Lets Actually Listen to the Album: Riot Act

[dad]

the sound on those Japan shows - because the crowd was so quiet - is probably the best of the tour.

[liebzz]

If I recall, State College has my favorite Betterman outside of Atlanta 94, mostly on the strength of an incredible tag

I would kindly argue that the definitive Betterman (live) is from PJ20, but that’s mostly because I was at that show and it was an actually incredible moment.

[stip]

Riot Act’s turn!

Riot Act: Can’t Keep, Save You, Love Boat Captain, Cropduster, Ghost, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, You Are, Get Right, Green Disease, HelpHelp, Bu$hleaguer, 1/2 Full, Arc, All or None

B-sides: I Believe in Miracles, Don’t Believe in Christmas, Someday at Christmas, Gimme Some Truth, Thumbing My Way (Chop Suey), Crown of Thorns, Down, Undone, Other Side, Man of the Hour

Live: State College, PA 5/3/03 - Release, Save You, Animal, Corduroy, Cropduster, Small Town, Even Flow, Grievance, I Am Mine, I Wanna Go, Rearviewmirror, Nothingman, Daughter, Lukin, Whipping, MFC, Jeremy, Improv 16, Blood, Encore Break, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Gimme Some Truth, Breath, Do the Evolution, Black, Alive, Encore Break 2, Last Exit, Mankind, Down, Better Man, Satan’s Bed, Leaving Here, Encore Break 3, Crazy Mary, Porch, Fortunate Son, Rockin in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter

Does this mean that State College is your definitive live set from this era? Speaking of State College, that version of Satan's Bed--if it can even rise to the level of a "version"--is hilariously botched. Like the version of Singles from the MTV thing being the birth of "no", I like to think the State College Satan's Bed was the birth of "rehearsal".

It’s hard to say what the definitive live set would be, but there are contenders:

State College 5/3/03 - (yes that Satan’s Bed alone caused me to unnecessarily hate on this show even though the rest is spectacular) definitely a big night for the band as it concluded the first leg. Band played its head off, and it got released as a commercial entity in stores.

New York 7/8/03: Live at the Garden. The first set is fine but not mind blowing (I was there), but one of the top encores you’ll see anywhere in the tour.

Mansfield 7/11/03: the longest show of the tour. The acoustic-ish set opening for themselves, and Sleater-Kinney. A show full of bust outs and rarities, and the band clearly having a blast. Would be undeniably the definitive show, but its story is really tied up in the two Mansfield shows the week before - more a culmination of the experiment than fully the tour itself.

Uniondale, NY 4/30/03: one of the more famous of their shows since they got booed for playing Bu$hleaguer whilst impaling a Bush mask on the mic stand. Great show up to and through that moment, but those pesky conservative fans threw this one into odd territory.

Tokyo, Japan 3/3/03: the band is on fire on this show. Crowd was polite but the band was killing it from the get go.

re: uniondale, people also forget the ferocity of know your rights and ritfw - favorite perfprmamce of each

[stip]

If I recall, State College has my favorite Betterman outside of Atlanta 94, mostly on the strength of an incredible tag

I would kindly argue that the definitive Betterman (live) is from PJ20, but that’s mostly because I was at that show and it was an actually incredible moment.

the definitive betterman (live) is whatever version is on the spotify backspacer playlist. which i may not have ever heard but still…

[liebzz]

When I got this one way back when it was released, songs like Save You, I Am Mine, and Green Disease had immediate strong impact. Some of those I came to love more while others kind of lingered on this record, mostly because the true gems on this are the slightly off tracks that maybe I didn’t catch of it at first but new things occur even now. Cropduster had been at the bottom for me for years, crept up near the top now. 1/2 Full I have always liked but now has a different and stronger resonance. Help Help is a great tune that is definitely an acquired taste. Even Bushleaguer is one I will happily go back to these days.

Granted, there are also gems that stuck out as winners from day one: You Are, Can’t Keep, and All or None…this listen I floated back into Save You, hearing those Cameron drums slay. I also love Ghost and Get Right on this thing. Thumbing My Way has so many killer lines in it - this time I was caught by “I’m just walking the miles, every one in a while get a ride” - a rare song that I carefully think about the lyrics.

I think my disorganized ramble is kind of appropriate for this album because more so it’s a grab bag of highlights everywhere, and it has a relatively consistent mood but jumps around without a sense of having a larger story to tell, mostly because it is unpacking Roskilde, and attempting to throw down on politics without being impossibly overt (the next album will do that).

The b-sides here are solid. I can see the bright Down and Undone not fitting the murkier waters of this album but Other Side would have been perfect on this.

[liebzz]

On the live stuff, and I’m still working my way through this long show, the Riot Act tour seems like maybe the first tour of which there became more of a focus on fan service, extending shows out for the hell of it, an almost controlled ramshackle approach that maybe lead to them finishing the decade live extremely ramshackle in their approach and becoming more and more a die hard fan’s randomized playlist. Here though, they’re in a bit of a sweet spot, as save for a few blunders like Satan’s Bed in this show, they still were self-aware enough to practice these songs in sound checks before the bust outs. That aside, these were the first shows (maybe that Seattle show we talked about in the Binaural thread notwithstanding) where Eddie is crafting set lists more on what could get a rise out of fans than a more structured set list. This through ‘06 is the decade’s moment, like in a good drama series, where the cliffhangers work every week without forcing the issue and jumping the shark just yet.