Juliana Theory

Anyone who's ever seen the Juliana Theory live knows the word that best describes their performances is uneven. On record, their brilliant epic emo tilts are polished to a near blinding glossy perfection. But they've often had difficulty bringing that same life to the tracks in concert. That and the fact that the shows are only as good as singer Brett Detar on any given night. So the possibility that this record would be lousy was very real. But the disc, recorded in their hometown of Pittsburgh, is far from lousy. The band was pumped this night and the crowd was right there with them. Recorded on tour of the Emotion is Dead album, it's heavy on material from that disc with a few gems from the first disc thrown in for good measure. It's a great document of how when a band is on, they can be really on. And on this night, the Juliana theory was on.