Back in high school, Cactus was one of the Reverend’s favorite bands. With the Vanilla Fudge rhythm section – bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice – along with Mitch Ryder’s Detroit Wheels guitarist Jim McCarty and leather-lunged Ted Nugent band frontman Rusty Day, Cactus was a veritable rust belt supergroup. Dissed by critics, even today, the fact remains that a lot of Cactus fans still exist, and as new listeners tune into the band’s undeniably potent metallic booger-rock powderkeg, they’re finding something that appeals to them. Maybe it’s the OTT performances, the simplicity of the music, or the enthusiastic sincerity that Cactus brought to the stage, but over the course of four albums, the band never strayed far from its blues-based roots, and a new Cactus album always guaranteed a rocking good time.

McCarty, Bogert and Appice reunited in 2006 for a new Cactus album, with singer Jimmy Kunes replacing the bombastic Rusty Day, who sadly passed away in 1982. This new, “improved” Cactus performed for the first time in thirty years on the B.B. King Blues Club stage in Times Square in front of an enthusiastic NYC crowd, a performance captured by the upcoming Cactus DVD, Live. Scheduled for December 11 release by our friends at Music Video Distributors, the 95-minute disc includes performances of a dozen new and classic Cactus songs as well as backstage footage from the band rehearsals and a photo gallery. If you’re not familiar with this often-overlooked band, Live may be a good place to start.