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I jumped back to this one for a couple of reasons: (1) I somehow just forgot to throw this in when I spent over a month in the 70s, and (2) it would make for a good transition from a few of the jammier live albums into more classic and prog territory, both classic rock and progressive rock have a short moment here.
As far as the live album itself, sound quality issues aside, it displays a band whose songs are fine, but transformed into a live setting building into massive throwdowns that can be thrilling in their excess. Siberian Khatru, Perpetual Change, Roundabout, and Yours is No Disgrace are immediate highlights, and without feeling meticulously planned take various musical journeys that evoke a sense of jazz in it as much as rock. My favorite in the end is how Starship Trooper builds and pays off in the end. Prog Yes > Owner of a Lonely Heart.
The Essential Performance: Starship Trooper
Up Next: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Live in San Francisco ‘16
Oh, and lest I forget…today is the one year anniversary of the start of this journey with Muddy Waters. We have quite a while til it’s done, but this so far has been every bit the most memorable of the album journeys I have been doing on here for years now.
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liebzz wrote:
Oh, and lest I forget…today is the one year anniversary of the start of this journey with Muddy Waters. We have quite a while til it’s done, but this so far has been every bit the most memorable of the album journeys I have been doing on here for years now.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Live in San Francisco ‘16
This is a highly consistent live album from a band that can do anything any time it wants. Pulling primarily from Nonagon Infinity and I’m Your Mind Fuzz, the band seems to work in sequences, running through the Nonagon Infinity songs without taking so much as a single beat of a break. As intended when they released the album, you’d have no idea the song even switched. The same goes for the I’m Your Mind Fuzz suite of songs, all delivered at a frenetic pace. And despite those two suites being insanely great and loud, The River provides a phenomenal respite and builds and moves around like so many of their songs, and then this thing finishes with an epic Head On/Pill that just keeps battering away. When this band is on, there is nobody like them…and they are nearly always on.
The Essential Performance: Head On/Pill, The River
Going for a small club Stones run, including all the shows that make up this live compilation that is a course correction for the live album fan - Stripped was more than half live in the studio while this one is all from those small club shows in 1995. As is typically the case for the Stones, the small club energy really brings out the best in this band, as each of these performances are outstanding. Dead Flowers, Miss You, I Go Wild, and Gimme Shelter were favorites here.
The first of three shows in small theaters on the heels of their Voodoo Lounge tour, the Stones, as in the compilation given that many of the songs come from this one, are red hot. They are simply incredible sounding in smaller theaters. Once again, every song is a highlight, and they approach this with some stripped down classics along with deeper cuts you don’t expect to see, like Connection, Spider and the Fly, Shine A Light, and Respectable, all nailed down perfectly. Gimme Shelter is killer on this one, as is All Down the Line, and in the stripped down section, Wild Horses, Dead Flowers, and an excellent Sweet Virginia. This band is so damned great.
The Essential Performance: All Down the Line, Sweet Virginia, Shine A Light
Up Next: The Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped: Paris
A month and a half after Amsterdam, The Stones are on the next stop of this mini set of shows in Paris. Even if the initial shine of siding these shows fades just a touch, the band remains inspired by the freedom of the small venue, with more bust outs, and then ultimately powering through their biggest classics. The first left turn here is Shattered before breaking into the stripped down set of Beast of Burden, Let It Bleed, Angie, Wild Horses, the Willie Dixon cover Down in the Bottom, and Shine A Light again brings that set home. I Go Wild sounds great coming back to the electric set along with a killer Miss You. Connection is a great highlight after. And then it’s on to a battering of hits with Midnight Rambler, a vicious Rip This Joint, Start Me Up, It’s Only Rock & Roll, Brown Sugar and Jumping Jack Flash to close this out. They could only hold back the hits for so long…
The Essential Performances: Angie, Down in the Bottom, Connection, I Go Wild, Rip This Joint
Up Next: The Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped: Brixton
The last of the small venue shows in 1995 included on Totally Stripped, this one in their hometown of London. The energy is still very hot on this one as well, as they follow a similar pattern from the last show. The bust outs here include Black Limousine, Faraway Eyes, Love in Vain, and Monkey Man, all top notch. This is probably the best Midnight Rambler of the bunch, as well as the best Miss You. And as we close out this series of shows with a blazing Jumping Jack Flash, we open the next one, the big show, with that same song…
The Essential Performances: Black Limousine, Faraway Eyes, Love In Vain, Miss You
Converse to the series just covered with Totally Stripped, Havana Moon finds the Stones playing in Cuba in front of an audience of hundreds of thousands. For all the intimate moments and bust outs in Totally Stripped, Havana Moon is nearly totally massive hit songs delivered massively - pure unadulterated entertainment from the folks who practically invented the modern stadium experience. Surprisingly, Gimme Shelter is as much a highlight as set exploding Satisfaction, or Brown Sugar, or Start Me Up for that matter. Biggest hits from the biggest band, and it is fun to just revel in that for just a bit.
The Essential Performances: Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, Satisfaction
Up Next: Gary Clark, Jr. - Live North America 2016
The knock on Gary Clark Jr., at least for me, is that early in his career he was determined to be something he wasn’t. His musical palette has always been best brought out through a sort of young man with an old soul. On Blak and Blu, he tried to take his sound, put gloss and sheen on it, and make an album so varied in modern sounds that his soul was lost on it. With his first live album we covered a while back, we found a bit of a course correction, and The Story of Sonny Boy Slim further cements his going in the right direction. Turns out he can channel that old soul through the blues, rock and soul of folks harkening further back than one would expect, and it’s these brightest moments that work best for him on this live album.
I initially did not remember this one fondly because of the mediocre at best start with Grinder and The Healing, which sound like they are missing half of the sound that comes out in the audio tracks, but venturing further, his takes on Our Love and Cold Blooded, sung in falsetto, but played with a cleaner sounding tone, reveal much more of his old soul charm. The meaty blues of When My Train Pulls In further brings Gary Clark Jr. into his sweet spot, with Shake, the Jimmy Reed cover Honest I Do, and the electric fuzz of Numb rounding out the highlights here.
The Essential Performance: Our Love, Numb
Up Next: Midnight North - Live at Terrapin Crossroads
Other than exposure to Grahame Lesh as part of Phil Lesh’s friends on tour (it’s his son), I don’t have any prior exposure to this band. They mostly seem to occupy a space that is folk and Americana with some element of jamming, but certainly not 25 minute explorations or anything approaching that. Yet, for all that is, the band’s lifeblood on this is contained within covers - Viola Lee Blues and Shady Grove - as well as a more rock slow build on Pheonix Motel. The immediate jammy Roamin was a nice highlight as well here. Decent enough yet not really a must hear.
The Essential Performances: Viola Lee Blues, Shady Grove, Pheonix Motel
Now this is the Spafford I was expecting. Leaning quite a bit more rock, and very much more shreddy, this does a much better job of taking names than the last few I covered. America opens this thing with massive loud appeal, throbbing synth breakdowns back to massive guitar solos - all the things this band does best. The Reprise adds a bit of a groove, but similarly builds into an all systems go shred-fest. All In follows a similar pattern, as does The Remedy. Backdoor Funk is the toughest track here due to its really long run time, but that notwithstanding has some special moments. Salamander Song closes this one on another high note especially in its last couple of minutes. Astounding what this band is capable of when they let a little loose.
The Essential Performances: America, Salamander Song
Up Next: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead - Port Chester, NY 2016-12-30
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead - Port Chester, NY 2016-12-30
This band is phenomenal. In varying moments, they can sound nearly like a carbon copy of the Grateful Dead (Scott Metzger’s Bob Weir game is about as close as it could possibly get). Hell, they are so close to their inspiration that both Bob Weir and Phil Lesh have separately played with them recently. That notwithstanding, they take their own risks with this music, which is what truly makes them so engaging. The absolute genius here is taking the riff off Bird Song, transitioned it into Day Tripper, and then bent it back into Bird Song. Who’d have thought!? Beat It On Down the Line > Feel Like a Stranger also seemed to really work. Their massive cover of Cumberland Blues, taking it into a totally different direction was fantastic. The jam in Shakedown Street is wild with Marco Benevento taking lead on keys and really finding some cool spaces. Love this band.
This release often seems like an amalgam of modern live Pearl Jam - the focus on the biggest hit albums, the spattering of deep cuts, the call and response, the fan dedications…and there’s something endearing about that. A recognition of a long term relationship not just with each other but with the fans. The concept of this, equating the experience of the band and fans of Pearl Jam playing Wrigley Field with fans (especially Vedder) seeing the Cubs win it all at Wrigley Field. Maybe that’s a bit ham fisted of a correlation, but this band has become a bit more hammy over the years, ready at one moment to conjure the spirit of their youth, and the next more than happy to let the crowd take over. It’s this divide I think that causes our own sense or division in this forum, nothing more divisive or frustrating than the call and response on Corduroy. I don’t particularly mind it, but I get it. In any event, the big crowd moments on Release, Jeremy, and Black are worth the entry, as is Black Red Yellow and Inside Job.
The Essential Performance: Release
Up Next: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Year of the Horse
This release often seems like an amalgam of modern live Pearl Jam - the focus on the biggest hit albums, the spattering of deep cuts, the call and response, the fan dedications…and there’s something endearing about that. A recognition of a long term relationship not just with each other but with the fans. The concept of this, equating the experience of the band and fans of Pearl Jam playing Wrigley Field with fans (especially Vedder) seeing the Cubs win it all at Wrigley Field. Maybe that’s a bit ham fisted of a correlation, but this band has become a bit more hammy over the years, ready at one moment to conjure the spirit of their youth, and the next more than happy to let the crowd take over. It’s this divide I think that causes our own sense or division in this forum, nothing more divisive or frustrating than the call and response on Corduroy. I don’t particularly mind it, but I get it. In any event, the big crowd moments on Release, Jeremy, and Black are worth the entry, as is Black Red Yellow and Inside Job.
The Essential Performance: Release
Up Next: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Year of the Horse
Release is very powerful at this show. I still love the movie though it the one from them i think the least.
Neil’s back!!! Granted, this is a 20 year rewind now that he’s back on Spotify, but that joy alone may have buoyed this release, a nugget for the die hard Neil Young fan and not really for the faint of acquaintance. That said, there’s some legitimate highlights here, including a big Barstool Blues, a sort of stripped down sounding Mr. Soul, Slip Away, a Danger Bird that goes on for a long time, and then the suddenly flippant finish with Prisoner and Sedan Delivery. Juxtaposed against the Pearl Jam live album, you can sorta get that sense that Neil Young has never been interested in either fan service or celebrating his songs to the adoring masses as much as interpreting his vast catalogue in any way he so wishes in that moment. This might not be his grandest live statement, but Neil doesn’t really have time or patience for that anyway.
The Essential Performance: Barstool Blues
Up Next: Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - Live at Red Rocks
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hell yeah