Live Trax Vol. 13

The first time I re-listened to this show I thought it was good but not great. Then I listened again while on a red eye to Europe. I slept solidly, but every time I woke up for a minute here or there the show was playing a different moment. It was a transcendent experience. I know that sounds ridiculous, but sometimes music has that effect on people. I’ve since listened two more times straight through. It’s a classic 2008 show in so many ways: the set is representative of the tour, the band sounds great, and it nicely shows Tim’s influence on their sonic profile. TWO STEP is, to my ears, of the best-ever performances; the musical intro is haunting, and the jam outro hard rock but still true to DMB. Remember when SO DAMN LUCKY was a tight 5 minutes? What a great song and performance. CRUSH has a cool, unique intro. HEY HEY MY MY is a lot of fun. The run from PAY FOR through ANTS is outstanding. I really love the then-brand-new intro to ANTS and wish they’d experiment like this again. On this night, even the THANK YOU ender is rocking. I really, really like this show. What holds it back from being a 3 is the run from CORN BREAD to #27, which misses the mark for me.