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

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.

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

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

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.

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.