This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
The sound quality is dodgy — and that’s being generous. The performance is loose and seems under-rehearsed. Singer Lou Reed and guitarist Sterling Morrison are the only original members in the band.
Were it recorded on any other night, Live At Max’s Kansas City would be just another cruddy Velvet Underground bootleg. But it happened to be recorded on Aug. 23, 1970 — Reed’s last night with the band — making it a bona fide rock ’n’ roll artifact. This reissue doesn’t do much to fix the dropouts and distortion. Or to stop hyperactive teenage drummer Billy Yule from doing his best Keith Moon impersonation on VU classics like I’m Waiting For The Man and White Light White Heat. But it does expand the original 10-song album with seven other tracks recorded that fateful night. So now you finally get the tale of the tape in all its dodgy, loose, under-rehearsed glory. Talk about generous.
