Red Mosquito

Hi I'm new to the forum and have done a bit of searching and couldn't find a similar thread to this so thought I'd give this a go.
I was hoping we could start a definitive top ten favorite live bootlegs thread specifically for Soundgarden, The Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Tool, Radiohead or whoever you happen to be a huge fan of really.

You can separate them by decade if you'd prefer and maybe add a little info as to why they're your favorite shows.

I'll start with my top ten Smashing Pumpkins shows:

Honorable mentions: 1997-01-19 - epic the aeroplane flies high opener, 1993-07-04 - fun intimate acoustic show.

1992-09-01 - acid trip Billy insanity
1993-08-14 - the officially released metro show but the aud recording has a better mix
1994-02-25 - Fantastic Starla!
1994-08-28 - awesome setlist
1994-04-17 - poor sound but easily the best performance of the entire siamese dream tour
1995-02-28 - questionable sound quality but this is a GOAT setlist/performance
1996-02-06 - perhaps the best acoustic/electric show the band ever did
1996-04-19 - incomplete show but the peak of the MCIS tour
1997-01-08 - superb all round show
2000-11-29 - penultimate performance of the original run

I'm only interested in unreleased studio material bootlegs, myself. But it's a fun idea.

McParadigm wrote:I'm only interested in unreleased studio material bootlegs, myself. But it's a fun idea.

http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/unauth/all-time

That site is a brilliant resource for both live and unreleased studio material bootlegs. Voyager 1 by The Verve and Songs from the Black Hole by Weezer are both fantastic.

With PJ...there are so many... the same with the Pumpkins.

Gun to my head I couldn't name ten SP songs, or live shows for that matter. But, I think my favorite bootleg of all time has to be Sabbath in NJ from 1975.

Sound quality generally comes first for me. I just can't get into most AUD recordings, which cuts my bootleg collection down considerably. Pumpkins are one of my favorites but don't think I could list 10 boots that I revisit frequently. Some that come to mind are:

1993-08-14 Metro, Chicago IL - rip from the official DVD
1993-09-15 Manchester Academy - BBC In Concert CD
1993-10-26 Del Mar, CA - Westwood One radio show
1995-08-25 Reading Festival - BBC In Concert CD
1997-07-04 France - rip from TAFH Super Deluxe edition
1998-07-17 Toronto, ON - Album Network radio show CD

One of my favorite boots of all time is Nirvana's Paramount Theater show in Seattle on October 31, 1991. Yes, it was officially released but the original bootleg of the show is a different mix and not brickwalled to shit.

I have a bunch of Radiohead boots that are great. I think May 27, 1994 takes the top prize for me.

I rarely have time to listen to boots these days, much less come up with a list of favourites.

Pink Floyd 1969-09-17 Amsterdam, NE - high quality in-studio performance of Man & Journey suite.
Pink Floyd 1970-02-11 Birmingham, ENG - not a great recording, but a unique set due to losing equipment.
Pink Floyd 1970-04-29 San Fancisco, CA - recorded in KQED studios, so good quality
Pink Floyd 1970--1971 "BBC Archives 1970-1971" - collection of the two bbc sessions with john peel
Pink Floyd 1972-02-20 London, ENG - early performance of dark side, also the first silver cd boot i ever bought, i think it was like 30 bucks.
Pink Floyd 1973-03-11 Toronto, CA - yeeshkul!
Pink Floyd 1977-02-22 Paris, FR - i like the 'in the flesh' tour a lot. some good early tour shows and this is one of them.
Pink Floyd 1977-05-09 Oakland, CA - pretty common favorite among fans due to sound quality.
Pink Floyd 1977-07-06 Montreal, Canada - final show of the tour, roger spits on a fan, yadda yadda, but the animals performance specifically is hot fire.
Pink Floyd 1994-06-22 Minneapolis, MN - not a special performance or anything, but it is a recording of the first concert i ever went to.

Any Zeppelin Earls Court show from 75.

Setlist

Goodnight Elisabeth
Omaha
Children In Bloom
Anna Begins
Ghost Train
Mr Jones
Wiseblood
Rain King
Perfect Blue Buildings
Margery
Time and Time Again
Round Here
Four White Stallions
A Murder of One

Details

Artist: Counting Crows
1994
Date: March 16, 1994
City: Los Angeles, CA
Venue: Whiskey A Go Go
Country: US

super nintendo chalmers wrote:I think my favorite bootleg of all time has to be Sabbath in NJ from 1975.

Fuck yes.

Do you have the Montreux 1970 soundboard that surfaced last year? Just as awesome.

No!! I need that in my life

This website is a great resource

http://100greatestbootlegs.blogspot.com.au/

Good stuff some great recommendations here guys keep em coming.
I'd love to get Matt Reeder involved in this as he seems to have some pretty extensive bootleg knowledge. It'd be cool to hear what his favorite Soundgarden post reunion shows are for a start?

blackholesun85 wrote:Hi I'm new to the forum and have done a bit of searching and couldn't find a similar thread to this so thought I'd give this a go.
I was hoping we could start a definitive top ten favorite live bootlegs thread specifically for Soundgarden, The Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Tool, Radiohead or whoever you happen to be a huge fan of really.

You can separate them by decade if you'd prefer and maybe add a little info as to why they're your favorite shows.

I'll start with my top ten Smashing Pumpkins shows:

Honorable mentions: 1997-01-19 - epic the aeroplane flies high opener, 1993-07-04 - fun intimate acoustic show.

1992-09-01 - acid trip Billy insanity
1993-08-14 - the officially released metro show but the aud recording has a better mix
1994-02-25 - Fantastic Starla!
1994-08-28 - awesome setlist
1994-04-17 - poor sound but easily the best performance of the entire siamese dream tour
1995-02-28 - questionable sound quality but this is a GOAT setlist/performance
1996-02-06 - perhaps the best acoustic/electric show the band ever did
1996-04-19 - incomplete show but the peak of the MCIS tour
1997-01-08 - superb all round show
2000-11-29 - penultimate performance of the original run

This is a pretty good list. I prefer 8/13/1993 to the more famous final night, and I prefer 2/21/1995 to 2/28 but otherwise that's about as good as it gets.

Other favorites:
4/10/1994 - the second-best show of the SD era, with lots of best performances and a great and rare "Tristessa"
10/19/1995 - Peoria! 8 songs from MCIS five days before it would come out, 7 songs from SD and a scorching version of "Siva" to close.
1/31/1996 - The other contender for best acoustic / electric show, this time with an improvised "Rhinoceros" by request
5/30/2000 - One of the best Machina-era shows, phenomenal "Drown" to finish out the show

Radiohead:

Honorable mentions: Earls Court 11/26/03, 01/16/08 London

06/27/97 Utrecht
06/28/97 Galstonbury
07/04/00 Berlin
09/16/00 Nijmegen
10/02/00 Warrington
04/28/01 Amnesiac in Paris
11/27/03 Earls Court
06/08/06 Toronto
06/17/06 Bonnaroo
04/02/08 London from the basment

Pearl Jam:

06/18/92 Zurich
03/13/94 Chicago
03/29/94 St Petersburg
04/03/94 Atlanta
04/12/94 Boston
03/17/95 Flinders Park
09/29/96 Randall's Island
10/02/96 Hartford
05/03/98 Melbourne
09/11/98 MSG

zoe1271 wrote:
One of my favorite boots of all time is Nirvana's Paramount Theater show in Seattle on October 31, 1991. Yes, it was officially released but the original bootleg of the show is a different mix and not brickwalled to shit.

This was one of the first bootlegs I bought. Mine is a KTS pressing and it cost me $45 which in 1997 was a fortune!

Fuzzcharger wrote:

zoe1271 wrote:
One of my favorite boots of all time is Nirvana's Paramount Theater show in Seattle on October 31, 1991. Yes, it was officially released but the original bootleg of the show is a different mix and not brickwalled to shit.

This was one of the first bootlegs I bought. Mine is a KTS pressing and it cost me $45 which in 1997 was a fortune!

The worst thing about the KTS boot is that the second half of the show sounded awful for whatever reason. (Bad transfer/bad copy of Side Two.) It wasn't until many years later that a good transfer of the entire tape surfaced. It's also interesting to note that there are some digital "fixes" on the original mix that were left unfixed on the new, brickwalled version.

For the Black Crowes fans on the board:

2/6/93 - One of the definitive documents of the High as the Moon tour...insanely great show
11/1/94 - mostly acoustic "secret" show around the time Amorica was starting to be promoted
3/22/95 - The infamous "this is our last show because Chris and Rich despise each other"...worth it for the opening Cursed Diamond alone
12/19/95 - Secret little club gig in Atlanta during the recording of Three Snakes...one of the very few full performances of Pastoral with vocals. Bunch of Three Snakes stuff premiered, plus a couple of other b-sides from those sessions. A little rough around the edges at times, but a really fun show to listen to.
10/28/96 - More accurately, you could almost say the entire Fall 1996 tour and not be wrong.
2/3/97 - More accurately, you could almost say the entire Winter 1997 Euro run
8/9/05 - My favorite of 05 Fillmore run, might be the best post-hiatus show there is
8/12/06 - The end of an era; last show with Marc Ford and Ed Harsch. Tremendous, even if it is a little sad that when listening to it, you know you'll never hear that lineup again.
9/12/10 - A terrific Luther era show (most of fall 2010 was pretty special). A setlist of mostly standards but the performances are pretty awesome all around.

I didn't mention any Audley Freed shows because as long as you find the best recording of either of those tours (By Your Side/Lions), that's pretty much the band of that era...not a lot of setlist surprises, didn't really dig deep into the catalog (relatively speaking).