There is no way Peter Frampton could have realized when he set out to record a live album back in 1976 that it was destined to become the defining moment of his career—both apex and albatross. A double LP featuring the young Brit blazing through the very best of his then-four-album solo songbook, Frampton Comes Alive! took over the charts for 18 weeks and became, in an era when the form was ascendant, the best-selling live album of all time.

Frampton has spent the rest of his career trying, in one fashion or another, to come to grips with that moment.

Like many before and since, sudden success prefaced a hard fall. In the immediate aftermath of FCA!, Frampton made a series of missteps; a rushed follow-up album, a leading role in the fiasco that was the film version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a near-fatal car accident in the Bahamas, and a thankfully brief slide into addiction. In time he recovered both his equilibrium and his muse, but by then the industry had moved on. As the years passed, the one-time wonder boy re-emerged as a mid-list catalog artist, slugging it out on the road in theaters and clubs once again, with studio albums an increasing rarity.

FCA!35: An Evening With Peter Frampton finds the 62-year-old former young prince embracing his past fully and without compromise. On the first disc of this double-DVD set, he and his four-piece band—which includes the only other living player from the original FCA, bassist Stanley Sheldon—play the entire Frampton Comes Alive! double LP in its entirety for an enthusiastic full house at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater. More importantly, though, they play it with genuine passion.

The powerhouse opening sequence of “Something’s Happening” into “Doobie Wah” into “Show Me The Way” into “It’s A Plain Shame” is intact and powerful as ever, four upbeat tunes brimming with the pure joy of playing rock and roll in front of a live crowd. The first real sign that 35 years has passed comes with “All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side),” where Frampton doesn’t even try to hit the high notes, his falsetto having apparently deserted him along with his hair (the latter development becoming the subject of a joke in the updated version of the lyric), but he plays the song beautifully and generates an enthusiastic singalong. “All I Want To Be” earns a well-deserved standing ovation, as does “Baby, I Love Your Way.”

If there was any doubt left, the one-two punch of “I Wanna Go To The Sun” and “I’ll Give You Money” confirms Frampton’s place among the elite guitarists of his generation, a pair of emphatic, fiery performances. The closing trio of “Shine On,” “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Do You Feel Like We Do” are similarly impressive, even if the latter runs a bit long; this may be the best backing band Frampton has toured with since the original FCA quartet, and the man himself plays with tremendous heat and conviction.

The second disc features the same group on the same tour running through a mix of later Frampton tunes and covers at the Beacon Theater in New York City. Highlights of the second set include several engaging instrumentals from Frampton’s wordless 2006 album Fingerprints, especially the fun, fluid “Float” and the driving, explosive “Boot It Up.” The biggest smile on Frampton’s face of the entire evening, though, is reserved for the two songs he plays with son Julian Frampton on lead vocals, their hard-rocking co-composition “Road To The Sun” and a cover of a cover by Dad’s old band Humble Pie, the Ashford-Simpson classic “I Don’t Need No Doctor.” Closing out the proceedings, a hard and heavy update of Humble Pie’s “Four Day Creep” flows into the jamming “Off The Hook” from 1994’s self-titled album, before Frampton ends the evening with an extended, lyrical run at George Harrison’s immortal “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” It’s a fittingly gutsy and heartfelt cover by an exceptionally talented player.

FCA!35 is an entertaining document of an artist embracing the full breadth of his career, playing both the songs that made him and the songs he’s made since. Peter Frampton may have lost his hair, but he hasn’t lost a step, nor an ounce of his infectious enthusiasm for his craft.

Rating: A-

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