Essential Live Albums

[liebzz]

Pearl Jam - Live at Easy Street

On Record Store Day 2005, Pearl Jam plays this set at Easy Street Records. I actually haven’t listened to this one in a while - it’s not the full show, and the covers of Bleed For Me and American in Me always sort of turned me off. They somehow sounded a bit better, though the killer Half Full and New World played with John Doe are the real highlights on this one, along with a good Porch.

The Essential Performance: New World w/John Doe

Up Next: The Sadies - In Concert Vol. One

[Jammer XCI]

Since you're at 2005 now, I'd like to challenge you to listen to the single worst live album I've ever heard, Scabdates by The Mars Volta. If you found them irritating on the record, you're really in for it now.

Also would like to nominate Over the Years and Through the Woods by Queens of the Stone Age, an actually good live album from 2005.

[Happy Trees]

it's fine that they released that show. it's ridiculous it was chosen as a vault release. i can't recall a worse played show from that time period, if not from any era.

Lots of ridiculousness with the vault releases. The Seattle 1993 show was also a bad choice, IMO. McCready's guitar rig is fucked up through the whole show and it's looser than normal. All the multi-tracks in the vault and they choose that one to mix and release? I know a friend of the band requested it, but give me a break.

And a badly remastered version of the same old mix of Atlanta 1994, with gratuitous occasional editing anyway - really?

And what happened to the treble and the encore with Chicago 1995?

Who's steering the ship here? How many assholes are on this ship?

[oasisfan35]

it's fine that they released that show. it's ridiculous it was chosen as a vault release. i can't recall a worse played show from that time period, if not from any era.

Lots of ridiculousness with the vault releases. The Seattle 1993 show was also a bad choice, IMO. McCready's guitar rig is fucked up through the whole show and it's looser than normal. All the multi-tracks in the vault and they choose that one to mix and release? I know a friend of the band requested it, but give me a break.

And a badly remastered version of the same old mix of Atlanta 1994, with gratuitous occasional editing anyway - really?

And what happened to the treble and the encore with Chicago 1995?

Who's steering the ship here? How many assholes are on this ship?

A fleet of assholes!

[liebzz]

[VinylGuy]

Pearl Jam - Live at Easy Street

On Record Store Day 2005, Pearl Jam plays this set at Easy Street Records. I actually haven’t listened to this one in a while - it’s not the full show, and the covers of Bleed For Me and American in Me always sort of turned me off. They somehow sounded a bit better, though the killer Half Full and New World played with John Doe are the real highlights on this one, along with a good Porch.

The Essential Performance: New World w/John Doe

Up Next: The Sadies - In Concert Vol. One

i really like this one but i wish we got the full show.

[liebzz]

The Sadies - In Concert: Volume One

I went into this one totally cold. In fact, until someone mentioned these folks on another thread maybe, I had never even heard of them, and had no idea what to expect. I almost think that’s the best way to do this. 41 songs in 1 hour and 51 minutes takes effort, but in 41 songs they really seem to mix it up a lot - I obviously hear the rockabilly, but add elements of punk, country, and little Neil Young reverb here and there, and it’s a pretty magical cocktail where you’re not exactly sure what comes next, but most of it is quite enjoyable. Tailspin, Lucifer Sam, and Memphis Egypt I think might be the ideal trio to hear a good chunk of that range.

The Essential Performances: Tailspin, Lucifer Sam, Memphis Egypt

Up Next: Queens of the Stone Age - Over the Years and Through the Woods

[Farmer John]

The Sadies - In Concert: Volume One

I went into this one totally cold. In fact, until someone mentioned these folks on another thread maybe, I had never even heard of them, and had no idea what to expect. I almost think that’s the best way to do this. 41 songs in 1 hour and 51 minutes takes effort, but in 41 songs they really seem to mix it up a lot - I obviously hear the rockabilly, but add elements of punk, country, and little Neil Young reverb here and there, and it’s a pretty magical cocktail where you’re not exactly sure what comes next, but most of it is quite enjoyable. Tailspin, Lucifer Sam, and Memphis Egypt I think might be the ideal trio to hear a good chunk of that range.

The Essential Performances: Tailspin, Lucifer Sam, Memphis Egypt

Up Next: Queens of the Stone Age - Over the Years and Through the Woods

I love the song they do with Neko Case

[tommy]

The Sadies are fantastic

[liebzz]

Queens of the Stone Age - Over the Years and Through the Trees

I have listened to most, if not all, of their studio albums at one point or another, as well as watched a festival set of theirs somewhere along the line, and yet, parts of this really surprised me. I expected a nuts and bolts, no wizardry, recreation of their songs without much in fuss but much in energy. And to some extent I got that in Go With the Flow and even to some extent I Wanna Make it Witchu. But then there’s You Can’t Quit Me Baby, No One Knows, and Song For the Dead, all with extended interludes, jams, and freak outs that make this thing worth its salt. This is quite a solid live album from them, meandering through all sorts of variations on their groove, though the stage banter annoyed me a bit. Outside of that, this seems pretty damn near ideal.

The Essential Performance: Song For the Dead

Up Next: The Rolling Stones - Live Licks

[liebzz]

The Rolling Stones - Live Licks

I meant to cover the Shine a Light soundtrack here, which is Martin Scorsese’s documentary about their performance at the Apollo Theater, but that seems to have vanished from Spotify, so I replaced it with this compilation from the Live Licks tour. The band sounds pretty good here, with the first half of this being a deluge of hits followed by a second half that gets into slightly deeper cuts (more like second tier hits for them at least) and a few other gems. I would have imagined that a full show would have worked better just because they are good at sequencing their shows in a manner that’s a bit more satisfying than this sequence, but their performances still speak for themselves here. I found myself most drawn into Happy, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Neighbours, Monkey Man, and Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, with an honorable mention to Mick’s vocal performance on That’s How Strong My Love Is.

The Essential Performance: Can’t You Hear Me Knocking

Up Next: The Rolling Stones - Licked Live in NYC (not the same album)

[liebzz]

The Rolling Stones - Licked Live in NYC

This is the show from MSG on the Live Licks tour, and it shares the version of Honky Tonk Women with the prior live album. I like this one much better than the compilation, partly due to the more natural progression, it also because there are some seriously banging performances here, from that Honky Tonk Women to an epic Satisfaction, a great Jumping Jack Flash, Brown Sugar…I mean there’s a lot of Stones classics given some great treatment here. Best of their post 70s live albums for me thus far.

The Essential Performance: Satisfaction

Up Next: My Morning Jacket - Okonokos

[Jammer XCI]

Scabdates by The Mars Volta when?

[liebzz]

It’s not on Spotify. I figured it wasn’t worth hunting for?

[liebzz]

My Morning Jacket - Okonokos

My big bold hot take here is that this is one of the more important live albums of this century thus far. I know for me, and at least a few others over the years, this ended up a sort of entry point for this band. I mean, people talked a lot back then about It Still Moves and Z, but this seemed to have a hype all its own. Turned me from a more casual fan to much more hardcore, and was often the standard document I relied on when I wanted to listen to them for a while. This is still what I hear in my head when I think of One Big Holiday, Mahgeetah, or Run Thru. The versions of Wordless Chorus, Gideon, and Lay Low stuck close to the album versions but are no less fantastic. Steam Engine and I Think I’m Going to Hell can bring you into a stoned malaise without any drugs involved, and Dancefloors and Anytime are pure rock stompers. Love this live album.

The Essential Performance: One Big Holiday

Up Next: Phish - Live in Brooklyn

[liebzz]

Phish - Live in Brooklyn

It’s been a minute since we’ve thrown Phish in, and this show is quite good. Played in the final tour before the second hiatus, the band is pretty loose yet really playing well off each other here. A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing is a great opener, The Curtain With is killer and the best of the first set, Mona Dance, the long intro into Free, Maze and Frankenstein are all big highlights for set one. The second set is nearly spotless, with a set defining 46 Days > Possum, Axilla, Birds of a Feather, Mike’s Song, Weekapaig Groove all slay, with a beautiful finish with the Divided Sky encore. This is a real good one.

The Essential Performance: 46 Days > Possum

Up Next: Dave Matthews Band - Weekend on the Rocks

[AndySlash]

My Morning Jacket - Okonokos

My big bold hot take here is that this is one of the more important live albums of this century thus far. I know for me, and at least a few others over the years, this ended up a sort of entry point for this band. I mean, people talked a lot back then about It Still Moves and Z, but this seemed to have a hype all its own. Turned me from a more casual fan to much more hardcore, and was often the standard document I relied on when I wanted to listen to them for a while. This is still what I hear in my head when I think of One Big Holiday, Mahgeetah, or Run Thru. The versions of Wordless Chorus, Gideon, and Lay Low stuck close to the album versions but are no less fantastic. Steam Engine and I Think I’m Going to Hell can bring you into a stoned malaise without any drugs involved, and Dancefloors and Anytime are pure rock stompers. Love this live album.

The Essential Performance: One Big Holiday

Up Next: Phish - Live in Brooklyn

all this and not even a mention of a classic dondante, that's how good this album is, and a sign of things to come.

[liebzz]

Dave Matthews Band - Weekend on the Rocks

I’m gonna make a duo - two DMB live albums that are compilations of concerts in beautiful places. The first is Red Rocks. This one’s chosen highlights run just over 2 hours, so close to what an actual show would include. There’s some unexpected gems, like Say Goodbye, a song I usually don’t really pay attention to but Dave and Co. really push it here. Hunger for the Great Light also sounds really good here, as does a really fantastic Smooth Rider. The jam on the end of Louisiana Bayou steals the show here, and Halloween is short but really intense. Solid release.

The Essential Performance: Louisiana Bayou

Up Next: Dave Matthews Band - The Gorge

[liebzz]

Dave Matthews Band - The Gorge

This is a nice compilation from their weekend stay at The Gorge in 2004, a now standard practice for them over Labor Day Weekend. Somehow I still associate many of the songs here as new songs, as if time stood still or the band’s life force is divided between the songs up through Before These Crowded Streets and everything after. This probably is because I associate it with my own experience with them, consistently following them through that era but mostly at a distance after the Central Park show in 2003. They do sound pretty good here, especially knocking through some of the older songs like Warehouse, Rapunzel, Drive In Drive Out, and set winner Lie in Our Graves which is phenomenal. I have always enjoyed Gravedigger (sorry folks always have), Kit Kat Jam is another highlight. Good stuff all around

The Essential Performance: Lie in Our Graves

Up Next: Foo Fighters - Skin and Bones

[liebzz]

Foo Fighters - Skin and Bones

This is another band I sort of just lost track of in the aughts. Spurred by not really caring about their albums after There Is Nothing Left to Lose, I was only vaguely aware they were doing a half acoustic half electric thing for a while. Skin and Bones features live recordings of the more stripped down material from that time - some of it very engaging. Razor is a nice opener here. Marigold, Next Year, and Skin and Bones are the other highlights, with the acoustic Everlong being better than expected as well. Solid release that surprised me.

The Essential performance: Razor

Up Next: Bruce Springsteen - Live in Dublin