DMBlive Vol. 4

The music is mostly great, but the dialogue—especially the first four minutes of gibberish and the horse story ("I'm not a horse psychologist, but apparently a bear is something that a horse is not down with")—might be my favorite part. The tracking is very annoying; unlike most releases, the tracks don't always start with the music. This was the first time Dave played many of these songs solo, and the first time he'd played many more solo in quite some time, and it showed in the abrupt or awkward endings. Going song by song...: He loses the plot on the STONE lyrics almost immediately, although the improv isn't horrible. Then he messes up the timing towards the end. It's hard to turn down this song, but it's far from flawless. GRACE is solid, and CRUSH is excellent. LOVING WINGS is beautiful, but what an awkward ending. FOOL TO THINK is outstanding, absolutely outstanding, one of his greatest post-LWS songs and a highlight of the night. MAKER is also outstanding, although the ending misses just slightly. NANCIES is fantastic. I remember when WHERE ARE YOU was released as a single; people hated it, a projection of their frustration with the LWS being shelved, but this is a top-notch song and a great performance here. About TOO MUCH, I simply wrote "yaaas", although he loses the plot on the lyrics in the second verse. SPACE BETWEEN has some clunk to it, but still nice. BARTENDER, GRAVEDIGGER, RAVEN, and STAY is the best run of the night, all fantastic. BACK YOU UP is solid but nothing special, same with JANE and FUNNY HOW TIME. #41 sounds great, but the lyrics are, once again, a mess. And then the WATCHTOWER ending is fine but a bit of a letdown considering some of the exceptional bits earlier in the show.