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Jun 28, 2012 Web Exclusive By By Frank Valish

The Knack has been very unfairly defined in the public consciousness by its one big hit, 1979’s “My Sharona.” However, that track, off the band’s debut, Get The Knack, of the same year, is highly unrepresentative of who The Knack was as a band. Much more than a one-hit wonder, singer/guitarist Doug Fieger, guitarist Berton Averre, bassist Prescott Niles, and drummer Bruce Gary were power pop progenitors who exploded out of the gate, as this pre-Get The Knack live performance attests. Compiled from two different Los Angeles shows, Havin’ A Rave-Up! features several songs from the band’s debut and a few from its follow up, 1980’s ... But the Little Girls Understand. Of course, “My Sharona” is here in a blistering 6 ½-minute romp. But what Rave-Up! proves, more than anything, is that songs like “Your Number or Your Name,” “Good Girls Don’t,” and “That’s What the Little Girls Do” (dedicated here to Sharona) better represent The Knack than any one song ever could. The Knack reunited for various projects and tours off and on since its heyday, before Gary’s passing to non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2006 and Fieger’s succumbing to cancer in 2010. Still, The Knack’s music lives on. There’s not a much better way to remember it than with these energetic 1978 performances. (www.theknack.com)

Author rating: 7/10