cutuphalfdead wrote:That April-May stretch is fantastic.
It really is! A rarely mentioned gem from that leg is Cleveland! Performance-wise this is one of the best (only Sonic Reducer is a rough version, the rest topnotch) and they really had fun that night. It may have helped that this was one of the larger crowds on the first leg.
I only have Raleigh, NC, and St. Louis, MO from that stretch. In addition to Cleveland, what are some other's you'd recommend? Of the two I have, I like St. Louis better than Raleigh. The St. Louis '03 show is one of my favorite bootlegs.
You're right, St. Louis is one of the best shows from that leg. I just finished listening to this leg in chronological order and I rated every song. This is the list of top shows I came up with (and mind you: my rating is strictly performancewise, I didn't rate the setlist or how loud the crowd was): Uniondale
Cleveland
St. Louis
Albany
Buffalo
West Palm Beach
Champaign
State College
Lexington
Philadelphia
Nashville
Charlotte
The rest was very similar, some of them decent (Oklahoma, Woodlands, Pittsburgh), others...well, nothing to write home about.
To clarify one more time: I only rated the quality of performance. Which is why State College is not on top, although I do think that it is one of the best shows they ever did. But ist had Mankind and Satan's Bed and those versions definitely lowered the rating...
I already started the second leg, Missoula was an excellent show, Vancouver very good. Looking forward to those next shows, especially since I've never heard them before.
That Uniondale show is still the best of the 15 shows I've seen.
That Nashville show has a bunch of Binaural, including a nice Parting Ways.
Just finished Las Vegas 2003. Highlights: Save you-STBC-Last Exit, Know your rights, RITFW with Ann and Nancy Wilson. Also includes a terribly botched version of Last Kiss and the first time ever performance of I believe in miracles.
They need to put the 2003 boots up on pj.com. They have all the 2000 shows, I wonder why they don't have the 2003 ones. I'd like to get some of the above mentioned shows + one or two from the Japan leg.
Phoenix 2003: sloppy mainset (it must have been really hot that day, you can clearly hear Ed struggling throughout the first part of the show). The encore is pretty good. Not as good as the 2000 show in the same place.
Mansfield 3 ‘03: I am listening to the main set, which often I think is overlooked due to the preset. There are a lot of songs they just don’t normally play and most are played pretty well.
raven2001 wrote:Phoenix 2003: sloppy mainset (it must have been really hot that day, you can clearly hear Ed struggling throughout the first part of the show). The encore is pretty good. Not as good as the 2000 show in the same place.
Interesting how you find the main set sloppy. I think this is one of the top 3 shows of the '03 tour. Consistently good all the way through with stellar versions of Breakerfall, Cropduster and Even Flow. Ed does totally flub the lyrics in Given to Fly, though.
The version of Rearviewmirror is an absolute all-time shithammer.
raven2001 wrote:Phoenix 2003: sloppy mainset (it must have been really hot that day, you can clearly hear Ed struggling throughout the first part of the show). The encore is pretty good. Not as good as the 2000 show in the same place.
Interesting how you find the main set sloppy. I think this is one of the top 3 shows of the '03 tour. Consistently good all the way through with stellar versions of Breakerfall, Cropduster and Even Flow. Ed does totally flub the lyrics in Given to Fly, though.
The version of Rearviewmirror is an absolute all-time shithammer.
The sloppy moments are during the main set: GTF, Save you (mistake by Mike during the intro), Insignificance. Gimme some truth, Corduroy, STBC are not bad but far from great. It has great moments as well, just like you said.
That being said, I still think it's a good show. They were playing at a pretty good level at this point. One of the top shows of the tour? Not really...at least in MY opinion (that's always important to add:))
