Live Trax Vol. 36

Some incredible highs with a lot of mediocrity mixed in. As for the highs: LET YOU DOWN is beautiful and I'll never understand why Stefan didn't join on acoustic bass. Maybe some kind of trauma? BELLY FULL is great. OH is a beautiful song, especially with Dave & Tim. TRIPPING is a real high with the notable exception of Boyd's playing on the intro. WHAT WOULD is so joyful. SEEK UP is one of the best performances of this song in the semi-modern era. Normally I'm thinking get on with the lyrics already, but this is top-shelf jazzy jamming. Love the build-up intro and prominent bass. Jeff is doing a great job of jazzing it up, as is Rashawn. Boyd's solo at the end is a bit cringe-inducing, but when the band and Dave's wailing come in it's all great again. BELLY BELLY is a great performance, with Jeff on fire. BLACK AND BLUE is fantastic and might be one of my favorite live track releases. It's perfectly what it is: guitar, vocals, violin, sax, funky bass, drums. All of it. MINARETS is slamming, especially the rap intro. GRAVEDIGGER is among the best full-band renditions, just something about it where everything comes together perfectly. HALLOWEEN is a solid ending. But then there are the lows: First, Boyd. Woof almost across the board. In particular, he ruins CRY FREEDOM. BEACH BALL is clunky. Dave completely loses the plot during STONE. SNOW OUTSIDE is a great song, but the stripped-down format exposes Dave's guitar and vocal missteps. Everyone is labored in #41 except for Stefan, who is awesome; he should let it rip like this more often. So much of the back end of the set is a pass for me, including THANK YOU, the extended sing-along to JIMI, GREY ST., SISTER, and TWO STEP (the intro is complete gibberish to the point that it ruins the explosive intro). I'm torn between giving this a 1 or a 2. There are some really high highs, but I can't imagine sitting down to listen to the show from start to finish with any regularity and for that reason I have to go with a 1.