Live Trax Vol. 69

Comparing this release to LT46, the only other Live Trax from the DMB 4.0 era, is like night and day. I don't particularly care for how the band sounded in 2018–2022, but 2023–2024 is another story. This is a great show from the setlist (one of the best of the last few decades IMO) to the performances (SPOON and LAST STOP are among the best-ever released versions) to the sound quality (really exceptional; I especially love how Stefan, Buddy, and Tim fill everything out). Yes, decades of touring have taking a toll on Dave's voice, and Carter is noticeably diminished, but listening to this show I would find it hard to argue the band is firing on anything less than all cylinders. RECENTLY is not an all-timer performance (there are too many great ones over the years for it to rank that highly), but boy do I love how it sounds. It's great to have an official release of WALK AROUND, even if this isn't Dave's finest moment. STOLEN AWAY is quite enjoyable; more generally, I like Rashawn on almost all of this show. I prefer the performance of SUGAR WILL from the Fiddlers release, but this is also very nice. PIG gets off to a bit of a rocky start—it sounds like a few cues were missed—but then Jeff tears up those classic Roi sax lines. Finally, very cool to get a release of GREY ST. with the Ghostbusters interpolation; I know the dueling horns approach is a bit worn out at this point, but I think it sounds great here. This just misses out being rated a 3 from me.