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If Leeds wasn’t quite what I remembered of it, this one was what I remembered and then some. The key thing here is the full performance of No Code unannounced and the first time since Ten was played through in 1991? While my memory was that there was a sloppiness to the performance, I don’t really hear it this time. All of the No Code songs sound great, though I do wish Ed would do the spoken word portion of I’m Open since it is the best part of the song. The Ten songs played here were also substantial highlights along with McCready’s pretty spot on version of Eruption that essentially lead into Alive. Lightning Bolt’s end jam is decent but doesn’t quite have the pop of the ‘13 versions. And Moline the song is actually pretty good. This is a really good show from them.
The Essential Performance: Present Tense
Up Next: Sonic Evolution: January 30, 2015 / Benaroya Hall
Mike McCready/Mad Season/Temple of the Dog - Sonic Evolution: January 30, 2015 / Benaroya Hall
A one off show with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Mike McCready got together a more than solid crew of Seattle friends for a big night that celebrated largely Mad Season, but also with a reunion of Temple of the Dog to boot. Mike plays his own classical piece, with a killer solo, before launching into Mad Season material with both the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and additional Seattle icons like Chris Cornell, Duff McKagan, and Barrett Martin. Long Gone Day, River of Deceit, and I Don’t Know Anything are spectacular in this format. Wake Up with Kim Virant is also amazing. The Temple songs are also top notch, with Matt Cameron, Stone Goddard, Jeff Ament, and Chris Cornell coming back together (they would tour a year and a half later - was this the jump off for that?). Closing with a recording of Layne himself on All Alone puts this all in a nice package - a special night for sure.
The Essential Performances: I Don’t Know Anything, Wake Up, Reach Down
This one is heavy on long extended grooves, less in the way of huge guitar solos though they are there. Mostly holding grooves as a band with synthesizers sort of leading some of the charge that delve into more hypnotic spaces. The two big opportunities to jump out of those clouds are the show’s highlights: America and Electric Taco Stand. These guys are talented and can certainly keep you engaged but even here we get a bit long in spots.
The Essential Performance: Electric Taco Stand
Up Next: String Cheese Incident - Rhythm of the Road, Vol. 2: Live in Las Vegas
String Cheese Incident - Rhythm of the Road, Vol. 2: Live in Las Vegas
Another earlier show than I was expecting. My research on some of these might be shoddy. 2001 was when this show was played, and along the lines of the last one, it fits in a space before they tweaked around with more electronic sounds, but maybe a bit more rock focused than bluegrass. Freedom Jazz Dance, and Black and White with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe come to mind as immediate early highlights, though eclipsed by their solid cover game - this time Get Down Tonight, an unlikely but wonderful cover with Karl Denson in tow. Turn This Around is pretty excellent, as is the bluegrass cover of Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues. Let It Go, Aladdin Jam, and Shantytown round out the highlights here. Lots of jamming, and this show is fun.
The Essential Performance: Get Down Tonight
Up Next: My Morning Jacket - MMJ Live Vol. 1: Live 2015
This is a compilation of live performances that kicked off My Morning Jacket’s official live archive series. It’s nearly impossible not to compare this to Okonokos on the passage of time, but between the two, you can hear a band that has spent years touring together between them. They play off each other perfectly, and build nearly every song into massive crescendos pretty effortlessly without ever coming across as a jam band. That said, some good spaces are explored here, particularly in the close of I’m Amazed, Masterplan, the 16 minute epic Dodante, and Gideon. Tropics is a song here that really distinguishes itself from the studio version - it really fits in to almost not being noticed on The Waterfall, but teased out here you really get how fabulous the song can be. The opening trio of Victory Dance, Circuital, and Compound Fracture is also a big highlight. I think the strange reality is even if the studio output from 2001-2005 is the most celebrated and capped with 2006’s extraordinary Okonokos, the band simply kept getting better as a live outlet regardless of the thoughts and feelings about the studio output. Amazing band.
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, back when I was learning for the first time really about rock music, there was the rock and roll fantasy of getting the band back together - that is of reuniting Diamond Dave with Van Halen and turning the universe right. I wasn’t alone of course. Adam Sandler joked in his retro 80s movie the Wedding Singer about the band’s impending break up. When David Lee Roth had his cameo moment on their greatest hits album, people went berserk they were going to be back.
And then it happened. They got back together, toured a whole bunch and even released a new album of stitched together leftover ideas from their heyday that actually sounded quite good. This is the sole official live document of their triumphant (really rocky) return. The band, now with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang on bass, sounds relatively tight - maybe not the Van Halen of old or even the Van Halen on Right Here, Right Now - but certainly holds up its end of the bargain. David Lee Roth not so much. While he brings the vibe and the missing it to the band even still, he sounds very much as if his best days are gone. His cadence and delivery is off, his voice doesn’t even really sound like his, and his banter hardly resembles the vigor that he’s most famous for. That said, The Cradle Will Rock and Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love sound pretty good.
The Essential Performance: The Cradle Will Rock
Up Next: The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers Live at the Fonda Theatre
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers Live at the Fonda Theatre 2015
Over the next couple weeks, I will take the opportunity to delve into The Stones a bit here, particularly in this sort of space, small venues where it’s undeniable that this band at this point was still every much at vital as they have ever been. Bursting with energy and focus, the band gets through a few songs before delving into a reordered Sticky Fingers, playing I think them all, but in an order that suits their live cadence rather than a by a books reproduction.
The show starts the way I think the Stones often like to kick things off with Start Me Up, When the Whip Comes Down, and All Down the Line - songs from three other seminal albums before Sway kicks in, Dead Flowers and Wild Horses remind us that the Stones could slow groove as well as they can tear the house down. Sister Morphine sounds pretty great here too. Bitch is full on Stones cranked all the way up, and it hands things to the performance of the night in Can’t You Hear Me Knocking. They took Brown Sugar and put it at the end here to sort of tie things up in a bow, and it’s a tremendous performance as well. The encore sandwiches two great covers in Rock Me Baby and I Can’t Turn You Loose with the red meat if Jumping Jack Flash in the middle. Their small club energy is really so epic when they do this, and just makes me fall in love with this band all over again.
The Essential Performances: Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Brown Sugar, I Can’t Turn You Loose
Up Next: Grateful Dead - Fare Thee Well: Live at Soldier Field, Chicago, IL 7/5/2015
Joined: Sat January 05, 2013 1:57 pm Posts: 32520 Location: Where everybody knows your name
liebzz wrote:
Van Halen - Tokyo Dome In Concert
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, back when I was learning for the first time really about rock music, there was the rock and roll fantasy of getting the band back together - that is of reuniting Diamond Dave with Van Halen and turning the universe right. I wasn’t alone of course. Adam Sandler joked in his retro 80s movie the Wedding Singer about the band’s impending break up. When David Lee Roth had his cameo moment on their greatest hits album, people went berserk they were going to be back.
And then it happened. They got back together, toured a whole bunch and even released a new album of stitched together leftover ideas from their heyday that actually sounded quite good. This is the sole official live document of their triumphant (really rocky) return. The band, now with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang on bass, sounds relatively tight - maybe not the Van Halen of old or even the Van Halen on Right Here, Right Now - but certainly holds up its end of the bargain. David Lee Roth not so much. While he brings the vibe and the missing it to the band even still, he sounds very much as if his best days are gone. His cadence and delivery is off, his voice doesn’t even really sound like his, and his banter hardly resembles the vigor that he’s most famous for. That said, The Cradle Will Rock and Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love sound pretty good.
The Essential Performance: The Cradle Will Rock
Other than it being an official album with the (a) Dave lineup, it’s not really all that exciting. Having live versions of those classic songs is good, but his hamming it up on stage gets old real quick. Even watching boots from the old days, there’s just so much DLR one can take. The Sammy live album, for me, is much better. I just wish they had played Unchained on that tour instead of the following one so we’d have a nice soundboard version of it with Sam.
_________________ Let me tell you, Homer Simpson is cock of nothing! - C. Montgomery Burns
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, back when I was learning for the first time really about rock music, there was the rock and roll fantasy of getting the band back together - that is of reuniting Diamond Dave with Van Halen and turning the universe right. I wasn’t alone of course. Adam Sandler joked in his retro 80s movie the Wedding Singer about the band’s impending break up. When David Lee Roth had his cameo moment on their greatest hits album, people went berserk they were going to be back.
And then it happened. They got back together, toured a whole bunch and even released a new album of stitched together leftover ideas from their heyday that actually sounded quite good. This is the sole official live document of their triumphant (really rocky) return. The band, now with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang on bass, sounds relatively tight - maybe not the Van Halen of old or even the Van Halen on Right Here, Right Now - but certainly holds up its end of the bargain. David Lee Roth not so much. While he brings the vibe and the missing it to the band even still, he sounds very much as if his best days are gone. His cadence and delivery is off, his voice doesn’t even really sound like his, and his banter hardly resembles the vigor that he’s most famous for. That said, The Cradle Will Rock and Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love sound pretty good.
The Essential Performance: The Cradle Will Rock
Other than it being an official album with the (a) Dave lineup, it’s not really all that exciting. Having live versions of those classic songs is good, but his hamming it up on stage gets old real quick. Even watching boots from the old days, there’s just so much DLR one can take. The Sammy live album, for me, is much better. I just wish they had played Unchained on that tour instead of the following one so we’d have a nice soundboard version of it with Sam.
Some guys, like Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen, can ham it up and sound authentic. DLR does not.
Grateful Dead - Fare Thee Well: Live at Solider Field, Chicago, IL 7/5/2015
Celebrating 50 years of the Grateful Dead, the surviving members got together for one last hurrah, 5 shows together billed as their final go around together, with special guest Trey Anastasio taking Jerry Garcia’s spot. I had a more negative impression when I heard this butted against the Dead proper, and felt much better about it this time through. In fact, the band sounds pretty good in this iteration save for some rough vocals with I believe Phil Lesh singing quite a few of Jerry’s parts. This may be one of the better Drums/Space jams, as these are typically periods I totally zone out but I was sort of into it this time. Cassidy, Althea, Unbroken Chain, and Touch of Grey are all good highlights, though my favorite from this is Terrapin Station that was largely focused and straight forward.
It’s important to know that this might be their last show together here, but the music really never stopped, as most of the members would soon form Dead and Co. with John Mayer, Phil Lesh would continue to this day to tour with his Friends, and Bob Weir would strip down to Wolf Brothers, all playing this songbook. And even more, a cacophony of cover bands, some nearly as good as the original band would sprout up and continue to deliver and celebrate these legends, and that’s where we pick up next.
The Essential Performance: Terrapin Station
Up Next: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead - Brooklyn, NY 2015-10-03
This band was formed by accident, or at least by chance, in 2013. Preparing for a Dean Ween Band show, a last minute cancellation forced Joe Russo, a member of Dead offshoot Further, to pivot, inviting friends and members of the Dean Ween Band and his just for fun Led Zeppelin cover band for a night of Grateful Dead covers. Not only did the band hit it off immediately on the Brooklyn Bowl stage, but the crowd lapped it up. This would lead to a few more one-offs until this band became its own entity.
I can’t claim to be an expert in any way on cover bands, though I have seen my fair share. What’s astonishing about this one is that rather than simply pay tribute to the music, they take ownership, and dare I say, elevate it to new places and at times to new heights. Scott Metzger sings a near perfect Bob Weir, Marco Benevento is the guy I want in my fictional band, Tom Hamilton, Jr. is a great guitarist as is Metzger, Russo does the part of two drummers nearly effortlessly, and Dreweitz is a beast on bass, but even all that aside, their immediate brotherhood as a playing entity creates a near perfect chemistry that weaves in and out of the Dead catalogue on JRAD’s terms. Sometimes the pairing come out of thin air, like taking St. Stephen and meshing it into Tennessee Jed and back. Other times it’s a flawless transition in a more infamous Scarlet > Fire. Particularly on this one, whatever they touched turned into straight fire. If you don’t understand the point of a band playing another band’s music, run don’t walk to this one for a clinic on how it can work.
The Essential Performances: Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain, Viola Lee Blues
This compilation sees them mostly as a bar band with some long jams - 4 of the 6 tracks exceed an hour together - and they each fall into a somewhat familiar pattern in an extended jam (Galisteo Way ends and starts really well but too long of a transition in the middle) followed by a really fast and and intense coda back into the chorus. This is once again easily most successful in Electric Taco Stand, which is again fantastic. Time for a quick look back before we move forward.
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