Leaf Hound, Live in Japan 2012: Unleashed in the East
If you’re ever looking to win an award for understatement, call Peter French‘s resumé “enviable.” In 1971, the same year Leaf Hound put out their seminal Growers of Mushroom debut LP, French was fronting Atomic Rooster for the In Hearing Of… album, and 1972 found him taking over for Rusty Day in Cactus for ‘Ot ‘n’ Sweaty. It was a short period of time, but a few landmark contributions. Though Growers of Mushroom was widely bootlegged and officially reissued along the way, Leaf Hound wouldn’t put out another record until 2007’s Unleashed. With French up front, guitarist Luke Rayner, bassist Ed Pearson and drummer Jimmy Rowland, they’d begun playing out again circa 2004, released a live single through Rise Above in 2006 as a precursor to the album, continuing to tour and do periodic shows. They appeared at Roadburn in 2006 and 2012 both — at the latter playing Growers of Mushroom in full — and at Desertfest in 2012, and in July of that year did two nights in Tokyo that are now presented through Ripple Music as the Live in Japan 2012 CD/DVD (or LP/DVD) package. It’s noteworthy for a few reasons, among them that although they switched out Pearson for Peter Herbert on bass, this incarnation of Leaf Hound had already been active more than five years, over twice as long as the band’s original run.
Of course, Leaf Hound continues in large part to be defined by Growers of Mushroom and the swagger of that era, something that French‘s voice is able to convey some 40 years later on Live in Japan, but on the CD, cuts from Unleashed feature pretty heavily as well. And where the studio version of that album didn’t quite convey the same kind of spontaneous edge, on stage in Tokyo the newer material meshes well with the old, so that original cuts like “Freelance Fiend” — as signature a riff as the band has — “Work My Body” and “With a Minute to Go” fit easily alongside “Barricades,” “Stop, Look and Listen,” and “One Hundred and Five Degrees.” A vinyl-ready 38 minutes for the audio portion concludes with the Howlin’ Wolf cover “Evil,” which Cactus also covered prior to French joining. There are a few bold exclusions from the CD, including “Sad Road to the Sea” and “Growers of Mushroom,” but the former seems not to have been played at all and the latter appears on the DVD with an extended jam featuring a bass solo from Herbert and subsequent guitar spaceout from Rayner that presumably would’ve put the audio over a vinyl runtime. Add to that the jam in “Work My Body” and maybe Leaf Hound were concerned about upsetting the flow of the audio or repeating themselves too much. Still, as omissions go, those are noteworthy ones for fans of the band.
“Growers of Mushroom” is a high point of the DVD all the more for not appearing on the CD, and along with “The Man with the Moon in Him” and closer “Breakthrough,” both of which come from Unleashed, helps give more of an idea of how fluidly Leaf Hound play the new against the old. Since the audio and video parts also run in a different order, it’s apparent some thought was put into the structuring of each. The runtime for the DVD is about 68 minutes, so they could’ve fit the entirety of it onto a compact disc if not a vinyl platter, but as it is, the Live in Japan 2012 CD works as a kind of companion piece to the video, as opposed to some live releases which make their component DVDs utterly superfluous and ignored in the back tray of the jewel case. That won’t do much for you if you’re not a fan of concert videos, but for what it’s worth, Leaf Hound present the show in a professional, multi-camera shot that gives a good idea of what it’s actually like to see them play, whether it’s Herbert jumping up and down at the start of “One Hundred and Five Degrees,” French apologizing for his lack of Japanese or Rayner tossing off airy classic rock solos with facial contortions to match. Even in the longer visual media, Live in Japan 2012 doesn’t overstay its welcome as they round out with “Stagnant Pool” from Growers of Mushroom.
French rocks with the laid back enjoyment of someone who knows his legacy is set in stone, and the band behind him — none of whom were original members of Leaf Hound — more than ably represent the engaging hippie blues rock of Growers of Mushroom while simultaneously tying Unleashed to that vibe in a way more palpable than the studio album could. If Leaf Hound‘s resurgence is a victory lap for French having played a role in shaping heavy and/or stoner rock, then fair enough. And fair enough that Live in Japan 2012 comes as a part of that. Fans of what Leaf Hound were able to accomplish on Growers of Mushroom who discovered them after the fact should find plenty to dig about hearing French tackle some of those songs live, and maybe the band wins over a few converts to check out Unleashed along the way. Now seven years after that record, Leaf Hound were due for a release of some kind, be it studio or not, and Live in Japan 2012 is there for those who want it. It was never going to be their most essential work, and I don’t think it was issued with the intent that it would be. Still, the band sounds tight and if Leaf Hound fans who haven’t seen the band live get a chance to see and hear what doing so might be like, nobody really loses.
This record kicks a lot of ass.
I automatically skip any live álbum, except Live Killers and R n’ R Animal. Decided to give it a quick try and no regrets.