This is one of the best live albums I own. It rocks, and rocks hard.

A few amusing and amazing facts about this album:

1. Despite the title, according to sometime producer Jack Douglas, the audio is actually from Osaka because the sound at the Budokan Arena was so dire. Nevertheless, they do shout out Tokyo at least twice.
2. I love it that heartthrobs lead vocalist Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson have their photogenic faces on the front cover, and the less conventionally attractive lead guitarist/songwriter Rick Nielsen and drummer Bun E. Carlos, arguably the heart of the group, are regulated to the back.1TBF, this is true of all of their early records.
3. The entirety of Side Two is some of the hardest live rock around. From Ain’t That A Shame through I Want You To Want Me through Surrender through Goodnight (a reprise of the phenomenal opener Hello There) to the encore Clock Strikes Ten, the energy never flags once.
4. Somewhere between the Beatles’ 1966 appearance at Budokan and this performance in 1978, Japanese girls learned how to scream for their idols. Or maybe the government lightened up.

I don’t know which live record rocks harder, this or the Who’s Live At Leeds. Or Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense. They’re all great.