The stripped-back arrangements of the band’s acoustic presentation on this recording for the sixth season of MTV’s influential Unplugged series naturally place O’Riordan’s expressive and versatile voice even further forward. With embellishment provided by the four members of the Electra Strings, the effects are intoxicating. The set was captured on February 14, 1995 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Howard Gilman Opera House in New York.
“We’re gonna rock your bones,” promises O’Riordan as the program begins. It’s a more subdued set of ballads to be honest, but that’s no knock against the band or the potency of these songs.
The show features five tracks from then-recent sophomore breakthrough No Need to Argue, beginning with a lovely version of the swaying “Dreaming My Dreams.” The band continues with the melancholy backward glance toward a simpler time when “life was fun” in “Ode to My Family” with Noel Hogan’s chiming arpeggios and O’Riordan’s singalong “doo doo-doo doo” chorus.
“Somebody caused me strife and it’s not what I was seeking,” sings O’Riordan as co-writer Noel Hogan strums his acoustic guitar and violins rise during the forlorn “Empty.” The brash protest anthem “Zombie” was a worldwide hit by the time of this performance. The song’s menacing grunge-pop sonics are tempered in the acoustic arrangement, but the sentiment still cuts to the bone when delivered with grit and power by O’Riordan and set against Mike Hogan’s resolute bass and the stirring string arrangement. Like U2’s strident “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” the politically charged song takes a critical view of the violent Troubles that were still current events in Northern Ireland at the time of the song’s writing. The brief concert concludes with the hymnal title track “No Need to Argue.”
Debut album Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? is represented by the lovelorn expression of “Linger.” The Electra Strings’ emotive accompaniment amplifies the song’s swooning romantic impact.
The band steps into their own future with the second-ever public performance of “I’m Still Remembering” and the self-reliant single “Free to Decide” from forthcoming 1996 album To the Faithful Departed. O’Riordan tells the audience that the band has never performed the latter song, saying, “We were kind of putting it together today. It was kind of half-finished. Now it’s finished.” Lawler provides the To the Faithful Departed songs’ measured percussion on a pair of bongos while O’Riordan provides rhythm guitar to support Noel Hogan’s acoustic guitar solos in arrangements by the core quartet without support from Electra Strings.
The set’s special gem arrives with the one and only performance of “Yesterday’s Gone,” written by O’Riordan and Noel Hogan on the day before the show. The song laments the sadness engulfing a relationship following a miscarriage.
MTV Unplugged follows the 30th anniversary 3xLP reissue this year of No Need to Argue. That expanded set included the first official release of the MTV set, but the performance is now available as a standalone LP for the benefit of longtime fans who still have their original copies of No Need to Argue to spin.
