Surprisingly only the third live
Misfits album, this live recording combines back-to-back 2011 performances, from Devil's Night at Starland Ballroom in
the Misfits' hometown of Sayreville, New Jersey, and Halloween night at B.B. King's in Times Square, N.Y.C. From the opening thunderclaps and audience chants of "Jerry! Jerry!," it's abundantly clear that
Dead Alive! features a post-
Danzig group. With guitarist
Dez Cadena (
Black Flag) and drummer Eric "Chudacabra" Arce (
Murphy's Law), bassist/frontman
Jerry Only sticks to delivering quick and dirty songs from that year's
The Devil's Rain, along with a few cult songs from when
Michale Graves was the frontman, such as the thrash-styled "Helena" and the closing anthem "Saturday Night." Being a late October performance, the time when
Misfits thrive most, this is spirited and festive -- so much so that the audience seems unbothered by the omission of any classic-era songs that involved onetime centerpiece
Glenn Danzig. Even if the material stems mainly from a lackluster late-period record,
Only seems more committed to yelling it out on-stage than he did in a sterile studio setting, and since they haven't changed up their subject matter from the early days, songs like "Land of the Dead," "Curse of the Mummy’s Hand," "Dig Up Her Bones," "Dark Shadows," and "Cold in Hell" fit the bill. It's a treat to hear their horror punk rendition of "Science Fiction/Double Feature" from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and at the very least, they don't appear to be merely going through the motions. ~ Jason Lymangrover