CD Reviews

The Figgs

Continue To Enjoy the Figgs, Volume 2 | Stomper

By BRETT MILANO | February 26, 2008

3.0 Stars

It makes sense that one of the Figgs’ best recent songs, “Regional Hits” (included here), celebrates those pop gems that are known only to a select few. For better or worse, that’s been the Figgs’ stock in trade for a decade-plus. And this live set doesn’t even offer all the most obvious shoulda-been hits from their last batch of albums — it’s just the songs they happened to play on a particular night. Whereas their previous live disc (drawn from the same batch of 2005 gigs) was tight and straightforward, this one’s more like the wilder second half of a Figgs show. There’s an impromptu cover, a few sing-along bits, a couple of songs the band had just learned (they’d be on the next studio album, Follow Jean Through the Sea), and a bit of mania when drummer Pete Hayes gets turned loose to sing. The band include, perhaps unwisely, a messed-up version of the Kinks’ “Starstruck” as well as the straight version, which followed. (Just the latter would’ve been fine.) But they know how to snap back into no-nonsense mode, and the rest of this disc attests to their unfailing chemistry and their growing catalogue of catchy songs. Indeed, it’s hard to figure why guitarist Mike Gent’s R&B-flavored “I’ll Bring Kicks” and bassist Pete Donnelly’s sweeter “We’ll Be Doing Time” never became hits somewhere. Score one for the select few.

The Figgs + Watts + Ruggs | Church, 69 Kilmarnock Street, Boston | February 29 + March 1 | 617.236.7600