Essential Live Albums

[liebzz]

Willie Nelson - Willie and Family Live

From one stoner icon to the next. This release is a fun and easy trip through old school country and folk, weaving in special guests and really flying through what seems like a million songs in an hour and a half. Willie seems less his stoner persona and more the sort of country music I would have mocked as a kid - but it’s fun now. Take This Job and Shove It, Whisky River, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and Amazing Grace are all immediate highlights, though the closing coda of I Gotta Get Drunk > Whiskey River (Reprise) > The Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line (Reprise) is the winner here.

The Essential Performance: I Gotta Get Drunk > Whiskey River > The Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line

Up Next: Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus

[liebzz]

Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus

I have never heard a Little Feat studio album. Ever. I have heard this a number of times, and always liked it, and was excited to give it a roll in the context of all these live albums. It really rises to live amongst the best of this journey so far. I just sort of made an assumption that they’re really just a southern version of The Band, and while I haven’t quite changed on that tune, something clicked on this listen where every song on here just clobbered me. These guys can play without huge run times (much like The Band), but the punctuation of the horn section really hit home this time. This live album is straight up phenomenal, and its ultimate highlight is the one-two punch of Dixie Chicken and Tripe Face Boogie, though Feats Don’t Fail Me Now has that perfect balance of southern charm, gospel like catharsis, and a danceable beat.

The Essential Performance: Dixie Chicken > Tripe Face Boogie

Up Next: Grateful Dead - The Closing of Winterland

[liebzz]

Grateful Dead - The Closing of Winterland

I last heard this one in the midst of that long catalogue journey in 2020, and this release really benefits from listening to it in this context. Without the Dead fatigue having set in some back then, I had a much better opportunity to appreciate the performances here, a wonderful mix of cerebral and soulful jamming. The first set is a bit of a jolt with Sugar Magnolia > Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain to start the show at midnight. This whole first set is epic - I mean they are on fire taking this to Me & My Uncle, Big River, and then a fabulous of the slower down Friend of the Devil. It’s All Over Now is great, Stagger Lee is great, and then closing the first set how they opened it with a Sunshine Daydream coda is just perfection.

The second set really soars in the first half and then sputters in the second half. Samson and Delilah is a phenomenal version leading into Ramble on Rose which is one of the best of the night. I Need a Miracle is really spirited and Weir does a great job on this. Terrapin Station is amazing as always. Playing in the Band is pretty good, but it’s descent into Rhythm Devils is where this goes off the rails a bit - mostly because that leads into a long intro to Not Fade Away - so a 30 minute percussion jam into a largely plodding Not Fade Away is quite a lull. They come around at the end of the set though on Around and Around.

The third set starts with a significant mental vacation in the psychedelic stratosphere with a run of Dark Star > The Other One > Dark Star > Wharf Rat > St. Stephen - a run that is pretty magical in part because they don’t dwell too long here on any of the particular songs but still bring that elastic jamming in. Then seemingly out of nowhere, they bounce into some celebratory workout of Good Lovin’, followed by a joyous encore playing Casey Jones > Johnny B. Goode, and then close the night out with a second encore of We Bid You Goodnight followed literally with a PA announcement that the band is serving breakfast to the fans that stuck it out since the Dead played all night.

The Essential Performance: Friend of the Devil

Up Next: Judas Priest - Unleashed in the East

[liebzz]

Judas Priest - Unleashed in the East

I am not a particular student of heavy metal in any use of the term, but one could discern a relatively straight line from what we heard from Mountain, Deep Purple, and maybe a bit of Black Sabbath to this. Over the top vocals, big riffs and solos, lots of drums, all taken perhaps just one step farther than their predecessors. This certainly has its moments and maybe the Cover of The Green Manalishi is the winner here, far louder than the original but maintaining some sort of compromise that approaches hard rock. It probably takes multiple listens to discern the rest (the heavy metal Joan Baez cover Diamonds and Rust is also pretty awesome), but I came away from this liking it much more than I expected.

The Essential Performance: The Green Manalishi

Up Next: Queen - Killer Queen

[wease]

Breakin’ the Law
Breakin’ the Law

[liebzz]

Queen - Live Killers

So I know this isn’t the Queen end all be all, but it is filled with Freddie Mercury’s theatrics, and to that end he is a master. Rock as opera. At least in the late 70s and frankly with the limitations of it being a single release and not being there, it’s good but it feels over choreographed. I quite literally had the Rocky Horror Picture Show in my mind listening to this, but if this were the solitary document, stories of these guys being the greatest live band were way off, at least to my ears.

The Essential Performance: We Will Rock You > We Are the Champions

Up Next: The Ramones - It’s Alive

[liebzz]

The Ramones - It’s Alive!

Lest we get our heads too far up our asses, the Ramones are here to provide a punk rock enema for a little cleansing. This album proceeds at a furious pace, blowing through song after song with a 2 minute timetable. They may not have big solos, amazing jams, or grand vocals, but just pure rock energy that is infectious and really almost surf rock, particularly on California Sun or Rockaway Beach. Blitzkrieg Bop is classic, but my favorite is Sheena is a a Punk Rocker. This was highly enjoyable and necessary to put me in my place.

The Essential Performance: Sheena is a Punk Rocker

Up Next: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live Rust

[Happy Trees]

Queen - Live Killers

So I know this isn’t the Queen end all be all, but it is filled with Freddie Mercury’s theatrics, and to that end he is a master. Rock as opera. At least in the late 70s and frankly with the limitations of it being a single release and not being there, it’s good but it feels over choreographed. I quite literally had the Rocky Horror Picture Show in my mind listening to this, but if this were the solitary document, stories of these guys being the greatest live band were way off, at least to my ears.

A notoriously shit live album.

Try "Live At The Rainbow 1974" or "Hammersmith Odeon 1975" for something better (though too pumped-up with modern technology compared to the bootlegs I had as a kid).

[liebzz]

Queen - Live Killers

So I know this isn’t the Queen end all be all, but it is filled with Freddie Mercury’s theatrics, and to that end he is a master. Rock as opera. At least in the late 70s and frankly with the limitations of it being a single release and not being there, it’s good but it feels over choreographed. I quite literally had the Rocky Horror Picture Show in my mind listening to this, but if this were the solitary document, stories of these guys being the greatest live band were way off, at least to my ears.

A notoriously shit live album.

Try "Live At The Rainbow 1974" or "Hammersmith Odeon 1975" for something better (though too pumped-up with modern technology compared to the bootlegs I had as a kid).

My plan was to cover Live at Wembley somewhere down the line. Live Killers was awkwardly bloated, and I like Queen’s music, always have, but I was not particularly impressed with this.

[Jorge]

The Ramones - It’s Alive!

Lest we get our heads too far up our asses, the Ramones are here to provide a punk rock enema for a little cleansing. This album proceeds at a furious pace, blowing through song after song with a 2 minute timetable. They may not have big solos, amazing jams, or grand vocals, but just pure rock energy that is infectious and really almost surf rock, particularly on California Sun or Rockaway Beach. Blitzkrieg Bop is classic, but my favorite is Sheena is a a Punk Rocker. This was highly enjoyable and necessary to put me in my place.

The Essential Performance: Sheena is a Punk Rocker

Up Next: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live Rust

If you're curious what this concert looked like, there is some cool film footage that was lost for a while and has been restored

[Happy Trees]

My plan was to cover Live at Wembley somewhere down the line.

It's okay if you like their 80's stuff, but it does have some of the same attributes that makes Live Killers over-bearing. I go for the early 70's stuff mostly.

[liebzz]

Halfway through Live Rust, halfway through Powderfinger. Do you what time it is?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rN-R ... -young.gif

[doug rr]

awesome...everything is behind thrasher...

[Farmer John]

[liebzz]

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live Rust

It is somewhat hard to explain that comfy old shoe feel of comfort I get from Neil Young, but it always feels like a homecoming. This set is split between acoustic and electric, start electric with gems like Sugar Mountain, After the Goldrush, and Hey Hey My My (Out of the Blue), and into some serious rock with When You Dance I Can Really Love, Sedan Delivery, the Cortez with the weirdly bad attempts at a Mexican accent, Cinnamon Girl, Like a Hurricane, Hey Hey (Into the Black), and Tonight’s the Night. This whole thing is basically incredible, though the soaring Neil’s guitar does during Powderfinger is the winner here for me - surely Big John’s been drinking since the river took Emmy Lou.

The Essential Performance: Powderfinger

Next Up: a trip back in time to Europe in 72: Grateful Dead - Bickershaw Festival, Wigan, England 5/7/72

[liebzz]

Grateful Dead - Europe ‘72 Vol. 13: Bickershaw Festival, Wigan, England 5/7/72

Dropping back a bit before we take the exit ramp out of the 70s with a few live releases I missed the first time through. For one, and the sole show I will cover from the Europe ‘72 tour (we did the Europe ‘72 compilation live album earlier), I wanted to go with a show that had some good hype but I hadn’t heard yet. Queue the 4 hour long Bickershaw set, listed in our friend Rolling Stone as one of the 20 essential Dead shows.

That notwithstanding, this one suffers from at least Bob Weir believing their guitars keep going out of tune because of the cold weather. And yet despite that, the first set is relatively sparkling despite random delays. Not a weak spot, though Chinatown Shuffle, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider is a highlight sequence, as is Good Lovin’ and Casey Jones.

The second set brings some serious heat. Ramble on Rose is particularly good, but it’s the Dark Star > Drums > The Other One > Sing Me Back Home that is just awesome. And really Drums is a very short segue between a 20 min Dark Star and a 30 min The Other One that has of helluva cap in the last 5 minutes to then transition into a beautiful Sing Me Back Home. A great Sugar Magnolia is then followed by a pretty wild Turn on Your Lovelight with a crazy little guitar jam that was unexpected - and really highlights the alternate vibes that Pigpen brought to the Dead. The remainder of the show is phenomenal, though these two moments specifically mentioned probably make the show.

The Essential Performance: Sing Me Back Home

Up Next: Frank Zappa - Erie (just the first show - we’re not hanging out for 6 hours)

[Happy Trees]

Up Next: Frank Zappa - Erie (just the first show - we’re not hanging out for 6 hours)

If you like what you hear, check out the first 2 tracks on Disc 3 as well, which are killer bonus tracks from South Bend. This was Zappa's best band IMO, the percussionist sat out (which is explained in the first track) so the drummers take over to full effect. It's his funkiest (and possibly his happiest) band, thus only represented on this release and Side 3 of "Roxy & Elsewhere". The "Dupree's Paradise Intros" track at the end of Disc 1 must be listened to in full - it's probably the most schizophrenic jam on a Zappa release, both satisfying and funny.

And I highly recommend reviewing the superb compilations "Europe 72, Vol. 2" and "Steppin' Out With The Grateful Dead", if you want to overview that era in much shorter time.

[liebzz]

Up Next: Frank Zappa - Erie (just the first show - we’re not hanging out for 6 hours)

If you like what you hear, check out the first 2 tracks on Disc 3 as well, which are killer bonus tracks from South Bend. This was Zappa's best band IMO, the percussionist sat out (which is explained in the first track) so the drummers take over to full effect. It's his funkiest (and possibly his happiest) band, thus only represented on this release and Side 3 of "Roxy & Elsewhere". The "Dupree's Paradise Intros" track at the end of Disc 1 must be listened to in full - it's probably the most schizophrenic jam on a Zappa release, both satisfying and funny.

And I highly recommend reviewing the superb compilations "Europe 72, Vol. 2" and "Steppin' Out With The Grateful Dead", if you want to overview that era in much shorter time.

Couple of notes on these coming. Haha. Got another Dead comp coming but not those - gotta draw the line somewhere.

[liebzz]

Frank Zappa - Erie (5/8/74)

So this is much better, at least for me. The band, much to everyone’s suggestion, is fantastic - especially in the first half of this, where there a bunch of longer sprawling jams largely with a funk/jazz improvisational feel, but they are very fluid and rarely fall into any abysses. Zappa seems somewhat under control, at least when this release is at its best. I am not sure I can connect with the completely out of this world Zappa, though there’s an entertainment value to it. Cosmik Debris, Pygmy Twylyte, Montana, and the sprawling Dupree’s Paradise are all great (the intro is fun but I felt like I wanted things to move along). Following this is a barrage of shorter songs that are mostly enjoyable but a bit nuts - that said I liked I’m Not Satisfied and Wowie Zowie more in hindsight. The closing of this show goes back to the longer form but more in a rock range I found really enjoyable, the trio of Son of Orange County, More Trouble Every Day, and Camarillo Brillo my favorite run of the show. This put me in a much better place than the last one, though not sure I have the stomach to reach for too much more.

The Essential Performance: Son of Orange County

Up Next: Rainbow - On Stage

[liebzz]

Rainbow - On Stage

No background or expectations coming in for this band. I knew the thing was 6 songs and over an hour so I expected only longer songs. This is that quintessential 70s guitar hard rock we’ve heard in small spurts on this journey. Part blues, part metal, big riffs and guitars, solid band, I was into this. Man On the Silver Mountain, Catch the Rainbow, and Mistreated make this release for me, but I frankly enjoyed it all.

The Essential Performance: Catch the Rainbow

Up Next: Grateful Dead - Ladies and Gentlemen…Live at Fillmore East 1971