Grousing The Aisles: Is Everybody In?

moe. 12/31/06 SBD (FLAC, MP3)

Since we gave moe. shit about its photo policy, we should also make it a habit to recognize when the band does nice things for the moe.rons. In a fan-friendly move, moe. allowed tapers to patch into the soundboard at Radio City Music Hall on New Year’s Eve. The resulting tapes all sound incredible, and thanks to bit torrent, these SBDs circulated amongst hundreds of fans within hours of the concert ending. While moe. didn’t bust out any fancy new covers or old originals, the band played three tight sets of some of their finest material. The Recreational Chemistry really makes a statement, as both jams were unique without getting boring. Sometimes moe. takes too long to form a jam which never really winds up going anywhere. That wasn’t a problem on New Year’s, as you’ll hear in the versions of Time Ed and Spine of a Dog. Here’s to hoping more bands follow moe.’s lead and allow the fans to patch into the soundboard once in a while.

Trey Anastasio 12/30/06 DAUD (FLAC, MP3)

When I first looked at the setlists from Trey’s show in Atlantic City, the New Year’s show looked much better on paper. Looks can be deceiving, though, as the real throwdown happened the night before. Trey did a great job of mixing it up on his five-night holiday run, playing a number of covers, Phish songs, and TAB originals. The 30th starts with a high-energy pairing of Push On Til The Day and Stash, followed by the signature TAB piece Night Speaks to a Woman. It’s kinda weird seeing an encore of Alumni Blues into Tuesday, but the duo worked pretty well and Trey got a loud ovation (at least on the tape) as he walked off the stage. Let’s hope the Whitehall DA takes it easy on Red — like the fictional Stella of cinema, he’s finally got his groove back.

Grateful Dead 12/26/79 SBD/AUD (FLAC, STREAM)

Recently I posted an edition of The B List about my favorite years of the Grateful Dead, and I took a lot of shit for suggesting 1979 was one of the best five years musically for the band. As evidence of the sickness of ’79, everyone should take a listen to this show. Check out the encore: Shakedown Street > Uncle John’s Band, you don’t see that everyday. The song selection is pretty good, but the jamming is what makes this show a must-own. Estimated, He’s Gone, and the pre-drums The Other One are all ferocious and feature newbie keyboard player Brent Mydland making his presence felt and pushing the other band members with his crazy synthesizer tones. Feel free to stream or download this source, but also check out the crystal-clear Dick’s Picks 5, which features a bunch of this material.

[ed. note: I consider that Shakedown to be one of the best jams in the band’s entire history; it’s mesmerizing how good Brent is on it, fucking mesmerizing]

David Bowie 9/5/74 SBD (FLAC)

I recently stumbled upon another terrific torrent site called zombtorrents. Zombtorrents has many terrific recordings by a diverse group of artists, none of which are jambands. One of the best shows I’ve found on that site is a David Bowie show from the Ziggy Stardust days. My roommate at college was a big Bowie fan and used to play a few shows from that time period constantly. I’ve been looking for a crisp-sounding copy of that material for years. Luckily Zombtorrent has a copy of this show from the Universal Ampitheater in Los Angeles, featuring incredible versions of classics such as Suffragette City, All The Young Dudes, and Space Oddity. One of the cool features of zombtorrent is that the page the torrents are on usually has tons discussion about the torrent. For instance, on the discussion about this particular torrent, I found scans of the tour program from this show. (pt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

The Doors 1/17/70 SBD (FLAC)

This Doors show from the Felt Forum is another cool find from Zombtorrents. I saw Beck at this venue (now called The Theater at MSG) this past October, and I can’t even imagine seeing Jim Morrison and the boys at such a small place. The songs they played at this show reads like a list of my favorite songs: Peace Frog, The End, and Roadhouse Blues are all played with the kind of fierce energy that made The Doors an incredible live act. There is a bit of debate over whether this recording is a true soundboard, but it sounds great, and that’s all that matters to me. Listening to this show makes me so pissed off that Morrison died and we were robbed of hearing what he would have come up with next.

Did you download any other New Year’s Eve shows yet? Any suggestions?