Live From The Rock & Roll Funhouse

This crisp concert set documents just how important the Knack were in the evolution of millennial guitar pop music. With yet another new drummer laying down the beat, the original members who comprise the rest of the lineup tear through their hook-riddled, bite-size songs with a freshness and frenzy that's astonishing for -- here it comes -- guys this age. Their singing is especially adolescent: thin, quivery in the upper register, and electric with teenaged angst. There's not a note that sounds moldy, not a whine in the vocal line that betrays Fieger's longevity. When they hit the "love is the answer" lyric on "One Day at a Time," their naive passion is totally convincing. Frankly, it's almost a little weird, as if, to borrow from Dorian Gray, they had their old masters hanging in an attic. More important, it's also an affirmation that in razor-edged pop, as in life, spirit can transcend flesh after all -- except, judging from the last track, when trying to cover a Jim Morrison vocal. ~ Robert L. Doerschuk