This album was released just as
go-go appeared on its way to a national breakthrough, and listening in retrospect, it's easy to understand some of the optimism. Essentially a pair of side-long extended jams (with a short studio piece,
"The Theme From Escape From Del Go-Go," tacked on for good measure), it does a more than adequate job of capturing the percussive power generated by one of the best-ever
go-go bands in its prime. That neither performance was recorded in front of a hollering hometown crowd in D.C. is the only real drawback, but with producer
E.T. Thorngren at the board, the great sound quality is an acceptable tradeoff.
"N.Y. Comes to Boogie," recorded at New York's New Music Seminar, is the better of the two long cuts. It's a seamless, 20-minute workout that folds in bits of everything from
"Dance to the Drummer's Beat" to
"La Di Da Di," showing off the ten-man band's musical versatility, and proving that
go-go's swinging, steamrolling beats could absorb just about any music (a lesson
hip-hop would later take much, much further).
"Sho Nuff Bumpin'," despite the presence of some imported Washington fans, isn't quite as memorable, but unbeatably charismatic vocalist
Greg "Sugar Bear" Elliot and dynamic drummer
William "Juju" House could make much lesser material than this great. Though not an unqualified
go-go masterpiece on the order of
Trouble Funk's
Live,
Two Places at the Same Time makes a nice substitute. ~ Dan LeRoy
