Pere Ubu has long been in need of a definitive live album. This set, recorded eight years ago at a spur-of-the-moment performance at Chicago's Schuba's, isn't a definitive live album...but it'll do nicely until one comes along. The largely acoustic performance lacks the nervous electricity of the band's later, leaner days; it's more like an evening spent in frontman David Thomas' living room. As a host, Thomas is at his most congenial; his banter with the rest of the band, and with the audience, is surprisingly friendly and approachable. If you've seen Pere Ubu live, especially in the years following the whole Polygram/Letterman debacle, you know that the quality of Pere Ubu's performance depends almost entirely upon Thomas' mood -- if he's too hot, or if an audience pisses him off, or if equipment fails, or if the television behind the bar is too loud, or even if someone 300 miles away drops a pencil, Thomas can veer rapidly from kindly and self-deprecating to cold and flat-out hostile. But this time, blessed with a sympathetic venue, simple equipment and an audience of the sort of fans who'd seek out an unannounced performance, he's free to hold court. Thus we get a cascade of quirky highlights -- "Life of Riley", "Non-Alignment Pact", "We Have the Technology", "Misery Goats" and others -- punctuated by Thomas at his best. The band even peels off a fifty-second Stooges cover, just to show how tight they are. Yes, until a definitive, multi-disc live album comes along, this'll do quite nicely, thanks.