The Dave Matthews Band - Official live releases thread

Hi There,

I'm trying to get back to DMB after quite a large number of years. Their official live catalog is quite large now. I was hoping to get recommendations on key live releases from Live Trax, DMB Live series and other official releases.

I already own:

Live At Red Rocks (by far my favorite)
Listener Supported
Live At Folsom Field (the Bartender version here is incredible)
Live At Luther College
Live In Chicago
The Gorge

I also acquired Live Trax 1 this week and I'm quite enjoying it. Nice surprise to hear Bela Fleck and the Flecktones playing with DMB on this show.

Thanks for your help

 

Those earlier releases hold up well, imo, pretty much all of them. This page may not be entirely caught up but looks like a good quick reference for titles and tracklists. A lot of it depends on tracklist preferences, but a couple of favorites ...

- Live In New York City - To me, this was the first release of the post-Roi lineup that I'd consider top-tier. I also like the BW&GGK album, which helps.

- LT 08 - 8/7/04 - I am a big "Sugar Will" fan (in this original arrangement). That, plus some distinctive content for this tour, and a kinda huge Typical / Warehouse encore rank this way up on the Live Trax series for me.

Other LT's I'd highlight (in order of release):
LT 03 - 8/27/00
LT 16 - 6/26/00
LT 26 - 7/30/03
LT 30 - 8/16/93
LT 33 - 1/31/95

I'm a big fan of the '96-97 tours, but none of that jumps out at me as a clear top pick. I'd put the Richmond "release party" show a notch or two below the rest of the Crash era stuff.

The Dave & Tim installments, whether retail or Live Trax or whatever, I think are very consistent all in all and so will again depend on your favorites mostly (with one exception below). I've enjoyed the most recent (LT 41) so far and it has some songs that I don't think have gotten official release before.

Of the DMBLive's, I don't have as many, but the 4/22/93 Dave & Tim really is a distinctive snapshot worth getting. You can hear Tim do great things on some songs he doesn't even know the name of yet, it's got some tiny-venue charm, and a couple have slightly different arrangements than what would become established for the long term.

 

I guess I should give BW&GGK another chance. It's been years since I heard that album (first time around I was dissapointed).

 

My favorite live disc of theirs is the Warehouse 5 Volume 1. Loved that winter 98 run. Band was fire!

 

It doesn't start strong imo, which can definitely be off-putting ("Shake Me ..." never shook me). But a few joined my other real favorites. No getting around the sonic change of Tim wailing on the electric as a regular lineup member, to be sure ... it wouldn't be my first choice of configurations vs the original lineup or even Butch (I'm a sucker for electric piano), although I do like his more textural work.

 

Are the Warehouse series complete shows or samples?

 

They're live compilations of either 5,8, or I think 10 tracks that the band sends to their fan club members annually-ish. Not full shows but lots of hot cuts spread around them.

 

I've been listening to LT 1. Quite enjoyable. Pretty cool start with an 18' "Seek Up" supported by Butch Taylor on keyboards.

Other favorites are the 21' "#41" with a neat jamming with Bela Fleck on banjo.

"The Last Stop" is also superb. Highly recommended show.

 

Getting Seek Up from WH5v2 is a must, it's the 2001 07.31.01 performance and it's the best Seek Up there is IMO.

Chester Copperpot has matched up the official release audio with the video, it's a stunning performance of one of their best live tracks.



As for DMBLive, the '94 Tampa Masquerade show is a must own title, the board pull was so good it has very little mastering at all, DMBLive series are for releases where no multitracks exist so they're all board pulls but some are much better than others. The '94 Tampa show starts off with a really good Seek Up and it's fully dynamic (Album details - Dynamic Range Database ) - you can really crank it and the percussion work in the intro of Seek Up is tremendous.

I was going to copy another post I made about LT series but I see it was to you so you already have that info.

 

Much appreciated. After reading your response to my inquiry about DMB's Live Trax series on a separate thread, I realized that there's no thread on this forum covering DMB's live releases. That's why I created this one. Hopefully forum members will add comments as they actively do to the "The Grateful Dead" and "PHISH" threads.

Cheers.

 

I'm a huge fan of this show as well. Dave Matthews Band Official Store

some folks from Los Lobos jump in and out of the set. Band was fire on that 97 tour...

 

I really like the central park concert

the 22 min version of TWO STEP (with the pink floyd dogs tribute in the middle, thats what i call it) is TOP SHELF

 

I suspect the Warehouse live releases are not available for download?

 

I know this is DMB and not D+T, but the Live Trax - 23 and 24 I believe - are excellent shows. And they sound fantastic .

One of my favorite DMB live releases is the Central Park bonus disc. You Never Know, Dreaming Tree, Spoon....it's worth hunting down.

 

And maybe not an official live release, but getting some of the old DMB promos are fun for the rare tracks....for example, the Two Step promo has 4 live tracks.

There is also the DMBLive series, which is a different series than Live Trax. They've released quite a few shows from 92-93, which are great to hear the early versions of all the songs, plus unreleased stuff like Blue Water.

As an aside, how Blue Water and #40 never got released on a studio album makes no sense. Blue Water is classic DMB and IMO is one of their best songs.

 

That full band #40 from Yoshi's in 1995 was my lifeblood as a teen...

 

Dave had a cold during that performance. It could have sounded even better. I can't fathom having that good of a song in your back pocket and never releasing it.

 

Not legally. The first warehouse didc goes for a fair price (I think) on eBay. $40+ I think. But I don't search for it since I have it.

 

My favorite live trax are 3 & 7. 3 has early versions of busted stuff tunes, great Bartender. Also has a great Nancies opener. 7 is an amazing New Year's Eve show with Bela.

 

Live at Red Rocks is available on black vinyl now. Anyone given this a try yet? Done by Chris Bellman on 4 LPs. It's tempting. I think the similar release of Springsteen at the Odeon is really good. I've been a little surprised at the lack of buzz on the Red Rocks release.

 

Is there any difference with the RSD version released earlier this year?

 

Given that this was (presumably) originally digital...I would not expect the same hype as "Crash" which was an analog transfer...

That being said, give me Luther...

 

Yes, the difference is the vinyl isn't colored. Otherwise, it's the same. It's a great performance. I'm sure the source is digital but the RSD Legacy release of Springsteen at the Odeon is too I'm sure and it's a great collection of LPs. I may just have to try the DMB out. There were a few very positive reports back around RSD. Nothing since.

 

Having spent the majority of my early twenties bopping around the DMB online community, I'd venture a guess and say that most of the folks who bought it for RSD weren't in any way interested in the audio quality of the release and were more interested in just owning the set and that probably explains why we've heard so little about its quality.

 

Thanks. The original CD sounds great to my ears. Having said that, I'm not worried about a digital sourced vinyl edition. And agree with you that Bruce Springsteen's at the Odeon sounds great.