Cactus was founded in 1969 by drummer Carmine Appice and bassist Tim Bogert
of Vanilla Fudge fame, along with guitarist Jim McCarty from Mitch Ryder’s
Detroit Wheels and singer Rusty Day from the Amboy Dikes. The group recorded
four albums before pulling the plug in 1972. Day was tragically killed in 1982,
but Appice, Bogert and McCarty, picked up the pieces in 2006 and released Cactus
IV, withSavoy Brown’s Jimmy Kunes taking the lead singer spot. The live DVD
Live, Loud & Proud sees the band in two performances, recorded
in New York City during their 2006-07 reunion tour.
The opener “Let Me Swim” is a fine rock blues tune, but things
pick up quickly during “Long Tall Sally,” with Kunes really showing
off his growl. By the time we are into “Oleo,” featuring Bogert’s
talent on bass, and the reworking of Howlin Wolf’s “Evil”
(an Appice drum work-out), the band is locked into a solid goove. How appropirate
that the next song, “The Groover,” smokes with some jaw-dropping
slide guitar from McCarty. This parts the way for two highlights — “Part
Of The Game,” tighter than tight, followed by the loud and bad-ass “Rock
and Roll Children” and a very speedy version of the only true Cactus hit,
“Parchman Farm.””
Touted to be the new super-group at the time of their formation Cactus might
not have hit the heights of other superstar outfits, but Live, Loud
& Proud does a worthy job showing how hot, nearly 40 years later,
this great American blues-based rock band is. Could another Cactus album be
in the works? As Appice and Bogert push forward as rock’s longest running rhythm
section, all signs point to a forgoned conclusion: Why not?
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
