Resistance to dancing is futile when The J. Geils Band stampedes through “Jus’ Can’t Stop Me” opening the doors to House Party Live in Germany, a CD/DVD set extracted from the Boston-based sextet’s 1979 appearance on the revered German TV series Rockpalast. It’s a harbinger of what is 70 minutes of sequins and hair, sunglasses and leather, soaked in the sweat of callisthenic, real deal rock-and-roll. Somewhere beneath a curling, billowing lion’s mane that finds only slight competition from versatile keyboardist Seth Justman’s expanded tresses, Magic Dick wails on harmonica with endless breath, the fedora-capped bassist Danny Klein laying the mortar to drummer Stephen Jo Bladd’s bricks, while Geils grins and drops power-chord bombs from his overdriven Flying V. With an energized, oversized swagger behind the shades, the envy of any frontman this side of Jagger, singer Peter Wolf is the wind and the sail. Belting in post-punk reclamation, he ignites the night- “One Last Kiss” as combustible as “Teresa” is patient, as driving as “Give It To Me” is mellow, as injected as “Looking For A Love,” “Whammer Jammer,” and ‘Ain’t Nothin’ But A House Party,” are a hope-the-cops-don’t-come, but-if-they-do, toss-them-a-beer soundtrack to the best party on the block. Endless balloons set free from their ceiling tethers envelop the cheering thousands as the boys return for an encore, pass around a joint offered from a front-row fan, and by virtue, remind everyone watching in 2015 of the damage the approaching MTV, pastel neon, linen-and-lace ‘80s did to music like this. The J. Geils Band survived that decade, even thrived with the group’s most commercially successful album, but the party was never the same. Load up Live in Germany, invite over some friends, and go back in time for a good time, guaranteed.
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