Live Trax Vol. 64

No doubt this will be a controversial take, but I put this short-but-sweet show in the rarified territory of releases I rate a 3 out of 3. It's full of great performances, and while not flawless from top to bottom, I find myself returning to it often. It came at the end of a long year that on reflection was the end of an era, with Fall 2000 being the literal transition to the Everyday era with the #41 outro. Summer 2000 was also the end of frequent opener-as-guest presences; with the exception of Warren's appearances during the MSG run, Fall 2000 was guest-less. Finally, there were only 13 shows after this release that featured only the original 5 members. Those of you who have read my reviews for a while know that I like time capsules like this. So, grab a nice hot cup of coffee (not my cup of tea—pun intended) and enjoy this awesome-sounding, Roi- and Stefan-powered show. My favorite performances from it are STONE (always an awesome opener, and Stefan is really popping), TOO MUCH (I love it on its own, even more so when SO MUCH shows up much later on in the set), JTR (although the pre-chorus lyrics are absolute nonsense), TRUE (one of the top performances of it IMO), TWO STEP (love it mid-set, Dave's guitar solo is great, and the build up towards the ending is insane), CORTEZ (it doesn't hold a candle to 12/13/2000, but Roi and Stefan are outstanding), JIMI (absolutely banging), and RAPUNZEL (two words: hot damn). The CRASH > WHAT WOULD > #41 run is the weak link in the set if you ask me. CRASH has lower energy than usual, and Dave's voice struggles a bit; WHAT WOULD is crisp, but ultimately not top tier; and #41 is an okay performance—not bad, but certainly not outstanding in a year in which it normally killed.