's entire catalog. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide