Canned Heat were one of the cooler bluesy hard rock acts of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Certainly there name has become something of a legend over the years. I’m told that this is the only full-length live video of the band ever to be released. It’s actually one of the stronger in the Live at Montreux series. Considering that this whole series is quite good, that’s a major compliment. Some of the older videos in this series suffer a bit in terms of video and audio production, but this one did quite well. The performance is great, if a bit dated. Frankly, that dated nature seems to bring a certain charm to this. These guys put out a smoking performance and are even joined by blues legend Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown on four songs. I’d highly recommend this to fans of Canned Heat, but really to fans of the blues in general. This one smokes. I suppose in a perfect world we could ask for some bonus material, but as strong as this is, who cares?

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2006 Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.