Essential Live Albums

[liebzz]

Pearl Jam - New York, NY 7/9/2003

Night two might be one of the underappreciated great Pearl Jam shows. Sandwiched between the show that made the DVD, and the show coming that completed The Experiment, this show, released in a bundle with those other two, doesn’t get quite the attention or focus of the others, but it might just be the stronger of the MSG shows in ‘03. The main set is quite fantastic, with the Crazy Mary opener, some ripping versions of Corduroy, Whipping, Red Mosquito, the stronger Even Flow, Deep, set highlight Present Tense, and an epic Porch. The encore, starting slow with the combo of Ed solo on You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, and Small Town gets the crowd’s lungs warm for the Evolution and Alive closers of the first encore, with a couple of rarely played songs sandwiched nicely in there in Glorified G and All or None. The second encore is a blast of ‘03 Pearl Jam in its most ferocious form - Go, Know Your Rights, RitFW, and Yellow Ledbetter to close. Maybe not the prior night’s encores, but the entirety of the set is pretty spectacular.

The Essential Performance: Present Tense

Up Next: Pearl Jam - Mansfield, MA 7/11/2003

[liebzz]

Pearl Jam - Mansfield, MA 7/11/2003

“There’s not gonna be an acoustic version of Blood or anything, so feel free to sit down.”

This is the third show in the series of shows released in a bundle with the MSG shows from this tour, and this is the masterpiece. The opening acoustic set was a really fantastic moment - a half full amphitheater and the band really just enjoying this little experiment of playing all the songs between the three nights in Mansfield. The blistering set that follows. The encore that is just one killer version after another of rarities followed by the two biggest hits of the evening on a wonderful Black and an epic Jeremy. The mostly covers second encore to the finish with the One Note joke and Yellow Ledbetter to cap it all off. Just incredible. Maybe the one we need to see this setlist knowing it was more than what they played but how they played it.

Pre-set: Long Road, Of the Girl, Sometimes, Off He Goes, All Those Yesterdays, Drifting, Thin Air, Sleight Of Hand, Footsteps, All or None, Parting Ways, Indifference

Main set: Can’t Keep, Breakerfall, Brain of J, Spin the Black Circle, Ghost, Green Disease, Tremor Christ, Given to Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Cropduster, Faithfull, Why Go, Wishlist, Leatherman, Nothingman, Better Man, Half Full, Untitled, MFC, Blood

Encore: Breath, Habit, Down, Mankind, U, Black, Jeremy

Encore 2: Arc, I Believe in Miracles, Know Your Rights, Fortunate Son (w/Sleater-Kinney), Rockin in the Free World (w/Sleater-Kinney), One Note

Encore 3: Yellow Ledbetter

I mean, damn! I was lucky to be there.

The Essential Performance: Jeremy

Up Next: Pearl Jam - Live at Benaroya Hall

[liebzz]

Pearl Jam - Live at Benaroya Hall 10.22.03

Yet another really special Pearl Jam show from 2003, this one a benefit show and the band largely stripped down - a long form version of similar shows they’ve played stripped down. Here the band seems to be having a blast, as if the pressure of the large scale tour was done and they could just play what they wanted. The acknowledge the venue on a number of occasions, as they make their way through some of their slower songs, and expand out as the night goes on. Immortality and their tremendous cover of 25 Minutes To Go will always be my go-to on this one, but on this listen, Man of the Hour, Masters of War, and Black really also stick out as great. A crime they haven’t reissued and made digital streaming available for this.

The Essential Performance: Immortality

Up Next: Trey Anastasio - Plasma

[wease]

That was the Why Go I was thinking of.

[McParadigm]

Man of the Hour is so good on Benaroya…enough that the feedback moment always fills me with rage.

25 Minutes to Go and Crazy Mary (a song I usually skip over on live boots) also kill.

[Jorge]

Pearl Jam - Live at Benaroya Hall 10.22.03

Yet another really special Pearl Jam show from 2003, this one a benefit show and the band largely stripped down - a long form version of similar shows they’ve played stripped down. Here the band seems to be having a blast, as if the pressure of the large scale tour was done and they could just play what they wanted. The acknowledge the venue on a number of occasions, as they make their way through some of their slower songs, and expand out as the night goes on. Immortality and their tremendous cover of 25 Minutes To Go will always be my go-to on this one, but on this listen, Man of the Hour, Masters of War, and Black really also stick out as great. A crime they haven’t reissued and made digital streaming available for this.

The Essential Performance: Immortality

Up Next: Trey Anastasio - Plasma

This show is the funeral of Good Pearl Jam

[liebzz]

Trey Anastasio - Plasma

Trey here jettisons the boys in Phish in favor of a huge band - complete with horn section. Drawing from his solo album and some instrumentals, there’s a ton of jamming happening here. Disc one may stay relatively reasonable, but it’s in disc two that Trey goes into long form explorations, which seems most successful on Night Speaks to a Woman, where he has a solid home base chorus to go back to, or on the totally spaced out Inner Tube. This is a very solid live album.

The Essential Performance: Night Speaks to a Woman

Up Next: Dave Matthew’s Band - The Central Park Concert

[liebzz]

That was the Why Go I was thinking of.

Weakest moment of an otherwise nearly spotless show.

[wease]

That was the Why Go I was thinking of.

Weakest moment of an otherwise nearly spotless show.

Agreed

[oasisfan35]

Trey Anastasio - Plasma

Trey here jettisons the boys in Phish in favor of a huge band - complete with horn section. Drawing from his solo album and some instrumentals, there’s a ton of jamming happening here. Disc one may stay relatively reasonable, but it’s in disc two that Trey goes into long form explorations, which seems most successful on Night Speaks to a Woman, where he has a solid home base chorus to go back to, or on the totally spaced out Inner Tube. This is a very solid live album.

The Essential Performance: Night Speaks to a Woman

Up Next: Dave Matthews Band - The Central Park Concert

FTFY

I am going to be listening through Summer '03 soon, I recall CP being such an outlier of the tour... some really tremendous renditions.

[liebzz]

Yeah, I covered it in my DMB journey, was at the show, and remember quite a bit of it well. It’s a high point, at least in my estimation of that band.

[liebzz]

Dave Matthew’s Band - The Central Park Concert

Another live album from a show I attended. The recording honestly holds up a lot better than my memory of the show. I remember it being a good performance, but I missed the beginning of the show due to the long lines to get in. Also, I was around DMB fans that made things pretty insufferable, yelling for Warren Haynes to get off the stage while he was a pure highlight of the evening.

That said, this show is maybe the perfect entry point for any new fan looking to get a sense of their live show. Seems like every staple is present here, and is a particularly spirited version at that, with top highlights including Too Much, Warehouse (an epic jam there), Ants Marching, a long Two Step, Jimi Thing (Warren Haynes!), What Would You Say, Grey Street, and Stay (Wasting Time). The covers here an also phenomenal, with a huge Watchtower and that Cortez the Killer that Haynes absolutely owns. If you’re gonna throw some Dave on, seems like this is it.

The Essential Performance: Warehouse

Up Next: Gov’t Mule - The Deepest End

[liebzz]

Gov’t Mule - The Deepest End

As a tribute to Allen Woody, this live performance includes a tremendous number of guest bassists - seems like everyone but Jeff Ament (they told him about the show two weeks later). Despite this, the band sounds consistently tight. It’s mildly confusing that the DVD has a lot of songs the live album doesn’t and actually vice versa. But what’s here is pretty fantastic, lead by Bad Little Doggie, set highlight Blind Man in the Dark, and mesh of Prince’s When Doves Cry with Beautifully Broken. It’s also always nice to hear Soulshine from Warren Haynes. Really wild that the band sounds perfect despite a different bass player nearly every song.

The Essential Performance: Blind Man in the Dark

Up Next: Allman Brothers Band - One Way Out

[liebzz]

Allman Brothers Band - One Way Out

This is the one that gives At Fillmore East a run for its money. Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes are an incredible duo, and play off each other so well. And here the focus is on the new, though plenty of classics get great space, like the killer Whipping Post, Don’t Keep Me Wondering, Wasted Words, Trouble No More, Ain’t Wastin Time No More, and Dreams. It is an epic run of Good Morning Little School Girl > Imstrumental Illness that wins the day though. Absolute fire.

The Essential Performance: Good Morning Little School Girl > Instrumental Illness

Up Next: Fleetwood Mac - Live in Boston 2004

[wease]

I was lucky to get Schoolgirl the first time I saw them back in ‘09. It’s an absolute scorching version, too.

[liebzz]

Fleetwood Mac - Live in Boston 2004

We haven’t heard from these folks in a while so it was nice to get another live album of theirs in here, from CBS Studios. The band is in very good form here, with some really nice performances. Of note on this shorter live set, Eyes of the World, Come, Big Love, a very nice Silver Springs, and the second half of Go Your Own Way are all great, but I really enjoy this particular I’m so Afraid, which builds into such an epic finish. These folks really can put on a performance.

The Essential Performance: I’m so Afraid

Up Next: Ween - Live in Chicago 2004

[Higgs]

Is your ongoing standings a gsheet or private Excel doc?

[liebzz]

A note on my phone. Very high tech.

[liebzz]

Ween - Live in Chicago

This is a band I have no background in, though I had obviously heard of them for many years. They are quite good live, even jumping boundlessly from one sound to the next. Part hard rock, circus music, jammy but yet not, they sort of seem to exist on their own space and terms, and that’s quite enjoyable. A less extreme KGLW almost (I recognize Ween has been around much longer). The highlights here are the almost poppy opening number Take Me Away, Wven If You Don’t, the epic Voodoo Lady, Roses Are Free (loved this too!), Buckingham Green, I’ll Be Your Johnny on Th’Spot, and Ocean Man. I mean, nothing is weak here but those seemed to all raise up a level.

The Essential Performance: Voodoo Lady

Up Next: Nine Inch Nails - Live: And All That Could Have Been

[Farmer John]

Ween - Live in Chicago

This is a band I have no background in, though I had obviously heard of them for many years. They are quite good live, even jumping boundlessly from one sound to the next. Part hard rock, circus music, jammy but yet not, they sort of seem to exist on their own space and terms, and that’s quite enjoyable. A less extreme KGLW almost (I recognize Ween has been around much longer). The highlights here are the almost poppy opening number Take Me Away, Wven If You Don’t, the epic Voodoo Lady, Roses Are Free (loved this too!), Buckingham Green, I’ll Be Your Johnny on Th’Spot, and Ocean Man. I mean, nothing is weak here but those seemed to all raise up a level.

The Essential Performance: Voodoo Lady

Up Next: Nine Inch Nails - Live: And All That Could Have Been

This album, along with the DVD, is what made me a fan. Some of my all-time favourite guitar solos. The Grobe and The Argus are two highlights for me (along with all the ones you mentioned)