A long-awaited live release for fans of the west coast grindcore myth referred to as, simply, “Botch,” 061502 is, in fact, a DVD/CD set, which really gives it the title of “Combined Disc Of The Week.” Sort of like when you’re the Intercontinental Champion and the Tag Team Champion simultaneously.
Serving up mostly equal portions of material from their nigh-universally acclaimed We Are The Romans and the soon-to-be-rereleased American Nervoso, along with one track from their now-rereleased Unifying Themes rarity and two from An Anthology Of Dead Ends, Botch deliver what you’d expect a band to play at their last show—the favorities. The crowd-pleasers. The “you set ’em up, I’ll knock ’em down” cuts that satiate the rabid and casual fan alike.
The performances of “St. Mathew Returns To The Womb,” “Japam,” “Thank God For Worker Bees,” et. al., serve as the working man’s sledgehammer to mediocre hardcore everywhere. Lengthier works, like “Transition From Persona To Object” and the massive “Man The Ramparts” bring the evening to a sense of closure. Even their cover of “Rock Lobster” makes an appearance. How’s that for influential hardcore irony?
061502‘s DVD includes a surprisingly good quality taping set-up for the band, running at least three different cameras, set to the soundboard mix of the show. Humorous, “band sitting in a room” commentary for the performance is here, as well as a live set of five songs at a Washington performance around the same time (via only one camera angle—it’s a DIY scene) and the music video for “St. Mathew.”
While it’s easy to paint Botch as over-worshipped, as a glance at their MySpace page quickly reveals, or an example of not knowing what you have until it’s gone, 061502 proves the band as worthy of their fans’ devotion. And since most Botch fans never got the chance to see them live, there’s nothing but open arms for 061502.
In A Word: Completion
