Which bootlegs are you listening to right now?

philly 2 -2013

RS151862 said:

Chicago 95.. Never gets old</blockquote
Totally agree! Going Toronto 1 2011 today

London Hyde Park '10

Fairly unusual opener with Given To Fly, some nice drumming from Matt here. Why Go next lifts the crowd straightaway and you can sense the energy. Leading into Corduroy, Ed plays a minute or so of Brain Damage. Ed greets the crowd for the first time and also gets the crowd to move a few steps. Got Some and Once follow and as the feedback begins for World Wide Suicide, Ed warns the crowd to stop pushing forward and that "we don't want to have to play a slow one just yet". A slow song does indeed follow - Small Town and the crowd singing here is excellent. It's a beautiful version of Nothingman, the crowd also excellent again. The same can't be said for Arms Aloft which just sounds muggy and messy early on. Not For You starts up as the last bars of Arms Aloft end. It's a particularly heavy version of Not For You. Ed then again asks the crowd are they ok, saying it's far more important the safety of the crowd. He then says the next song is an experiment and if all goes well it'll be on the next album; Of The Earth gets it's 2nd play. Ed hands the vocals over to the crowd for the first part of Better Man, again in great voice and the Save It For Later tag at the end is great. It brings to an end a very very high energy main set.

Just Breath opens the first encore; Ed forgets some lyrics midway through. After Just Breath, Ed welcomes Ben Harper to the stage to join in on Red Mosquito. Parts of the song is quite messy but the extended outro is superb. During Mike's solo on Black (which seemed more aggressive than normal), Ed comes in very early to sing 'We Belong Together' which didn't really work for me. It's not the best 2nd half of Black I've ever heard.

At the start of the second encore, Ed tells the crowd they only have a matter of minutes left because "after a long day at Wimbledon, The Queen has to go to bed". A blistering Go starts us off followed by The Fixer. Alive and Yellow Ledbetter finish the show.

Like Belfast, I enjoyed the main set but the encores were too disjointed for me.

Baltimore

(Finally :(|) ~O) )

Springsteen - Nassau Coliseum 12/29/1980. The second night of an amazing and unbelievable 3-night stand at Nassau Coliseum to close out 1980. The most famous show of this stand is the New Year's Eve show, but the first two are also terrific. The sound quality on these three boots are soundboard-quality. Would love to see an official release of these three shows.

Berlin 96

030303 Tokyo

Sommerseth said:

Berlin 2010! I'd have to say that's the best version of Black i've ever heard..

The feeling at the venue was unreal..never felt like that as i did that day..

boyo79 said:

Nijmegen '10

Short festival set here but a balls-to-the-wall start with Evolution, Got Some and Save You. Animal and Dissident provide some Vs back-to-back action, both sounding good as does In My Tree. Just Breathe following Even Flow is a bizarre choice but does give every one a chance to catch their breath after an energetic opening. Whipping makes it's only appearance of the tour; Daughter follows complete with a Blitzkrieg Bop. Good performances of Jeremy and Rearviewmirror close the main set.

The first (and only) encore begins with Ed actually messing up the countdown into Small Town. Rest of the song (and crowd singing) is good though. The Fixer and Life Wasted follow; Rockin' In The Free World ends the show.

Nothing more than an average festival set here I'm afraid.

Thanks again for you effords. Every so often you help me find something I haddend noticed myself.
So I do appreciate all your work. But this time I have to disagree. I was actually trying to complete a review myself a view days ago and I choose this show because of how good I think it is. Too late now I guess, but I will add some observations.

In my tree and Whipping aren't really obvious choices for a festival setlist.
And they sound very good as well, which for Whipping isn't always the case.
You mentioned In my tree sounded good, I feel that is too little love. At least for me. Out of 40 different takes this In my tree is the best I have ever heard. Yes I do have Berlin 2012 and Charlotte ville 2013. The only ones that are on par with this In my tree are Melbourne '98 and MSG '03 and those are differently arranged than The Nijmwegen version. Jeff's bass sounds so thick and he and Matt team up very nicely which quite often doesn't quite happen at the start of In my tree. Here they both are spot on.

Animal, Save you, Even flow and Jeremy are all very good takes as well. Rearviewmirror has a nice jam and Eddie's I will forgive sounds great as does Jeff when he picks it all up after the jam. All in all I'd call this bootleg pretty tight. If you look at the setlist and the lengh yes than you'll probable look for a different one with more songs. I bought this boot due to the fact that I was there, but enjoying the show doesn't mean that the bootleg will live up to the memory. In this case it sure did.
Really classy versions of songs mentioned and most others are good as well apart from Life wasted which sounds rather messy.
And Ed is in a great mood and he is in good voice.

Off course I don't know how manny times that you listed to this bootleg, but it feels like you rushed it and missed out on really enjoying this bootleg. I don't own all the 2010 bootlegs, but out of the ones I do have, I feel only the Berlin bootleg is more tight.

Prague 2012

Sometimes makes a very welcomed appearance opening the show, and is the first and only time it's played in 2012. It's a rather solid performance, but the guitars sound slightly off and muddled. Animal kicks off in the second spot, and you can tell Ed's vocals are sounding rather shrieky and cracks and doesn't have that certain rasp to it as it usually does on the song. GTF follows as the third of the night, and Mike and Stone, especially Stone toward the end of the song sound off. The first opening three songs of the night, and the guitar work sounds off and Ed sounding shrieky - I hate to sound so critical, but it becomes a sign of a somewhat sloppy show to come. They just don't have that same cohesive sound we are so spoiled to hearing show after show. A standard Got Some ensues before Ed first addresses the crowd and shows respect to X as an opener and goes straight into the typical placement of Elder Woman in the 5th slot in the set. The first rarity of the night is next in Gods Dice, which also makes its only appearance of 2012. They are immediately off time and Ed starts to sing a tad early before the drums kick in. The next sequence of songs in the middle of the main set is definitely my favorite highlight of the main set, and showcases Mike and some heavy guitar work with I Am Mine - Corduroy - Even Flow - Setting Forth - Not For You. It flows so damn good together. The end solo in I Am Mine has always been one of my favorite short but beautiful solos, and it sounds so good going right into the opening guitar intro of Corduroy. Stone provides some bluesy underlying riffs at the end of Corduroy during Mike's solo and just a solid sequence of guitar work with these songs paired together. Mike and Stone shine bright on the aforementioned sequence, and a killer solo from Stone on Not For You with a beautiful Modern Girl tag. The next rarity Push Me, Pull Me breaks up the nice middle segment of the set. Garden comes next and Ed forgets the lyrics and sigs absolute jibberish the first verse, but rebounds quickly after and it's a solid performance. 1/2 Full makes a solid go at it, and Unthought Known, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, and Why Go close out the main set, with Life Wasted and Why Go sounding particularly punchy. While we receive a rather diverse main set with songs that pop out and grab your attention and on paper looks quite astonishing, I really had a tough time getting into and grasping the flow. I loved and the highlight of the main set for me was the middle I Am Mine - Corduroy - Even Flow - Setting Forth - Not For You, but the remainder of the main set just has something to it that makes it difficult to really feel. I also feel it wasn't the band's tightest performance either as they sound off time and key in several areas. Many of the songs don't have that same cohesive feel this night. Ed compliments the crowd several times, but I feel the mix of this recording doesn't grasp the crowd energy as good as it could.

The encores are somewhat better and first encore starts off with a surprise, opening with Of The Girl. This is a much more subdued and less energetic version, which is fair considering it's later in the show as opposed to at it's typical opening spot. This is another song, like Release, that I just can't seem to picture anywhere else in the set other than opening a show, and just makes it seem very disjointed. Just Breathe is played next, and following Of The Girl makes the start of the encore sound even more disjointed. Crazy Mary is definite highlight of both the encores, and as usual, Mike and Boom shine with their dueling play and Matt's drums really shine here as well. At the end of the song when Mike and Boom are dueling, I love the subtle frantic strumming that Stone provides on his acoustic guitar - you really have to listen to hear it but almost sounds like a salt shaker and it compliments the song so well. Once and DTE close out the first encore, and Ed's voice just doesn't have the certain rasp and vigor it usually does and he seems a little worn out, which is fair given it's this late in the show. During DTE, we witness the birth and first time the crowd takes over the "oh oh oh, oh oh oh, oh oh" part. Ed and the rest of the badn for the most part, almost completely lose track of where their at in the song after this part and I almost thought they were going to stop the song altogether, but they rebound.

The second encore opens and provides respectable versions of Word Wide Suicide and Better Man. Immediately following Better Man, they go right into a strong version of Black and it sounds nice. I've always thought the Better Man - Black combo is great and sounds very well together. The staple 3-song combo of Alive - Baba - Ledbetter closes the show out. Before Mike's guitar intro to Ledbetter, Ed addresses the crowd and after he steps away from the mic, you can faintly here him yell at Mike - "Alright Mike, it's all you buddy!" I thought was kind of cool and was subtle on the boot.

This show received a ton of praise from fellow fans because of the set list and crowd was great that night. I'm sure this was an amazing show in person, and the set list on paper does look quite good. But this is my least favorite boot of 2012 thus far in the tour. I believe this boot suffers from the less than average mixing and quality compared to the rest of the 2012 boots, and it doesn't capture the crowd quite as well. I also feel it wasn't the band's best performance with some sloppiness to it, and for me personally, the set list seems very disjointed and tough to get a true feel for. I've listened to this boot a couple times now, and for some reason it just has never reached me or had a feel for it. Nothing from the boot really stands out as being above average or spectacular.