Live Trax Vol. 74

"It. Is. Alive!" When I'm listening to and reviewing shows, I'm taking a few things into consideration. First, the performances: are they bad, average, good, great, exceptional? Second, the setlist: how much do I like the song selection? Third, the sound: how well mixed is it? Fourth, the uniqueness: what does it offer that no other release offers? And finally, its magnetism: how much am I drawn to it? In many ways this last consideration is the most important one, and this release, for all its faults, is completely alive. The dialogue, the tease and partials, the peaks and troughs, the way the crowd is mixed in. LT31 has it beat on the performances and setlist fronts, and on the uniqueness front (with MOTHER FATHER and the prelude to GRACE), but the sound is comparable (which is saying a lot: LT31 is a benchmark for me). On the magnetism front, this is definitely up there, but not quite at LT31 level. Why I rate this a 2, rather than a 3, is there are times when Dave's vocal struggles shift the performance quality from gravelly (e.g., SPACE) to strained (CRUSH, WHAT YOU ARE, EVERYDAY, etc.). I'll close by commenting on the blowback against the band selecting this show to represent Summer 2001. Is it the best show from the tour? No, and one day I'm sure we'll get 7/25/2001. But there's something incredible about getting a middle-of-the-road show released and realizing that it, too, is great to listen to on repeat.

For the nerds:

- Only on LT31: BEST, SATELLITE, RHYME, MOTHER FATHER, JIMI, WASTE, TRIPPING

- Only on LT56: SAY BYE, SO MUCH, BIG EYED FISH, ANGEL, IF I HAD IT, WATCHTOWER, TWO STEP

- Only on LT74: CRUSH, GREY ST., ANTS

- On all three: JTR, SPACE, WORLD ENDS, STAY

- On LT31 and LT56: RAPUNZEL, TRUE

- On LT31 and LT74: EVERYDAY, WHAT YOU ARE, SLEEP TO DREAM, GRACE, GRANNY

- On LT56 and LT74: DON'T DRINK, BARTENDER, SO RIGHT, I DID IT, TOO MUCH, FUNNY HOW TIME