Essential Live Albums

[VinylGuy]

i dont think i really like the stones live in the 80s...not sure why, but i think they really learnt how to play it big in the 90s. It could be also that the band had a very strong inner turmoil around that time maybe

dont know

[liebzz]

Yeah, I mean they weren’t terrible, but the translation from the theater and arena shows of the 70s into the stadiums of the 80s took some adjustment perhaps. Perhaps also there was the friction but in the 70s that friction is what drove their creativity. It’s probably some level of both learning how to create a production on the larger scale and the fact that they couldn’t agree on a creative direction. The shows don’t suck, but they live in a universe where they aren’t on the knife’s edge of the 70s and not the grand spectacle of the corporate sponsored blowups of Steel Wheels and onward. And Keith really botched Little T&A in that Wembley show pretty badly.

[liebzz]

R.E.M. - Live

Dublin ‘05 from the Around the Sun tour. It’s fascinating listening to this live album because the newer stuff somehow really engages as much as the classics. Electron Blue is a real early highlight. I Took Your Name from Monster is a killer opener. The Greay Beyond a nice later hit, Leaving New York is good. Walk Unafraid from Up is quite good here too. Granted, songs like Losing My Religion, Don’t Go Back to Rockville, and Man on the Moon still slay, but it felt good to hear it all.

The Essential Performances: Electron Blue, Losing My Religion

Up Next: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Chunky Shrapnel

[liebzz]

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Chunky Shrapnel

If this band doesn’t throw you for a loop, you’re probably doing it wrong. San Fran ‘16 was pretty consistent touring Nonagon Infinity, and in that case it was a good thing, and there’s just some great stuff in there. This one is fresh off Infest the Rats Nest, but rather than focusing on their metal edge alone, it has moments that are almost reverse jump scares, as in the transition between Hell and Let Me Mend the Past, both highlights following each other in totally different ways. A Brief History of Planet Earth puts all of it together in a not so concise 20 minute opus, but it’s that extension after a series of quick bursts that is exemplary of expecting the unexpected.

The Essential Performance: A Brief History of Plant Earth

Up Next: Jim James - The Order of Nature

[liebzz]

Jim James - The Order of Nature

We close out the twenty-teens with this short but magnificent release from Jim James playing with the Louisville Orchestra. Pulling in solo originals and a couple covers set in front and sometimes behind the orchestra, James manages to make the dramatic all the more melodramatic, and it pays off everywhere on this. Back to the End of the World is a fabulous cover behind all those strings, but the dramatic build and release in Over and Over, and the Macys fireworks display grand finale in Same Old Lie take the day. Really still a phenomenal listen.

The Essential Performances: Back to the End of the World, Over and Over, Same Old Lie

Up Next: The War on Drugs - Live Drugs

[liebzz]

Decade toasted, updates top 50:

50- The Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped
49- The Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped: Brixton
48- The Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped: Paris
47- Bruce Springsteen - Springsteen on Broadway
46- Joe Russo’s Almost Dead - Brooklyn, NY 2019-11-25
45- Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Weld
44- The Band - Rock of Ages
43- The Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped: Amsterdam
42- Gov’t Mule - Live at the Beacon Theatre (New York City 12/31/17)
41- Grateful Dead - Veneta, OR 8/27/72 (The Complete Sunshine Daydream Concert)
40- The Rolling Stones - Ladies and Gentlemen
39- The Rolling Stones - The Brussels Affair
38- Pearl Jam - Vault #3: Washington, DC 9/19/98
37- Grateful Dead - Europe ‘72
36- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - The Darkness Tour
35- Phish - LivePhish Vol. 11: McNichol’s Sports Arena, Denver, CO 11/16/97
34- Pearl Jam - Jones Beach, NY 8/25/00
33- Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock
32- Grateful Dead - Dick’s Picks, Vol. 8: Harpur College, Binghamton, NY 5/2/70
31- Bob Marley and the Wailers - Live
30- Pearl Jam - Live at Benaroya Hall
29- Phish - Hampton/Winston Salem ‘97
28- Lynyrd Skynyrd - One More From the Road
27- Allman Brothers Band - One Way Out
26- Phish - Live Phish 04/04/98
25- Pearl Jam - Las Vegas, NY 10/22/00
24- Bruce Springsteen - Live in Dublin
23- Pearl Jam - Katowice, Poland 6/16/00
22- Phish - LivePhish 12/30/97 Madison Square Garden
21- My Morning Jacket - MMJLive Vol. 1: Live 2015
20- Pearl Jam - Vault #7: Soldier Field, Chicago, IL 7/11/95
19- Pearl Jam - Milan, Italy 6/22/00
18- Pearl Jam - Tokyo, Japan 3/3/03
17- My Morning Jacket - Okonokos
16- Pearl Jam - Vault #11: Atlanta, GA 4/3/94
15- The Band - The Last Waltz
14- Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East
13- Grateful Dead - Cornell 5/8/77
12- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Hammersmith Odeon 1975
11- Grateful Dead - Dick’s Picks Vol. 2: Pembroke Pines, FL 5/22/77
10- Pearl Jam - Chicago, IL 10/9/00
9- Pearl Jam - Seattle, WA 11/6/00
8- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Live 1975-85
7- Pearl Jam - State College, PA 5/3/03
6- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Live at the Fillmore 1997
5- Pearl Jam - New York/Mansfield
4- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - The Legendary No Nukes Concerts
3- Pearl Jam - Live at the Gorge 05/06
2- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Live Anthology
1- Pearl Jam - Philadelphia 2009

[warehouse]

probably pearl jam's best concerts ever, not shocked with #1

[96583UP]

impressive

[liebzz]

impressive

Thanks. It feels like all the same bands and then I remind myself that if they are my favorite live bands it’s just naturally going to happen.

[liebzz]

The War On Drugs - Live Drugs

Starting the current decade off on the right foot here, The War On Drugs have very few peers when it comes to their ability to set an atmosphere with which to play off of. Each song sort of reveals itself as it progresses in dramatic fashion, and the songs seem to climax ever subtly where by the time the end of the song hits you are almost unconsciously nodding your head in affirmation. Nearly any one of these songs can be claimed as the highlights, but on this listen, I am going with Strangest Thing, Red Eyes, and Under the Pressure which has such an incredible build happening here.

The Essential Performances: An Ocean In Between the Waves, The Strangest Thing, Red Eyes, Under the Pressure

Up Next: Bruce Springsteen - The Live Series: Songs of Summer

[liebzz]

Bruce Springsteen - The Live Series: Songs of Summer

Now this was a good one. A lot of focus on older material, which is natural in my mind since those first three albums really evoke that season for me. But in addition, tossing in some Tracks material was real welcome: Frankie, The Fever, and Seaside Bar Song are all great. An excellent early Born to Run and Rosalita, an epic finish with Jungleland, Girls in Their Summer Clothes, a piano only Racing in the Street, an all acoustic Blinded By the Light…this one was pretty smokin’.

The Essential Performances: Racing in the Street, Frankie, The Fever, Seaside Bar Song

Up Next: Goose - Alive and Well

[liebzz]

Goose - Alive and Well

Good to get this in since I will seeing these guys in a couple of weeks. This one to me has seemed like a good starter set, much in the way Phish’s A Live One is sort of the jumping off point. Many of the must hears are present, like Arcadia, Hot Tea, All I Need, and Tumble, and all more than solid versions. On this listen, I was really fixed on Wysteria Lane and Butter Rum back to back, and that fast and furious Tumble. I can’t think of a band as adept at locking into a groove and grinding through it while continuously digging deeper and deeper than these guys. Phish does it in spurts and the influence is clearly there, but they don’t hold it for the whole show like these guys do.

The Essential Performances: Wysteria Lane, Butter Rum, Tumble

Up Next: Spafford - Live Vol. 3

[liebzz]

Spafford - Live Vol. 3

Goose can turn up the pace and volume, but Spafford is a shreddy-Mcshredfest. The last minute or two of People is craziness, and there’s lots of great moments in In the Eyes of Thieves and Soil. The performance of Gold Glittered Hat is not a shredfest but is quite great. Another good addition.

The Essential Performances: Gold Glittered Hat, People

Up Next: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead - Port Chester, NY 2022-02-22

[liebzz]

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead - Port Chester, NY 2020-02-22

This extensive release includes the sound check they did for parents and children coming out of the Rock and Roll Playhouse program in the bar next door, which they played Good Lovin’ > Touch of Grey, then took a parents’ request and jammed through Scarlet > Fire. They played the show later that night, with the first set featuring Hell in a Bucket > Loser > The Wheel > Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again > Uncle John’s Band. Crazy. Yet, the second set is so blazing that I nearly forgot how good that was. Estimated Prophet was more than solid, but leads into a Jack Straw with one of the most amazing jams by any band - the Dead never quite played it like this. Life Is a Carnival was a fun detour to recover but by the end of the set, Sugar Magnolia, the band is once again breaking the barriers of what it means to be on fire. Holy hell this was something else.

The Essential Performances: Jack Straw, Sugar Magnolia

Up Next: Brothers - Live at Madison Square Garden

[liebzz]

The Brothers - 3/10/20 Madison Square Garden

I can recall spending quite some time debating whether to go to this show, and it wasn’t due to the cost but with the onset of the pandemic. In the end, I missed one helluva show, with the band on fire for nearly the entirety of these sets. Where the band really takes off into a different stratosphere is Ain’t Wasting Time No More followed by Every Hungry Woman, and then finishing with a phenomenal Whipping Post. How this relationship between Haynes and Trucks hasn’t continued beyond this show is past my comprehension. They just play off each other so well.

The Essential Performances: Ain’t Wasting Time No More, Every Hungry Woman, Whipping Post

Up Next: Goose - Bingo Tour

[liebzz]

Goose - Bingo Tour

This is one of those opportunities to essentially provide an inter and narrative of sorts around the onset of the pandemic. If The Brothers is that one last big show, Goose provided a creative way to keep the show going, with virtual sets that had this interactive element - the band would take virtual requests and lottery balls and put them in a bingo machine, which would in turn force the band to adapt in the moment. Included in those bingo balls would be songs, or it could be an action on a song, from no drums allowed to 20+ minute jam to someone doing pushups or taking a lap. That the band pulled this off, and subsequently brought it back from time to time is pretty remarkable. On top of that, without the sound filling nature of a large crowd to include, the recordings are crisp and you get a lot of detail that’s really nice. The highlights from a pure listening experience are Hot Tea, Creatures, and Fish in the Sea - the latter a somewhat obscure cover. These guys seem to naturally always be on to something, and would soon move on to playing live at the drive-in to maintain social distancing. We’ll get to that though in due course.

The essential Performances: Hot Tea, Fish in the Sea

Up Next: Dawes - Live From the Rooftop

[Captain Termite]

How this relationship between Haynes and Trucks hasn’t continued beyond this show is past my comprehension. They just play off each other so well.

Last fall, Warren guested at the Tedeschi Trucks Band show in Boston for Dreams, Into the Mystic, and Blue Sky.

[liebzz]

How this relationship between Haynes and Trucks hasn’t continued beyond this show is past my comprehension. They just play off each other so well.

Last fall, Warren guested at the Tedeschi Trucks Band show in Boston for Dreams, Into the Mystic, and Blue Sky.

That’s pretty damn cool.

[liebzz]

Dawes - Live from the Rooftop (Los Angeles, CA 8.28.20)

The world of virtual concerts, the couch tours, was settling in by the end of the summer. Dawes joined that fray with this show and live release, a pretty good live album in the end featuring at least a few songs that sounded better than their counterpart releases. Maybe they just grew up some, but the band I enjoyed from their last album is here, rather than the earlier live releases I just didn’t care enough for. The songs I enjoyed really felt like genuine highlights more than sticking out from otherwise good enough bunches of songs. This time, it’s Things Happen, Feed the Fire, Roll With the Punches, From a Window Seat, Somewhere Along the Way, A Little Bit of Everything, and All Your Favorite Bands, with a few other good ones thrown in. It helps that the sound is again pristine at least compared to when there’s a bustling crowd.

The Essential Performances: From a Window Seat, Somewhere Along the Way, All Your Favorite Bands

Up Next: Goose - Swanzey, NH 2020.10.03

[liebzz]

Goose - Swansea, NH 2020.10.03

Goose at the drive-in. Weird to hear cars honking in applause between songs, but thats where we found ourselves by this point in the pandemic. Goose lean into this though with an energetic and fun set that includes covers of The Band and Tom Waits, and some killer jamming, particularly on set highlight Tumble. 726 lacks a jam but comes across really nicely on this recording. Another solid outing here.

The Essential Performance: Tumble

Up Next: Trey Anastasio Band - Burn It Down