Completely addicted to the bootlegs, can't decide which year/tour I like most

HesCalledDyer

Big Bank Hank said:

JH6056 said:

So interesting that so many of you love 2003 best.  I only saw 2 shows in '03, and one of them (Hershey) was hands down my least favorite PJ show of all my 58ish.  But apparently I missed a lot of great shows?  What are considered the standout shows of 2003 from a bootleg POV?  And if you say Hershey I'm gonna scream LOL!

they played like 77 shows, so it's really hard to pick, so many great shows many in smaller venues with great setlists, when you play that many shows you are going to have some off nights, Hershey that was the night the girl with the small tits (mosquito bites) took her shirt off & Eddie made a big deal about it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_Act_Tour

Probably my favorite Ed rant ever!

PhillyPJ

mcgruff10 said:

JH6056 said:

So interesting that so many of you love 2003 best.  I only saw 2 shows in '03, and one of them (Hershey) was hands down my least favorite PJ show of all my 58ish.  But apparently I missed a lot of great shows?  What are considered the standout shows of 2003 from a bootleg POV?  And if you say Hershey I'm gonna scream LOL!

I ve also seen 58 shows and Hershey is the worst out of all of them. 

Hershey is a very forgettable show except for the mosquito bite rant that someone mentioned prior. Hershey was an add on show at end of the tour since they were already on East Coast. Same with Holmdel except that show was much better. Wasn't a big fan of the Holmdel venue then again I'm not a big fan of many outdoor amphitheaters.

If I recall Hershey was on a Saturday right with the famous Boston III show the night before so completely understandable that the band was a little low on energy. The Hershey venue was terrible. The sound if I recall was terrible. I think it was an old high school football stadium. 

Another highlight I think right before "Last Exit" Ed said "Fuck this fucking Chocolate Factory". so there were 2 highlights from that show. Both rants.

JH6056

PhillyPJ said:

mcgruff10 said:

JH6056 said:

So interesting that so many of you love 2003 best.  I only saw 2 shows in '03, and one of them (Hershey) was hands down my least favorite PJ show of all my 58ish.  But apparently I missed a lot of great shows?  What are considered the standout shows of 2003 from a bootleg POV?  And if you say Hershey I'm gonna scream LOL!

I ve also seen 58 shows and Hershey is the worst out of all of them. 

Hershey is a very forgettable show except for the mosquito bite rant that someone mentioned prior. Hershey was an add on show at end of the tour since they were already on East Coast. Same with Holmdel except that show was much better. Wasn't a big fan of the Holmdel venue then again I'm not a big fan of many outdoor amphitheaters.

If I recall Hershey was on a Saturday right with the famous Boston III show the night before so completely understandable that the band was a little low on energy. The Hershey venue was terrible. The sound if I recall was terrible. I think it was an old high school football stadium. 

Another highlight I think right before "Last Exit" Ed said "Fuck this fucking Chocolate Factory". so there were 2 highlights from that show. Both rants.

Thank you for this!!  I literally *just* got finished writing mcgruff10 and the last thing I asked him was "So we both agree Hershey was the worst PJ show we saw, but what was so bad about it?  I really don't remember..."  But now you've done a great job of offering some reasons it was not good.

It was the night after that epic Boston 3 show?  That does explain a lot!  I used to get annoyed when I lived in Boston how often bands played Boston after playing NYC the night before and going all out and staying up all night and then they'd be TOAST for their Boston show.  But sounds like that situation, Boston got the best and poor Hershey just didn't quite come through... Fuck that fucking Chocolate Factory!  

PhillyPJ

JH6056 said:

PhillyPJ said:

mcgruff10 said:

JH6056 said:

So interesting that so many of you love 2003 best.  I only saw 2 shows in '03, and one of them (Hershey) was hands down my least favorite PJ show of all my 58ish.  But apparently I missed a lot of great shows?  What are considered the standout shows of 2003 from a bootleg POV?  And if you say Hershey I'm gonna scream LOL!

I ve also seen 58 shows and Hershey is the worst out of all of them. 

Hershey is a very forgettable show except for the mosquito bite rant that someone mentioned prior. Hershey was an add on show at end of the tour since they were already on East Coast. Same with Holmdel except that show was much better. Wasn't a big fan of the Holmdel venue then again I'm not a big fan of many outdoor amphitheaters.

If I recall Hershey was on a Saturday right with the famous Boston III show the night before so completely understandable that the band was a little low on energy. The Hershey venue was terrible. The sound if I recall was terrible. I think it was an old high school football stadium. 

Another highlight I think right before "Last Exit" Ed said "Fuck this fucking Chocolate Factory". so there were 2 highlights from that show. Both rants.

Thank you for this!!  I literally *just* got finished writing mcgruff10 and the last thing I asked him was "So we both agree Hershey was the worst PJ show we saw, but what was so bad about it?  I really don't remember..."  But now you've done a great job of offering some reasons it was not good.

It was the night after that epic Boston 3 show?  That does explain a lot!  I used to get annoyed when I lived in Boston how often bands played Boston after playing NYC the night before and going all out and staying up all night and then they'd be TOAST for their Boston show.  But sounds like that situation, Boston got the best and poor Hershey just didn't quite come through... Fuck that fucking Chocolate Factory!  

Yea no worries. I had forgotten that it was the night after Boston III. That is a tough act to follow for sure. It was also the tail end of a LONG US Tour. Looking back I really enjoyed the Riot Act Tour. Hershey was one of the rare "off" nights. On the flip side April 28th 2003 @ the Spectrum was PHENOMENAL!!!! I still get goosebumps when I listen to that bootleg....

PhillyPJ

The Hershey poster was terrible also!! Brutal. And I am not an AMES basher at all. I actually think AMES does a great job and they had a monumental task to crank out so many posters for the 2003 Tour (many of which I enjoyed) so I also gave them a free pass when they used the same design for multiple cities and just changed the color scheme (e.g Pitt, State College, Philly). 

I always find it humorous when people bash AMES (or any poster artist) on this Message Board when chances are high that person has NEVER done a single concert poster. But that's a rant for another time.

PB11041

JH6056 said:

So interesting that so many of you love 2003 best.  I only saw 2 shows in '03, and one of them (Hershey) was hands down my least favorite PJ show of all my 58ish.  But apparently I missed a lot of great shows?  What are considered the standout shows of 2003 from a bootleg POV?  And if you say Hershey I'm gonna scream LOL!

3.3 - Tokoyo
3.4 - Osaka
4.12 - Orlando (though you have to get the real bootleg version of this one, it was not for sale)
4.19 - Atlanta
4.29 - Albany
5.2 - Buffalo (this show just absolutely shreds, I was at Penn State, and it was epic, but this show is better)
5.3 - State College (Penn State)
6.29 - Montreal
7.8 - NYC
7.11 - Boston
7.14 - Homdel NJ

There are very few worth skipping on this tour, but these are ones that stand out.  I admittedly need to go back and spend more time with the June shows.  

PB11041

rummy said:

PB11041 said:

rummy said:

I appreciate/agree with the 1995, '96, and '98 choices but there are too few ((compared to 2000 and beyond) high quality ones for me to put those years in the running.

there are a ton of high quality mixes, eqd audience tapes and just straight up great audience recordings from 1995 through 1998.

How do they compare when you put them against the 2000-2018 bootlegs - or the official vault releases like Constitution Hall or Soldier Field? I've listened to a few Randall's Island 2, 1996... MSG 2, 1998 and while they are decent enough, they don't quite reach the standard of the official ones. Maybe I am downloading the wrong version?

Nothing is ever going to sound quite as good as most of the mixes down for the official releases.  The years to me that Brett was at the helm were unequivocally the best and it pours through on the 1998 Vaults that have been coming out. Randall's night 2 is a very decent audience recording, but there are others far superior.  Also, it may be that you have some of these in MP3?  The more compression on audience recordings the worse it gets.  Shoot me a PM and I will drop you a couple of links.