One of the dirty little secrets of the music industry is that a band that can reproduce its live show in the recording studio has a really boring live show.

Columbus's Watershed has never been able to match the intensity of its live shows on record, which makes its latest CD, Three Chords and a Cloud of Dust II, a prefect vehicle for the band.

Three Chords was recorded in November at the Newport during the annual Hate Michigan Rally. The capacity crowd was amped up - the show was basically a pep rally for arguably the biggest college football game ever - and Watershed matched that boisterousness by playing better than the band has ever sounded on record.

The set largely was drawn The Fifth of July, the band's most recent (and best) release. The Group shows off its knack for big, arena rock hooks, soaring harmonies, and catchy power pop on songs such as "Small Doses," "Obvious," "The Habit" and "Slowly Then Suddenly."

Three Chords is also a good greatest hits collection. Watershed is one of the most popular Columbus bands, and this is the first time that fans can pick up "5th of July" and "Black Concert T-Shirt" on the same release.

While the CD is a good capsule of the band's live sound, it's not without its flaws. The production quality is mixed at best - the drums sound is more of a thud than a crack, and the guitars could definitely come up.

There also are problems with dropped beats, flubbed notes and slightly off-key vocals, which are the of things that you might miss at a show but certainly would hear on record.

One reason you can hear the mistakes on Three Chords is that the band didn't fix them in the studio. Another dirty little secret is that most bands that release live CDs, from Kiss to Cheap Trick to Peter Frampton, go back in the studio and re-record anything that wasn't prefect live, but Three Chords is a true document of how the band sounded on Nov. 17.

It's important, though, not to overstate the problems. The bottom line is that Watershed is a really good live band, and Three Chords is an example of what a good rock band sound like live.

August 9, 2007