Essential Live Albums

[liebzz]

I don't think it was a bad thing that needs a defense. It's just weird. Was it some loophole to release a live album without officially doing so? If it was a workaround, what were they working around?

I remember reading somewhere in the universe that it was an effort to fulfill a contractual obligation with Sony, but I guess that didn’t count since we got LO2L.

[liebzz]

Primus - Woodstock ‘94

This will be the only set covered here, it I distinctly remember 4 of the sets from that weekend - from watching on Pay-Per-View - that were impactful for me: Metallica, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers (dressed as light bulbs), and this one from Primus that single-handedly made me a fan of this band. Quirky and led by the bass, I can’t remember ever seeing anything like it, and the songs just ridiculous and fun. To Defy the Laws of Tradition, the set defining My Name Is Mud (complete with audience throwing an insane amount of mud on stage - repeated the next day during Green Day’s set), Jerry Was a Race Car Driver, and Harold of the Rocks with Jerry Cantrell were all killer, but none so much as Those Damned Blue Collared Tweekers, featuring a massive jam wherein the Star Spangled Banner makes its appearance on bass. Such a sun set.

The Essential Performance: Those Damned Blue Collared Tweekers

Up Next: Phish - A Live One

[oasisfan35]

Primus - Woodstock ‘94

This will be the only set covered here, it I distinctly remember 4 of the sets from that weekend - from watching on Pay-Per-View - that were impactful for me: Metallica, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers (dressed as light bulbs), and this one from Primus that single-handedly made me a fan of this band. Quirky and led by the bass, I can’t remember ever seeing anything like it, and the songs just ridiculous and fun. To Defy the Laws of Tradition, the set defining My Name Is Mud (complete with audience throwing an insane amount of mud on stage - repeated the next day during Green Day’s set), Jerry Was a Race Car Driver, and Harold of the Rocks with Jerry Cantrell were all killer, but none so much as Those Damned Blue Collared Tweekers, featuring a massive jam wherein the Star Spangled Banner makes its appearance on bass. Such a sun set.

The Essential Performance: Those Damned Blue Collared Tweekers

Up Next: Phish - A Live One

I'd personally include the NIN set from '94 but it was never officially released. Green Day's set will be on the 30th Dookie release coming up.

Looking forward to the Phish recap.

[Happy Trees]

Pearl Jam - Live at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA 4/12/94

Perhaps in order to fit this on a single disc as part of the Vs./Vitalogy deluxe edition, the band chose to release only part of this show, another of the well regarded treasures among fans. As a result, this one is sort of disjointed feeling, even if it may have been the case with the crew creating the set list. That decision though brings us (on the official release) with live versions of Dirty Frank, early Tremor Christ, Not For You, Immortality, and a cover of Neil Young’s F@ckin Up. This version of Sonic Reducer, with Mark Arm, is pretty definitive. It’s too bad we didn’t get the rest of the show, but what we do get is damn good.

I thought we did get the rest of the show as downloadable tracks.

No. Only some of the missing tracks. And some only as MP3.

Oceans
Even Flow
Sonic Reducer
State Of Love And Trust - MP3 Download
Hard To Imagine - MP3 Download
Immortality
Go - Missing
Animal - Missing
Glorified G
Daughter
Alone - CD Promo
Not For You
Betterman - MP3 Download
Rats
Blood
Release
Tremor Christ
Once
Fuckin' Up
Dirty Frank
Yellow Ledbetter - CD Promo
Improv - MP3 Download
Rearviewmirror
Small Town
I've Got A Feeling - Missing

[liebzz]

What a mess.

[liebzz]

Phish - A Live One

There are really a few reasons to me why Phish is such an acquired taste. The first is that their improvisational style is actually different from most other jam bands in that they fall into the fog of a jam, and there’s less of a sense with them that it’s connected to the song itself - they are just sort of playing, and the genius then comes in the moments when they bust out of that fog into some torrential downfall of notes and signature grooves. It always seems to materialize out of thin air. The 15 minute version of Harry Hood is the shorter form exercise of this here.

The second reason they are difficult to immediately access is that their songs all seem like inside jokes to the band, and subsequently to the hardcore fan base. Everything’s a sort of wink and a smile, and here you can see it in the random explosions of crowd noise, and in songs like Wilson, where everyone’s in on the game of a loosely told story of Gamehendge.

And yet, despite all that, taking the time to lose yourself in their live music is a fantastically fruitful exercise. In some ways, they were the natural successors in the jam scene upon the loss of Jerry Garcia, evinced here in many spots, but they are their own behemoth and very much different from the Grateful Dead. Trey’s guitar signatures, when he whips them out of the abyss, are some of the most intense and grabbing displays of spastic energy you’ll hear, even though they’ve been emulated a thousand times over by every jam band seemingly to come after.

And then there are songs. And some real good ones here in Bouncing Around the Room, Gumbo, Chalkdust Torture, and The Squirming Coil. Some epic jams in You Enjoy Myself and Tweezer, which the whole set feels built around. Stash and Slave to the Traffic Light play right along here as well. As for my favorite, I love a good guitar freakout, so I’m going with Chalkdust Torture, but you can’t go wrong anywhere in here, so long as you exercise a bit of patience and allow yourself to get lost in the lulls to give those intense moments that much more gravity.

The Essential Performance: Chalkdust Torture

Up Next: Pink Floyd - Pulse

[liebzz]

Pink Floyd - Pulse

This second Waters-less live album was taken during the Division Bell tour, and the first half of this one is focused on weaving those songs with A Momentary Lapse of Reason and some older songs. This first half is decidedly pure fire. Rather than some sort of obligatory tip of the cap before diving into what the fans really want, they lean right into these with several of the biggest highlights hanging out here: What Do You Want From Me, Keep Talking, Sorrow and High Hopes are all killer, mixed in with Astronomy Domine, Hey You, and Another Brick in the Wall. The second half has a full rendition of Dark Side of the Moon, but of course any deviation from the detail that went into that one is readily apparent - this is simply a document that stands as is. Afterwards, the sort of encore of a stunning Wish You Were Here, a massive solo at the end of Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell bring this live album home. This is much better than I expected, simply because I didn’t think it could catch the re-jiggered Delicate Sound of Thunder, but even surpasses it.

The Essential Performance: Wish You Were Here

Up Next: The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over

[warehouse]

you should just skip the next one

[VinylGuy]

Pink Floyd - Pulse

This second Waters-less live album was taken during the Division Bell tour, and the first half of this one is focused on weaving those songs with A Momentary Lapse of Reason and some older songs. This first half is decidedly pure fire. Rather than some sort of obligatory tip of the cap before diving into what the fans really want, they lean right into these with several of the biggest highlights hanging out here: What Do You Want From Me, Keep Talking, Sorrow and High Hopes are all killer, mixed in with Astronomy Domine, Hey You, and Another Brick in the Wall. The second half has a full rendition of Dark Side of the Moon, but of course any deviation from the detail that went into that one is readily apparent - this is simply a document that stands as is. Afterwards, the sort of encore of a stunning Wish You Were Here, a massive solo at the end of Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell bring this live album home. This is much better than I expected, simply because I didn’t think it could catch the re-jiggered Delicate Sound of Thunder, but even surpasses it.

The Essential Performance: Wish You Were Here

Up Next: The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over

This one was huge when it came out. What a rare moment for Floyd. I remember really trying with Divison Bell, but i think with time you can feel how bland it was.

Though What Do You Want From Me is a great song.

[liebzz]

you should just skip the next one

I imagine if I made it through Springsteen’s Plugged I can make it through this.

[McParadigm]

Pink Floyd - Pulse

This second Waters-less live album was taken during the Division Bell tour, and the first half of this one is focused on weaving those songs with A Momentary Lapse of Reason and some older songs. This first half is decidedly pure fire. Rather than some sort of obligatory tip of the cap before diving into what the fans really want, they lean right into these with several of the biggest highlights hanging out here: What Do You Want From Me, Keep Talking, Sorrow and High Hopes are all killer, mixed in with Astronomy Domine, Hey You, and Another Brick in the Wall. The second half has a full rendition of Dark Side of the Moon, but of course any deviation from the detail that went into that one is readily apparent - this is simply a document that stands as is. Afterwards, the sort of encore of a stunning Wish You Were Here, a massive solo at the end of Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell bring this live album home. This is much better than I expected, simply because I didn’t think it could catch the re-jiggered Delicate Sound of Thunder, but even surpasses it.

The Essential Performance: Wish You Were Here

Up Next: The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over

This one was huge when it came out. What a rare moment for Floyd. I remember really trying with Divison Bell, but i think with time you can feel how bland it was.

Though What Do You Want From Me is a great song.

I was a big apologist for the band’s post-Waters work for a long while, but goddamn the Division Bell and Pulse sure are Floyd as sleepy adult comfort food.

The musicianship is good, and the sound engineering is the literal star of the show. But the songs are just brutally toothless and dull. What Do You Want From Me sounds like what it is: a placid mind trying to recreate Roger’s open, conflicted, and obsessive psychoanalysis of his own need for acceptance. Lovely sound, great playing, lifeless songwriting. Beautiful and pathetic.

[liebzz]

Welp…it sounds great live.

I actually whines about those studio albums in the Pink Floyd thread when I did that journey. They take on a whole different life on Pulse.

[Happy Trees]

This one was huge when it came out. What a rare moment for Floyd. I remember really trying with Divison Bell, but i think with time you can feel how bland it was.

Though What Do You Want From Me is a great song.

I was a big apologist for the band’s post-Waters work for a long while, but goddamn the Division Bell and Pulse sure are Floyd as sleepy adult comfort food.

The musicianship is good, and the sound engineering is the literal star of the show. But the songs are just brutally toothless and dull. What Do You Want From Me sounds like what it is: a placid mind trying to recreate Roger’s open, conflicted, and obsessive psychoanalysis of his own need for acceptance. Lovely sound, great playing, lifeless songwriting. Beautiful and pathetic.

Let me jump in here and say that I totally agree. At the time, it was very exciting to be old enough to see Pink Floyd live and to witness it in the flesh, which I did in Philadelphia (they didn't play DSOTM though) - and the tour and album were a huge success because the timing was perfect.

But I listened to both albums for the first time in 20 years the other day and my god, what a total bore. Hindsight can be a funny thing.

Maybe that's why I was blown off the face of the earth the first time I saw Radiohead (8/8/01 - see "Like Spinning Plates" on the live EP). It was transformative and needed to happen. Pink Floyd in vibe but also everything Pink Floyd is not and in some ways never has been.

[liebzz]

Save your vitriol for The Eagles folks. It’s coming.

[liebzz]

The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over

Imagine a food or ingredient you just can’t enjoy no matter how many times you try. Everyone else seems to like it so you keep thinking you must be wrong and you try it again - same result. This is my experience with The Eagles. They bore the hell out of me. Occasionally I can get behind a mega hit in that moment, but it’s mostly choosing vanilla in a bevy of available flavors. In the time I started Wasted Time until the close of The Last Resort, I kept wondering why I am even listening to this, but I trucked on. Take It Easy was perhaps a bit pleasant, Life in the Fast Lane reminiscent of sitting in the back seat of my mother’s car in the blast of Lite FM. That’s it folks. This sucks.

The Essential Performance: Take It Easy

Up Next: Mad Season - Live at the Moore (I need some cleansing)

[tommy]

, but it’s mostly choosing vanilla in a bevy of available flavors.

Vanilla is a flavor. It's not plain.

[warehouse]

The Eagles seem like a band I would like if you look at the bands that I like, but for some reason I find them unlistenable. Hotel California is fine, but that's mostly b/c of the solo. Even Joe Walsh's other licks are ruined by henley and frey. I like Walsh's solo stuff more than I like anything released by anyone in the band. it's just so fuckin stale and boring.

[wease]

The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over

Imagine a food or ingredient you just can’t enjoy no matter how many times you try. Everyone else seems to like it so you keep thinking you must be wrong and you try it again - same result. This is my experience with The Eagles. They bore the hell out of me. Occasionally I can get behind a mega hit in that moment, but it’s mostly choosing vanilla in a bevy of available flavors. In the time I started Wasted Time until the close of The Last Resort, I kept wondering why I am even listening to this, but I trucked on. Take It Easy was perhaps a bit pleasant, Life in the Fast Lane reminiscent of sitting in the back seat of my mother’s car in the blast of Lite FM. That’s it folks. This sucks.

The Essential Performance: Take It Easy

Up Next: Mad Season - Live at the Moore (I need some cleansing)

I dont think I even made it to this one during my Eagles journey earlier this year.

[Kevin Davis]

I remember "Get Over It" getting significant airplay here in Central IL circa 1995 or so. I feel like this song is just waiting in the wings to become a MAGA anthem.

[wease]

I remember "Get Over It" getting significant airplay here in Central IL circa 1995 or so. I feel like this song is just waiting in the wings to become a MAGA anthem.

That would sure burn Henley’s ass wouldn’t it?