Live Trax Vol. 59

This is my favorite of the officially released two-sets shows (in order: LT59, LT36, LT68, LT32, LT52). More than that, it’s a very good show. As I often feel is the case with the two-sets era, the acoustic set is the stronger of the two. #27 is my favorite officially-released performance; I can’t explain why I like it so much more in the acoustic setting, but I do. I love the funk in RECENTLY, with Carter and Stefan really holding down the beat. SNOW OUTSIDE is a great song, and beautiful in this setting. I really like ANTS in this format (despite a slightly muddled quality to the verses), and Tim and Boyd sound great. I love how easy it is to hear all of Stefan’s noodling during CRASH, which is an otherwise standard performance. MINARETS is always a good choice. DON’T DRINK and SEEK UP are among my favorite DMB 3.0/4.0 performances of the respective songs (SEEK UP in particular may be the best performance of that song since 2002). BELLY BELLY is solid, and possibly my favorite officially-released version. SO RIGHT is outstanding, an absolute all-timer performance of that song. CRUSH is great. IF ONLY isn’t the best song, but it’s a solid performance of it. GRANNY and DRUNKEN SOLIDER are both great. Now for the lows, which hold it back from being rated even higher: TOMORROW is spectacularly uninteresting, at least to me. SWEET is mostly very good, except for the end where for some reason it just dies. SATELLITE is unusually boring. And then there’s everything from SHAKE ME through the encore, just a disappointing run to end an otherwise very, very good show (don’t come at me over GOOD GOOD TIME; it’s a shell of the 2004 performances).