Faith No More
Live At The Brixton Academy
UK | U.S.
Recorded April 1990
Released February 4, 1991 (UK)

With the help of MTV and its heavy rotation of the video for “Epic,” Faith No More rose to prominence in the late 1980s. The band’s third album, and first with its new lead singer Mike Patton, Real Thing was an instant classic and made heroes of its makers. Duly, the band took the album on tour into the early nineties and chose one show to record for a live album. February 4th marks the 20th anniversary of the Faith No More album Live At The Brixton Academy. Recorded at the famous venue in London, England, it is Faith No More’s only official live album. And what an album it is.

Lead singer Mike Patton is a brilliant performer. At first he seems as if he is not taking it seriously by putting on silly voices at times, but as always his delivery is stunning. He may throw in a quick riff on New Kids On The Block’s “The Right Stuff” during “We Care A Lot,” but he has a voice very, very few rock/metal performers can match (or whatever the hell genre Faith No More fits into, such is the band’s mixture of influences and styles). On the track “The Real Thing” alone he exhibits such vulnerability, rage, and silliness, and easily switches between every type.