Live Trax Vol. 30

I love what they did for this release. You almost feel like you're spending the weekend with the band. It's too bad we don't have the full three shows, but this is a really nice selection. That said, it isn't uniformly excellent the way the Wetlands show is. By the way, I love how they've done back-to-back show releases; the band can sound so different from one day to the next, and this is a great (even if perhaps unintentional) way to illustrate that. Song by song thoughts: I love all the noodling and the gentle layering that fits together perfectly at the start of SATELLITE. If the guys made a 60-minute album of stuff like this I'd probably listen to it all the time. And then there's the extended guitar chorus riff intro with Roi playing over it. Beautiful. The whole song is great and maybe my favorite released version. I love how they go straight into ANTS, which is a nice, tight 1993 performance. The drum solo intro to LIE IN is great; overall the drums were much more intense back then, which gives the song a more driven quality. Boyd taking the solo is such an indelible part of DMB history, and among my favorite memories of the band, but I do love Roi taking it, too. Then straight into the reprise, no pause. Nice. GRANNY has lots of energy, and I like the old-school ending. ONE SWEET has a beautiful instrumental intro but is otherwise standard. JANE is good but nothing outstanding. WAREHOUSE is great. The RECENTLY jam is weird, and WTF is Boyd doing? Oof. I like BEST, but the crispness that arrived in 1995 is what really made the live performance of this song IMO; Red Rocks is forever etched in my mind. PAY FOR is great. I like the nature intro to TRIPPING with Roi and Carter providing so much cover. This style is really representative of the time in the band's history. HELP MYSELF is so great and so peppy. TYPICAL has a great intro solo by Roi, and is all around a great performance. BLUE WATER is phenomenal. It's such a shame this song is no longer. It's some of Boyd's best and certainly most haunting work. I love what Carter and Stefan are doing behind him. TRUE is fine, but a weaker point. NANCIES is great. TWO STEP is good, but not my favorite. HALLOWEEN is an awesome drum solo intro, and the rest of the song is also very good.