Essential Live Albums

[liebzz]

Damn, you really thought you were cooking there. Yikes.

In the immortal words of random sister #4 at the start of Caddyshack: “you think you’re cool, Danny!”

[liebzz]

I hope all of you can sense the intentional buffoonery. I am not trying to offend anyone. Sadly, we won’t always all agree on our impressions on music. But it’s always all worth a try.

[Matters]

Don’t worry about it. Popeye’s been having a hard time lately.

[Higgs]

Damn, you really thought you were cooking there. Yikes.

In the immortal words of random sister #4 at the start of Caddyshack: “you think you’re cool, Danny!”

Was it random sister #3 who had just said "MOM!!! Danny saw me naked!"

I love that movie.

[liebzz]

Damn, you really thought you were cooking there. Yikes.

In the immortal words of random sister #4 at the start of Caddyshack: “you think you’re cool, Danny!”

Was it random sister #3 who had just said "MOM!!! Danny saw me naked!"

I love that movie.

Perhaps the most quotable movie of all time!!

[liebzz]

Phish - LivePhish 4/3/98

Show number 2 in a 4 show run. This one has some huge high marks in it. The first set has maybe a little too much mellowness for my taste, but Mike’s Song and an amazing Weekapaug Groove highlight, and they finally let loose in the last song of the first set in My Soul. In the second set, Roses are Free sounds great, and their cover of Loving Cup might be preferred to the original, as heresy as that may sound from a Stones fan. The second set ends in epic fashion as the first did, but with Run Like an Antelope. The encore of Carini, Halley’s Comet, and Tweezer Reprise is fabulous and focused. This is yet another phenomenal show.

The Essential Performance(s): My Soul, Run Like An Antelope

Up Next: Phish - LivePhish 04/04/98

[McParadigm]

Few people realize that 90% of all the live albums ever released are by Phish

[liebzz]

In Phish’s defense…Pearl Jam:

Live On Two Legs
Live On Ten Legs
Live at the Gorge 05/06
The Spectrum Boxed Set
Live at Benaroya Hall
72 live albums from the 2000 tour
Perth 2/23/03
Tokyo 3/3/03
State College 5/3/03
MSG 7/8/03
MSG 7/9/03
Mansifield 7/11/03
MTV Unplugged
11 Vault releases
Give Way

That’s 96 live albums and I am sure I am missing some of this is straight off memory.

[i got bugs]

Did anyone figure out why Benaroya isn't on spotify?

[McParadigm]

I wasn’t making a joke about phish. I was making a joke about this thread.

[liebzz]

Oh!

Pearl Jam to Phish (in this thread in a couple weeks): hold my beer.

[Ello Sailor]

I wasn’t making a joke about phish. I was making a joke about this thread.

[liebzz]

Phish - LivePhish 04/04/98

Show 3 of 4 on the Islands Tour (Long Island and Rhode Island), and this one finds the band really cooking all show. They come out blazing with Tweezer > Taste, then a quick Bouncing Around the Room and Funky Bitch makes for the best start of any of the Phish shows I covered here. And a bit chill jazzy tunes, the band close the first set with another rockin’ Character Zero.

Set 2 settles in with some long but captivating jam sessions in Birds of a Feather and 2001. Ghost > The Lizards is long but well worth it. David Bowie here is epic, especially as it draws to a close. Great show.

The Essential Performance: David Bowie

Up Next: Phish - LivePhish 04/05/98

[liebzz]

Phish - LivePhish 04/05/98

The fourth and final show of The Islands Tour is another excellent show from Phish. While this doesn’t quite match the energy of the middle two nights, this show certainly holds its own and has plenty of highlights in what is about as accessible of Phish content as it gets. The long opening of Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > You Enjoy Myself > Theme From the Bottom is epic and the highlight of the show. Cities and Split Open and Melt are 2 other good highlights from the first set. Set two opens with a fast and rocking Down With Disease then segues into a funky Ya Mar, a really nice Prince Caspian and a fantastic Maze. Encore cover of Bold As Love is a nice way to end this quick run. We have one more Phish run to go, but for now another break.

The Essential Performance: Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > You Enjoy Myself > Theme From the Bottom

Up Next: Pearl Jam - Give Way (short Pearl Jam ‘98 run coming)

[liebzz]

Pearl Jam - Give Way

This compilation from one last show in the Jack Irons era, one previously highly bootlegged since there was a radio broadcast of the whole show in circulation for 25 years, finally sees the official light of day. Admittedly, it’s nice and refreshing to hear a band just tear into their songs, like Brain of J, after quite a bit of jam band fun the last few weeks. The band, but particularly Jack Irons, sounds great here. I mean, I haven’t heard every show in the least, but I’d be hard pressed to find another Pearl Jam drummer that had done what Jack did here on In My Tree and Immortality. Further buttressing the massive impact Jack had on this band is hearing him play Black here as compared to the other drummers - touch that not just perfectly fits the song and feels like an Irons signature despite the song predating his contributions to the band, but adds a soulfulness to the song where playing it straight or with a cacophony of cymbals just doesn’t do. For me, this is Jack Irons live album statement, even if a casual fan may not immediately pick up on it. The last 2 mins of Immortality are worth the price of admission alone.

The Essential Performance: Immortality

Up Next: Pearl Jam - Live On Two Legs

[liebzz]

Pearl Jam - Live On Two Legs

It’s an interesting dynamic listening to Give Way and L2L on the same day. Matt Cameron is a great drummer, and brings a different sort of bounce to their sound. I won’t say it’s better or worse, but certainly different.

This one is a compilation across the US tour in 1998. My experience with this tour is among my favorite sets of moments as a fan and my first run of multiple shows on a tour (NYC 9/10, 9/11 and Hartford on 9/13). Everything about this tour seemed sort of magical even though they utilized a new drummer on the fly and gave way to Ticketmaster after years of fighting.

This comp is a solid release - certainly not be war highlights of the tour yet fully representative of say the mean. The Rockin in the Free World tag on Daughter is pretty cool, and Go and Do the Evolution definitely rip here. Red Mosquito is also pretty great here, with Mike dutifully nailing the solos that meld into the song some. The winners on this listen fell between an Eddie tears his throat out Evolution, a stunning Black with Mike taking over, and what feels like an anything can happen next cover of Neil Young’s Fuckin’ Up.

The Essential Performance: Black

Up Next: Pearl Jam - Vault 6: Inglewood, CA 7/13/98

[Strat]

Lo2L is essential PJ for me. That album changed/saved my life over and over and over again.

[dad]

still one the best live things they put out.

now if only they'd release more shows from that tour...

[liebzz]

What’s fascinating to me is that it really is neck and neck with Give Way. Different drummers bring different things out but the quality is still great. ‘98 tour Pearl Jam is as close to my favorite era as it gets. Maybe ‘03 or ‘06 is with it. But ‘98 is magic - youthful enough to give songs a good rip, but tempered by just enough so that the performances are near perfection.

[VinylGuy]

im not a fan of Give Way, i mean i love it as a photo of its era, and because it has Jack on it and i love him and his time with the band. But i prefer Lo2l, which is a very good live comp from that year and Matt absolutely slays there.